Mad Magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee dead at 102

Al Jaffee, Mad magazine’s award-winning cartoonist and ageless sage who delighted millions of children with his Fold-In fun and snark “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” has died. He was 102.

Jaffee died Monday in Manhattan of organ failure, according to his granddaughter, Fani Thomson. He has retired at the age of 99.

Mad Magazine, with its dark, sometimes pointed political and cultural posts, was essential reading for teens and preteens during the baby-boom era and an inspiration for countless future comedians. Some of the magazine’s self-billed “Usual Gang of Idiots” contributed — and believably — bearded cartoonist Jaffee.

For decades, nearly every issue featured new material by Jaffee. The collected Fold-Ins, capturing everyone in obscure visual style from the Beatles to TMZ, were enough for a four-volume box set published in 2011.

Readers love desserts like Fold-Ins, turning to the back cover after seeing other favorites like Antonio Prohias’ “Spy vs. Spy” and Dave Berg’s “The Lighter Side.” The premise, originally a spoof of the old Sports Illustrated and Playboy foldouts, you start with a full page image and the question above, fold the two defined points to the center and produce a new and surprising image, along with the answer. .

WATCH | Al Jaffee on the origins, process behind Mad Fold-In:

Fold-In was not originally intended as a regular feature

The Fold-In was supposed to be a one-off joke, tried in 1964 when Jaffee satirized the biggest celebrity news of the day: Elizabeth Taylor dumped her husband, Eddie Fisher, to vote. Cleopatra co-star Richard Burton. Jaffee first showed Taylor and Burton arm in arm on one side of the picture, and on the opposite side a young, handsome man was held back by a policeman.

The idea was so popular that Mad editor Al Feldstein wanted a follow-up. Jaffee created a picture of 1964 GOP presidential candidates Nelson Rockefeller and Barry Goldwater that, when torn down, became a picture of Richard Nixon.

“That one really sets the tone for what the smartness of Fold-Ins should be,” Jaffee told the Boston Phoenix in 2010. “It can’t just bring people from the left to kiss people on the right.”

Jaffee is also known for his “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” which delivers exactly what the title promises. A comic from 1980 shows a man in a fishing boat with a noticeably bent reel. “Are you going to reel in the fish?” his wife asked. “No,” he said, “I will jump into the water and marry the beautiful.”

Jaffee doesn’t just satirize culture; he helped change it. The ad parodies include real-life products of the future such as automatic redial for telephones, computer spell checkers and graffiti-resistant surfaces. They also expect peelable stamps, multiblade razors and self-killing cigarettes.

Jaffee’s admirers range from Charles M. Schulz to Pea fame and The far side creator Gary Larson for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who marked Jaffee’s 85th birthday by presenting the Fold cake on The Colbert Report. When Stewart and The Daily Show the author put together a best seller America (Book)they asked Jaffee to contribute Fold-In.

Jaffee received numerous awards, and in 2013 was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, a ceremony held at the San Diego Comic-Con International. In 2010, he contributed illustrations to Mary-Lou Weisman The Life of Mad Al Jaffee: A Biography. The following year, Chronicle Books was published The Mad Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010.

Works at Marvel Comics

He was born in Savannah, Ga., but for this year he was torn between the US, where his father prefers to live, and Lithuania, where his mother wants to return. In Lithuania, Jaffee suffered from poverty and bullying, but also developed his work as an artist. With paper scarce and no schooling, he learned to read and write through comics his father sent him.

At a young age, he settled in New York City and was admitted to the High School of Music & Arts due to his talent. His schoolmates included Will Elder, an up-and-coming Mad illustrator, and Harvey Kurtzmann, an up-and-coming Mad editor.

He had a long career before Mad. He drew for Timely Comics, which became Marvel Comics; and for several years sketched the “Tall Tales” panel for the New York Herald Tribune. Jaffee first contributed to Mad in the mid-1950s. He left when Kurtzmann left the magazine, but returned in 1964.

Mad lost much of its readership and edge after the 1970s, and Jaffee outlived almost all of the magazine’s stars. But he’s rarely short of ideas even though his method, drawing by hand, is mostly unchanged in the digital age.