MAD fold ins

One of my favourite parts of MAD magazine as a kid was those back cover fold-ins. I remember trying to look at them at the grocery store - trying not to crease the paper too bad (or if you were lucky, you'd find one that someone else already folded so you didn't feel so bad).

It all started back in 1964 when Al Jaffe and the gang at MAD noticed that other big magazines (Playboy, Life, etc) were doing fold-outs (centerfolds). In typical MAD style, they decide to do a spoof and make a fold in instead. The rest is history.

Al himself has personally created very single one of them since and is still doing them today at age 87! That's incredible.

Here's a really good NY Times article on Jaffe that I really enjoyed.

Meanwhile check out the AMAZING collection of interactive fold ins past and present (LINK).