Legendary is a word often over used, but Al Jaffee is truly a legendary cartoonist. Still drawing Mad magazine’s fold-ins at age 95, he’s been named the world’s oldest working cartoonist, and now he’ll be the latest winner of the Harvey Kurtzman Hall of Fame Award, which will be presented as part of the Harvey Wards on Sept. 3 at the Baltimore Comic-Con. Jaffee will also be the subjet of a special panel at the con. More info below:
Al Jaffee, MAD Magazine cartoonist and creator of the celebrated fold-in cover, is a Guinness World Record holder with the longest career of a comics artist (over 73 years!). His early career was spent as an artist for Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, and later again working for Stan Lee again as an editor on Timely’s humor and teenage comics, including the Patsy Walkertitles. His syndicated strip, Tall Tales, was collected and published by Abrams in 2008, winning the 2009 Harvey Award for Best Cartoonist and the Special Award for Humor in Comics. After time spent at MAD Magazine, he followed Harvey Kurtzman to Trump andHumbug, the former of which was recently collected and reprinted by Dark Horse. After both efforts folded, Jaffee returned to MAD Magazine, where he continues to provide fold-in covers to this day.


His work can be most recently be found in Tall Talesfrom Abrams (2008), the MAD Fold-In Collection 1964-2010 from Chronicle Books (2011) and Al Jaffee’s Mad Life by Mary-Lou Weisman (and illustrations by Al Jaffee) from HarperCollins (2010).Al has received numerous awards that celebrate his long career. He was inducted into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame in 2014, and the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2013. He has received the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society in 2008 as well as their Humor Comic Book Award in 1979. He was also Best Cartoonist in 2001 for his work on MAD Magazine. He has received the Sergio Award from the Comic Art Professional Society and the Inkpot Award at the San Diego Comic-Con.
“This is such a huge honor,” said Marc Nathan, promoter of the Baltimore Comic-Con. “Not only to have such a giant among giants of the comics field at the show, but to be able to celebrate his storied career and contributions to the industry at the Harvey Awards ceremony. We’re exceptionally proud, and fans won’t want to miss his panelSaturday at the show!”
The Baltimore Comic-Con will be held September 2-4, 2016 at the Baltimore Convention Center.
