Mad Magazine's Al Feldstein Dies at 88
Source: New York Times
NEW YORK — Before "The Daily Show," ''The Simpsons" or even "Saturday Night Live," Al Feldstein helped show America how to laugh at authority and giggle at popular culture.
Millions of young baby boomers looked forward to that day when the new issue of Mad magazine, which Feldstein ran for 28 years, arrived in the mail or on newsstands. Alone in their room, or huddled with friends, they looked for the latest of send-up of the president or of a television commercial. They savored the mystery of the fold-in, where a topical cartoon appeared with a question on top that was answered by collapsing the page and creating a new, and often, hilarious image.
Thanks in part to Feldstein, who died Tuesday at his home in Montana at age 88, comics were more than escapes into alternate worlds of superheroes and clean-cut children. They were a funhouse tour of current events and the latest crazes. Mad was breakthrough satire for the post-World War II era — the kind of magazine Holden Caulfield of "The Catcher In the Rye" might have read, or better, might have founded. "Basically everyone who was young between 1955 and 1975 read Mad, and that's where your sense of humor came from," producer Bill Oakley of "The Simpsons" later explained.
Feldstein's reign at Mad, which began in 1956, was historic and unplanned. Publisher William M. Gaines had started Mad as a comic book four years earlier and converted it to a magazine to avoid the restrictions of the then-Comics Code and to persuade founding editor Harvey Kurtzman to stay on. But Kurtzman soon departed anyway and Gaines picked Feldstein as his replacement. Some Kurtzman admirers insisted that he had the sharper edge, but Feldstein guided Mad to mass success.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/04/30/us/ap-us-obit-feldstein.html
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I have a postcard from around 1915. It is the face that inspired Alfred.
(This is the same postcard I have. ..image from Wikipedia)
oh, and RIP Al..my child was a little more fun because of you. ...
and later Montana. From a horse and llama ranch north of Yellowstone National Park,
he ran a guest house and pursued his "first love" — painting wildlife, nature scenes
and fantasy art and entering local art contests. In 2003, he was elected into the
Will Eisner Hall of Fame, named for the celebrated cartoonist.
I'd like to see the first edition of MAD he edits after he arrives at his reward.
-- Mal
I bought Absolutely MAD Magazine - 50+ Years. It's in PDF but it's great. The memories it brings back when I was growing up and reading MAD Magazine are amazing. Thanks Mr. Feldstein, for making my youth a lot more enjoyable and RIP.
I'm not ashamed to say, that Mad Magazine contributed to who I am today. A sarcastic delinquent.
My Dad had a subscription to MAD Magazine. We read it all the time as kids. Godspeed, Mr. Feldstein. You made so many people smile and laugh, not a bad legacy. 
RIP Al, and thanks for the memories.
And thanks to all the Mad mag folks, still living or who have passed on, for their remarkable introduction to American satire and parody, for generations of young and old, including myself (as an avid reader in the '70s). And the beat goes on... 
and I still have my favorite issues. A great part of the 60's were reflected in Mad.
RIP Al…
