Al Jaffee, iconoclastic cartooning legend of Mad Magazine fame, dies at 102

Al Jaffee, the iconoclastic cartoonist who created Mad Magazine’s most enduring feature — the Fold-In — and served as the publication’s longest-running contributor, died at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 102.

The cause was multiple-organ failure, his granddaughter Fani Thomson told the New York Times.

Jaffee’s illustrations first appeared in the legendary satiric magazine in 1955, shortly after it transitioned from a comic book to a magazine. In 1964, he created the “Fold-In,” a back-of-book feature that became an instant classic at a time when other magazines were championing the ubiquitous fold-out.

Jaffee’s idea involved folding a picture vertically inward to reveal a completely new image and caption. A fold-in from 1969 resulted in an image of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Linus folded in from a piece of abstract art. The caption read: “Modern Art has taken some pretty wild turns in recent years. But no matter which direction it takes, it seems to be headed more and more toward total incomprehensibility.”

The inaugural piece depicted Elizabeth Taylor with Richard Burton folded out. Folded in, it showed Taylor — notorious for her many marriages — with a different man.

The irreverent gimmick, which Jaffee originally intended as a fun one-off, became his longest-running feature for the magazine.

In a 2022 interview with Vulture, Jaffee recalled his inspiration for the feature: “At this time — this would have been in April of 1964 — every major magazine was publishing some sort of foldout feature. Playboy, of course, had made it big by having a centerfold. So did Life magazine. They would have one showing, say, the geography of the moon, or something like that. Even Sports Illustrated had one at one point. So, naturally, how do you go the other way? You have a fold-in, rather than a fold-out.”

Jaffee had a taste for the subversive that made him a natural for Mad, and his style of artwork — clean lines with a flair for the bizarre, off-beat and grotesque — became synonymous with the magazine. He also wrote for Mad, including a regular feature called “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.”

In 2007, Jaffee earned a Reuben Award. Considered cartooning’s top honor, the win put Jaffee on a list with other cartooning greats including Matt Groening, Cathy Guisewite and Gary Larson.

In a tribute to Jaffee, published in a blog post just after his death, cartoonist and Mad contributor Tom Richmond wrote: “Within any art form there are some creators who are just plainly on another level than the rest. There will always be a debate about who is the G.O.A.T. in anything creative, but the sign of true greatness is always being one of the people in that conversation. Any debate about the greatest cartoonist of all time that does not include Al Jaffee is not a legitimate debate.”

Abraham Jaffee was born March 13, 1921, in Savannah, Ga. — the oldest of four sons. His parents, Mildred and Morris Jaffee, were Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. Later in his life, he legally changed his name from Abraham to Allan.

When Jaffee was 6 years old, his mother took all four of her boys back to Lithuania. Jaffee’s father worked to bring the kids home to America, but they did not return full time until almost six years later, when Jaffee and two of his brothers moved with Morris to Far Rockaway, Queens.

“My father remained in America through those six years [in Lithuania], and I made him promise to send me American comic strips,” Jaffee told Vulture. “Every few months or so, my brothers and I would receive a package of rolled-up Sunday color comics and daily comics. We would just sit there and read them for days and days,” he said.

In the late 1930s, Jaffee attended New York City’s High School of Music and Art. He began his career as a comic book artist in 1942. For a time, he worked as an artist for Marvel predecessors Timely and Atlas comics. In the late 1950s and early ‘60s he drew a widely syndicated strip for the New York Herald Tribune called “Tall Tales.”

Jaffee’s art appeared in 500 of Mad’s first 550 issues — a prolific record that still stands. Mad honored Jaffee’s retirement in 2020 with a “Special All Jaffee Issue” featuring his work and a fold-in that revealed the words, “No More New Jaffee Fold-Ins.”

Jaffee’s second wife, Joyce Revenson (whom he married in 1977), died in January 2020. Jaffee is survived by son Richard Jaffee, daughter Deborah Fishman; two step-children, Tracey and Jody Revenson; five grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.