Al Jaffee spent decades doing something most designers attempt only occasionally: making one image that says two different things depending on how you look at it. His MAD Fold-In asked readers to fold the back page so that its outer edges met, and a new picture and caption emerged from fragments of the old one. The trick only works if every line, colour and letter is planned for both readings at once, which makes it a superb case study in grids, alignment and constraint.
A note on images: his work is still in copyright, and none of the Al Jaffee records at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the Cleveland Museum of Art is flagged as public domain or CC0, so this guide describes the artwork in text and uses a title card instead. For works cleared for reuse, browse the MGD museum inspiration collection.
Who was Al Jaffee?
Abraham “Al” Jaffee was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1921 and died in New York City on 10 April 2023, aged 102, according to obituaries from NPR and Rolling Stone. The Daily Telegraph’s obituary gives his birth date as 13 March 1921.
He studied at the High School of Music & Art in New York in the late 1930s, alongside his brother Harry and several artists who would later shape MAD, among them Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, John Severin and Al Feldstein, according to published biographies. Before MAD he drew comics for Timely and its successor Atlas, the company that later became Marvel, for many years.
When MAD changed from a comic book into a magazine in 1955, Kurtzman, its editor, began assigning him stories. Jaffee followed Kurtzman when he left to start the short-lived humour magazines Trump and Humbug; after Humbug folded in 1958 he returned to MAD, where he would remain for the rest of his career. Accounts differ on whether editor Al Feldstein or publisher Bill Gaines brought him back. Between 1957 and 1963 he also drew a syndicated newspaper panel, Tall Tales, for the New York Herald Tribune, according to published accounts of his career.
The Al Jaffee Fold-In: one page, two pictures
The Fold-In began in 1964 as a parody. Glossy magazines such as Playboy and Life were running lavish colour fold-outs, and Jaffee proposed that MAD answer with a cheap fold-in instead, according to obituaries and published histories of the feature. He expected a one-off gag, but the editors asked for more, and the feature ran in nearly every issue for decades. He drew it until about 2020; some accounts date the end of his run to the magazine’s 2019 shift to mostly reprinted material, and others to 2020.
The format is simple to describe and hard to build. Each Fold-In posed a question at the top of a vertical page. Readers folded the page so that point A met point B, hiding the middle section. The two outer strips then joined to form a new image and a new caption answering the question. Every element on those outer strips had to work twice: as part of the full scene and as part of the folded one.
That double duty is the core design lesson. The middle strip is a deliberate decoy, full of detail that disappears on folding. The outer strips carry the real message, but disguised: a building’s edge becomes a figure’s arm, a row of windows becomes lettering, two trees become a face. Jaffee had to plan the alignment so precisely that a fold by a reader at home would land the answer cleanly.
Technique: paste-up, overlays and production craft
The Art Institute of Chicago holds several original Fold-In boards, and its catalogue records are a rare look at how the work was made. The museum’s records for Fold-Ins from July 1973, June 1974 and July 1990 list opaque watercolour on paper board combined with collage of cut and pasted printed text, coloured papers and plastic film. The 1990 board is described as a collage of separately painted drawings mounted on laminated board.
The museum’s record for a 1976 Madde Fold-In from a MAD bicentennial special is even more detailed: brush and grey washes, white acrylic, black ink, cut and pasted printed text and Letraset elements, ruling in blue pencil and graphite, a Mylar overlay with Rubylith, and a vellum overlay marked in blue felt-tip. Those are the tools of pre-digital print production. Rubylith, a red masking film, was used to define areas for separation; blue pencil did not reproduce on the camera, so it was used for guides.
For designers who grew up in software, this is the analogue ancestor of layers, masks and guides. Jaffee painted the image, set the type separately, and used overlays to control what the printer would see, much as you would lock guide layers and masked groups today.
Line, colour and lettering in his pages
Jaffee’s drawing is clean and legible, with confident contour lines and even shading that keeps busy scenes readable. That clarity was functional: in a Fold-In, a fussy line would muddy the hidden image. Colour in the Fold-Ins tends toward flat, bright areas that can be split across the fold without colour shifts giving the trick away.
Lettering is part of the puzzle. The question at the top and the answer at the bottom were made from pasted type, and the answer is assembled from two halves of an apparently unrelated sentence. Designers who work on reveal animations, scroll effects or packaging with hidden messages face the same problem: text that must read well in both states.
His other long-running MAD feature, Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions, cited in obituaries from Rolling Stone and Fortune, uses a different format: one setup panel followed by several alternative comebacks. It is a simple modular template, a repeating grid of variations on one prompt, and a good model for social carousels or card-based layouts.
His place among the MAD artists
Jaffee belonged to a group of illustrators who gave MAD a distinct visual voice. His school friend Harvey Kurtzman, MAD’s founding editor, set the satirical tone, and caricaturists such as Mort Drucker, known for his film parodies, worked alongside him. Jaffee’s contribution was formal rather than purely comic: he turned the physical page into the joke. The Jewish Press reported that Guinness World Records recognised him for the longest career of any cartoonist.
How designers can borrow Al Jaffee’s ideas today
Design for two states. Whether it is a hover state, a folded leaflet or a scroll reveal, sketch both states on one grid and check that every element contributes to each. The Fold-In shows that constraint can generate ideas rather than limit them.
Use a decoy zone. Jaffee’s middle strip existed to be hidden. In packaging or print, a removable sleeve, a flap or a die-cut can play the same role, giving the reader a surprise when it is opened or folded.
Plan alignment like a printer. His boards used guides and overlays. Work the same way digitally: set columns and fold lines as locked guides, keep text on separate layers, and test with a physical print if a fold or cut is involved. The poster design principles guide covers grid and hierarchy basics that apply here.
Make modular jokes. The Snappy Answers format is a template: one prompt, several responses, identical framing. It translates well to card decks, social posts and onboarding screens.
Respect the copyright. His drawings and the Fold-In artwork remain in copyright, and MAD is a trademark. Borrow the method, not the artwork, and never imply affiliation with the magazine.
Frequently asked questions
What is Al Jaffee known for?
He created the MAD Fold-In in 1964 and drew it for more than five decades. He also created Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions for MAD and drew the newspaper panel Tall Tales from 1957 to 1963.
How does a MAD Fold-In work?
The page shows a picture and a question. Folding it so that two marked points meet hides the middle and joins the outer strips, which form a new image and a caption answering the question. Every outer element is drawn to work in both views.
Where can I see original Al Jaffee artwork?
The Art Institute of Chicago holds original Fold-In boards, including works from 1973, 1974, 1976 and 1990. Its catalogue records list materials such as opaque watercolour, pasted type, Letraset and Rubylith overlays.
Is Al Jaffee’s artwork in the public domain?
No. He died in 2023, and none of his records at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Met or the Cleveland Museum of Art is flagged public domain or CC0. Study his methods, but do not reuse the artwork without permission.
