Originally born Abraham Jaffee, is notable for his work in the satirical magazine Mad, including his trademark feature, the Mad Fold-in.
Jaffee was born Mar 13, 1921, in Savannah, Georgia, to Mildred and Morris Jaffee, the oldest of four children, all sons. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Zarasai, Lithuania. His father had a management job at a department store in Savannah.
In 1927, Mildred took her four sons, with Morris’s consent, back to Zarasai. After a year, Morris took the family back to the United States. After another year, Mildred took the children back to Lithuania. After four more years, Morris took the eldest three sons back to America, where they lived in Far Rockaway, Queens. The youngest son returned to America in 1940 after his wife, Mildred presumably perished after the Nazi invasion.
After the death of his first wife, Jaffee married Ruth Ahlquist in 1945; they had two children, Richard and Debbie. They divorced in 1967. After the divorce, Gaines provided Jaffee with studio space at the Mad offices.
Again in 1977, Jaffee married Joyce Revenson, a widow. They lived in Manhattan, summered in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and wintered in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Joyce died in January 2020.
Jaffee studied at the High School of Music & Art in New York City in the late 1930s, along with his brother Harry and future Mad personnel Will Elder, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin and Al Feldstein
His oldest younger brother Harry Jaffee (1922–1985), who also had artistic talent, had long been coping with various illnesses—for a time he had been committed to Bellevue. Harry had been living with the Jaffees at the time. After the divorce, Jaffee took two apartments in Manhattan, one for him, and one nearby for Harry. Jaffee also hired him from 1970–77 to do his background detail and lettering. Harry quit upon Jaffee’s remarriage.
Jaffee was a regular contributor to the magazine for 65 years and is its longest-running contributor. In a 2010 interview, Jaffee said, “Serious people my age are dead.”
With a career running well over 80 years from 1942 until 2020, Jaffee holds the Guinness World Record for having the longest-ever career as a comic artist. In the half-century between April 1964 and April 2013, only one issue of Mad was published without containing new material by Jaffee.
In 2008, Jaffee was honored by the Reuben Awards as the Cartoonist of the Year. New Yorker cartoonist Arnold Roth said, “Al Jaffee is one of the great cartoonists of our time.” Describing Jaffee, Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz wrote, “Al can cartoon anything”.