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Al Jaffee is a Living Cartooning Legend
by Matthew Jorn
At the age of 89 Al Jaffee is still making a huge impact on the world of cartooning. His biggest impact is the the infamous Fold-ins on the back cover of Mad Magazine; Mr. Jaffee invented the gag in 1964 and since then has produced over 450 of the hilarious visual double-entendres. Equally skilled as a sharp-witted satirist, he is one of the main contributors to Mad's Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.
Jaffee was born in 1921 in Savannah, GA. He attended art school in New York City in the late 1930's and began to work as a professional artist in 1941. He began in the comic book field and drew early praise from future Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee. He also began publishing his Tall Tales daily comic strip which would eventually see wide syndication and the publication of a book.
His master stroke came when some old art school chums invited him to joined their newly-created Mad Magazine in 1955. After nine years he sought to satirize the fold-out sections of Playboy and other national publications. For those of you who live under a rock, the general idea of the Mad Fold-in is that a picture of a relatively normal scene with an unassuming caption that serves as the premise to a joke. Once transformed by way of two simple folds, the viewer is treated to a hysterical punchline; amazingly the image and the caption realign perfectly.
Mr. Jaffee does not use any kind of high-end computer techniques to make these illusions; he draws each fold-in by hand and uses a simple computer text editor to lay our the spacing of the words and letters. Even more amazing is that he draws on a stiff piece of cardboard and does not see the finished product until it is actually on the newsstands.
He also has contributed in other ways to Mad over the years. In addition to the aforementioned Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, Jaffee collaborates on fictitious inventions complete with blueprints.
Unlike other great artists and satirists of the past, Jaffee has enjoyed critical and commercial success during his lifetime. He has won dozens of industry awards and the concepts of Fold-ins has permeated the culture in the form of T-shirts, film and posters.
On his 85th birthday fellow satirist Steven Colbert presented him with a cake that read "Al, you have repeatedly shown artistry & care of great credit to your field." Once folded the cake read "Al, you are old." His work has also drawn high praise from Gary Larson (The Far Side), Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama, Life in Hell), and Charles Schultz (Peanuts). Al Jaffee lives in New York City and at 89 years old is still a regular contributor to Mad Magazine.
About the Author
This article about one of Savannah's favorite sons was written by Matthew Jorn and presented by King's Colonial Ford Savannah. For over 25 years people all over Georgia have trusted King's Colonial Savannah Ford Dealers.
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Al Jaffee has a new collection, TALL TALES (introduction by Stephen Colbert) but takes time to explain the origins of his Mad Magazine classic ...
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