Al Jaffe and the Art of the Fold-In

I've got a lot of respect for what the New York Times is doing with multimedia online. Today they grace us with a retrospective on Al Jaffe. Who is Al Jaffe, you ask? He is the guy who created the fold-ins on the back page of every MAD magazine for almost 50 years.

Here is the WOW part: the Times has recreated several of these classic fold-ins in an interactive Flash gallery where you can actually fold them in. Instant vintage.

From the New York Times:

"If you were young at any time in the last 44 years, you know the fold-in: the feature on the inside of Mad’s back cover that poses a question whose answer is found by folding the page in thirds. September 1978: 'What colorful fantastic creature is still being exploited even after it has wiggled and died?' A picture of a garish butterfly, folded, becomes an equally garish Elvis. The fold-ins these days are as full of youth culture as ever. (March 2008: 'What major star has recently admitted receiving illegal career-damaging human growth injections?' And a picture that looks as if it’s going to be Roger Clemens folds to become Jamie Lynn Spears, pregnant.) So the first thing that strikes you when Mr. Jaffee greets you at the door of his studio on the East Side of Manhattan is his age. This man, still credibly negotiating the milieu of teenagers, is 87. "

Go there now: it's pretty sweet.