TEXT ON SCREEN: THEY WERE NEW!

THEY WERE EXCITING!

THEY SWEPT THE NATION!

COMIC BOOKS

AL JAFFEE: Someone created the comic book business as an experiment, and they sold like hotcakes.

TEXT ON SCREEN: AL JAFFEE BEGAN CARTOONING IN THE 1940s.

AL JAFFEE: Batman came out of nowhere; The Sandman, The Spirit. It was just a wild party of all kinds of adventurous comic strips, until the hammer came down about comic books and juvenile delinquency.

ARCHIVAL:
NEWS REPORT: The sexy, crime-worshipping violence of certain comic books has come in for a lot of scathing criticism during the past couple of years. 

TEXT ON SCREEN: IN 1954, THE U.S. SENATE HELD HEARINGS ON THE IMPACT OF COMIC BOOKS.

SOON AFTER, THE COMIC BOOK INDUSTRY ADOPTED A STRICT CONTENT CODE.

AL JAFFEE: They created the Comics Code, which is really just a word for a censorship board. That practically drove most of the publishers out of business.

TEXT ON SCREEN: ONE PROMINENT PUBLISHER SHUT DOWN ALL OF ITS TITLES…

EXCEPT ONE.

AL JAFFEE: A little satirical comic book called MAD. MAD’s form of satire is to go against the grain, go in the opposite direction.

TEXT ON SCREEN: JAFFEE FIRST CONTRIBUTED TO MAD IN 1955.

IN 1664, HE CREATED A SPOOF OF LAVISH MAGAZINE FOLD-OUTS.

AL JAFFEE: I looked at that and said, what could I do for MAD that would compete with that, how about a cheap black and white fold-in?

My first one was such a very simple one that, now when I think about it, it’s embarrassing. I never thought that it could go to a second idea.

TEXT ON SCREEN: BUT IT DID.

AL JAFFEE: You had Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller at microphones, as if they’re debating, and the question was, who’s going to really win out? And, when you fold it in, two lamps on either side turned into Richard Nixon. It sort of set the tone for what fold-ins would be from that point on.

TEXT ON SCREEN: MORE THAN 450 FOLD-INS LATER, JAFFEE IS STILL GOING STRONG.

AL JAFFEE: Right now, I’m 94 and a half years old. From a point of view of working, I don’t feel any different than when I was 20 years old.

AL JAFFEE (SHOWING HIS IDEAS BOOKS): Ideas and gags.

AL JAFFEE: I think I have idea books that would keep me busy till I’m 500 years old, and I’m dying to get to them. Of course, I’ll die before I get to them. It’s a joy to be able to do the work and still be relevant long, long after most of your colleagues are gone.

(END)