Legendary Mad artist Al Jaffee is retiring at the age of 99. To mark the occasion, Mad is releasing a special issue that will feature the last of Jaffee's celebrated Fold-Ins.
Born March 21, 1921 to Jewish Lithuanian parents, Jaffee has worked as a cartoonist since 1941. His work was first published in Mad in 1955. Jaffee drew the first trademark Fold-In, which involves an image with a question or a statement revealing a "hidden" image and statement once the page is folded, in issue #86 in 1964.
"I guess I’m childish in a way," Jaffe said. "I'm living the life I wanted all along, which was to make people think and laugh."
Jaffee has been praised for both his art and his writing and is know for tackling all areas of comics, from superheroes to funny animals. He holds the world record for the longest-running comic book artist.
The tribute issue will be Mad #14 and will include classic Jaffee works and original tribute material, including artwork by Mad veteran Sergio Aragonés. While Mad stopped creating new material in general in October 2019, it made an exception for this special issue. It will hit shelves on June 10.
(Via The Spokesman-Review.)