MADness #154- Al Jaffee Tribute!

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Here we go with another step on my long and winding road of work for MAD Magazine. This is a tribute to the great Al Jaffee from MAD #32, Aug 2023.

This is one of the more depressing moments in my time with MAD, and for the magazine. At this time MAD really was 100% reprint material with only a new cover and a new Johnny Sampson Fold-In as new content. It took something big like the 70th anniversary almost a year earlier or the passing of one of the legends of “The Usual Gang of Idiots” to get the suits upstairs to open up their wallets and pay for some new interior stuff.

When Al died on April 10, 2023, I did a tribute post on my blog. MAD empress Suzy Hutchinson saw it an asked if I’d like to illustrate it and make it into a two pager in the next issue, which would be full of Al tribute stuff. I of course agreed, with the results here. This then became the second of (so far) only two pieces I both wrote and drew for MAD. All the stuff ont he walls and shelves in the background are some of Al’s most famous pieces for MAD… there were a LOT to choose from.

A lot if time and issues would go by between my doing anything for the magazine during this period. My next piece for an official issue of MAD would not be until issue #37, about 10 months later. However I did get some cover assignments for the Barnes & Noble specials along the way, so I’ll share one of those next time!