Al Jaffee's Mad Life

“One of the great cartoonists of our time.” –New Yorker cartoonist Arnold Roth

The remarkable story of one of America’s most prolific and beloved cartoonists, Al Jaffee, with dozens of original color illustrations. Jaffe’s career in cartooning stretches back to 1941—with early humor pieces for Timely Comics, a precursor to Marvel Comics—but the iconic artist remains best known for the brilliant Fold-In cartoons he invented at Bill Gaines’s Mad magazine in 1964. The cerebral and sardonic illustrations have inspired generations of Mad readers—including Stephen Colbert, R. Crumb, Gary Larson and Charles Shultz—to embrace a firm and healthy irreverence towards the status quo. New York Times columnist and bestselling author Mary-Lou Weisman (My Middle-Aged Baby Book) helps Jaffe tell his remarkable story.

But the story of the man behind the mischief is more astonishing than any cartoon—

• The Birth of the Fold-In: Discover the origin story of one of pop culture's most iconic and brilliantly engineered gags, the legendary Mad Magazine back cover feature.
• A Traumatic Childhood: Follow a young Al Jaffee as he is taken from his home in Savannah, Georgia, and abandoned by his mother in a remote Lithuanian shtetl on the eve of WWII.
• A Career in Comics: Journey through the history of American comics, from Jaffee's early days at Timely (the precursor to Marvel) to his decades-long career as one of Mad's "Usual Gang of Idiots."
• Satire as Survival: Understand how a life of abandonment and humiliation fueled a uniquely sardonic worldview and a healthy irreverence that inspired generations of artists and readers.
• Original Artwork: Experience Jaffee's life through his own eyes, with dozens of original full-color illustrations and comics created specifically for this biography.