The world is a little dimmer now, as we lost perhaps the greatest cartoonist yesterday. Al Jaffee, Mad Magazine satirist and pioneer passed away yesterday at the age of 102. Officially, the longest working career in comics, Jaffee's influence has spanned over seven decades.
Most known for the Mad Magazine staple, the Fold-In, the back page illustration where folding together the right and left sides would create a new image, Jaffee's wit continued to shine through. From April 1964 to April 2013, Jaffee's work appeared in all but one issue of Mad Magazine, and Jaffee remained an active contributor until his official retirement in 2020 at the age of 99. His last fold-in appeared in the August 2020 issue, a tribute to him, the "All" Jaffee issue.
Jaffee's work and list is a tribute to the idea that, while you may age, you never have to grow "old." That is, you do not have to lose your child-like wonder and humor. As Jaffee stated in a 2010 interview, "Serious people my age are dead."
While Jaffee will be missed, his work continues to live on. Time to crack open an old Mad issue, and smile once again.
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