a Tuesday Time Waster

As a kid I read lots of MAD magazines and the backpage fold-in was always something I looked forward to doing. Can't say I understood everything contained in the fold-in ... it was just fun for a curious kid to do.

The NY Times recently ran an interesting story on Al Jaffee, the mastermind behind the fold-in. Since its first appearance in the April 1964 issue of Mad magazine, the 87 year-old Al Jaffee has drawn every one of these backpage fold-ins. WOW!

Take a few minutes this Tuesday and rekindle your MAD magazine fold-in memories with this wicked cool digital gallery.

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Comments

[Paul (from Idea Sandbox)]

John... thanks for pointing this out... NYT did a great job using technology to allow us to experience the "fold in."

I loved these as well... and too... didn't always *get* the political references... but it was always fun to try to figure out what it was going to be before it was folded...

As a kid, I used to try to draw these... (the secret I found was to start with the folded image and work your way out from there...)

Nice.

[Jean]

Why do I tell you these things? (Must be because I'm a Brand Autopsy groupie--sorry!)

"Mad Magazine" day was a huge day in my house--my mom would bring the latest issue home from her weekly shopping trip and the six of us (parents and sibs) would start flailing to see who got it first. I'm the youngest, so I don't think I EVER got to fold the back cover for myself, but I always assumed Al Jaffee was a great guy (I loved "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions"), along with Sergio Martinez (all those mini-margin drawings) and, of course, the late Don Martin. Our in-family language still reflects the hey-day of the magazine before it deteriorated into the more adolescent-boy-humor it reflects today.

Thanks for bringing back some great memories!

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Jean ... thanks for sharing. Great story. In my family, I was the only child who paid attention to MAD magazine. Along with my Boy's Life subscription, I had a small library of Captain Klutz books (Don Martin) and Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions books (Al Jaffee). Great memories indeed.

[Glenn]

Just taught my 10-year old how to do the fold-ins. Now he's hooked too. The tradition continues...

[Justin]

I love the Fold-Ins! I always loved Al's work too.

I'm embarassed to admit I never actually fully commited to folding and creasing the back covers. I would just fold them 'til I revealed the hidden image, and then I'd jsut let the cover relax back into place. I guess that's a bit of a obsessive, compulsive behavior for a Mad Magazine reader.

Also, one other thing. It was "Sergio Aragones" that did the margin drawing stuff ;)