Al Feldstein "THE MAN"

I have had the pleasure of meeting Al Feldstein aka "THE MAN" firstly about 4 years ago at Dragon Con (huge Sci Fi and Comics show) here in Atlanta where he was one of the guests of honor and then about 2 years ago at the Alfred We Hardly Knew Thee exhibit put on by my buddy John Hett (The Journal of MADness" in Michigan (For an in depth account of this exhibit and show check out an earlier post on this blog from March).

While at Dragon Con I was able to talk with Al for about half an hr and discuss my passion for MAD magazine and what an impact it had made on me growing up in Kuwait, leading me to enjoy drawing, and then publishing and editing. He was warm and happy to connect with someone who truly understood what an impact he personally had made on not only those wonderful EC comics of the early 50's but on pop culture as a whole through his editorial leadership at MAD for almost 3 decades. I myself, although I admire Harvey Kurtzman's contribution to satire (it is huge from his "Hey Look" strips to MAD to TRUMP to HUMBUG to HELP to LITTLE ANNIE FANNY) can't help but feel that MAD would most probably have dwindled into obscurity like these other, albeit great works, too specific a commentary to be publications for the masses. It was through editor Feldstein's formulaic approach that America and the world embraced this now iconic magazine through familiarity and education. I know I learned plenty about the world around me just by reading MAD and always knew that every issue would bring no less than the very best in art and writing.

It was while having these great dialogs with him that he signed the above 2 issues of MAD, #29 which marked his debut as Editor (and coincidentally Don Martin's 1st appearance) and #30 which was Alfred's 1st fully rendered image by non other than Norman Mingo, who would become MAD's all time best cover artist and setting the standards to all the amazing talent that would follow him including Kelly Freas, Jack Rickard, Richard Williams and recently the excellent Mark Fredrickson.

The above picture is myself, Al Feldstein, John Hett and Doug Gilford (MAD cover site) - check out cool links on this site.