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Regardless of age or background , most people are well cognisant ofMad Magazine , when thinking of the magazine , its mascotAlfred E. Neumanis likely the first image to come to mind . At this point , the case is synonymous with the long - running humor clip , but this was n’t always the subject , and the origin of the case stay a hotly debated mystery for over a 100 . Regardless of origin , the mischievous nature of the brass and his irreverent motto of " Me Worry ? " appealed toMad ’s off - the - wall style and helped define the clip ’s place in the world ’s eye as one of the dandy wit magazines of all time .
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The Face That Sold a Thousand Postcards
In 1975 , Kurtzman wrote a piece for theNew York Timestitled"The Face Is Familiar Have We Met?“in which he recalled the origin of Alfred E Neuman ’s adoption into theMadfamily , write :
" The cheek first came to my attention when I was doing the amusing bookMadfor publishing company William Gaines in the middle fifties … We were work with Ballantine paperback book leger on the first of a series of Mad reprint collections … I note on the Ballantine Book bulletin board a mailing-card with this face … The face was not unfamiliar . I associated it with the funny‐picture postal card in Times Square penny arcades and tourist traps , this one with the caption “ What , Me Worry ? ” under the bumpkin portrait … So I pocketed the lineup and cannonball along back to the workshop where I inserted the “ What , Me Worry ? ” face on and in subsequent issues ofMad Magazine .
With the relaunch ofMadas a magazine , Kurtzman create a border drawn by Bill Elder which featured the case with the aspect " What ? Me Worry ? " in the top center of the cartridge clip above the claim . This would be Alfred E. Neuman ’s firstMadcover show , albeit a small one . The post card Kurtzman learn from Ballentine would be used as the cornerstone for the first licensed Mad mark , with Bill Elder adding a Modern typeface to the picture . The mark was advertise on the inside back varlet ofMad # 27,and until Norman Mingo magnificently painted him for the book binding ofMad # 30,was the last paradigm for the Alfred E. Neuman referee recognize today .
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A Face Gets a Name
Kurtzman also recalled the origin of how the name Alfred E. Neuman became associated with the fount and his enquiry into the face ’s beginnings , going on to write in his NYT piece :
" Alfred E. was borrowed from Hollywood by way of the former , sometime Henry Morgan show . Alfred Newman ( the late ) was in reality a movie‐music homo whose cite were legion on the silver screen . Morgan would practice the name for various innocuous characters that passed through his show , and I did inMad , after Morgan ’s fashion . And even though the face was , and ever would be , to me , a What , Me Worry ? kid , our fan mail importune on calling him Melvin Cowznofski and Alfred E. Neuman … The What , Me Worry ? small fry was permanently baptise Alfred Neuman by Albert Feldstein , the editor program who came after me . So that ’s the story , once and for all . Do n’t ask me any more . "
Interestingly , this was n’t the first clip the name Al was associate with the typeface . Initially appear in the May 25 , 1927 edition ofThe Charlotte Observer , the face appeared in a trick alphabetic character column regarding a boy who , due to amnesia , lost his name . He was referred to as " The Nameless Wonder " until he became a regular sports pillar character under the name Ath - a - letic Al " The Man With The Left - Handed nous " in the January 25 , 1931 Sunday edition , where he was known by reader until the character was break in 1944 .
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Crowd-Sourced Research
Kurtzman also talked aboutMad ’s initial hunting into the face ’s blood by penning an subject - ended plea for information , recall :
" In our letters Sir Frederick Handley Page we asked the reader for whatever source information they might have . The answer were amazing . The face date back to the 19th century . It was supposed to have been used for selling patent of invention medicine , shoes and flaccid drinks … and was return in dozens of tenuous to grossly altered variations . But the result I have always liked to believe was that the grimace came from an old mellow school biology text — an example of a person who lacked iodine . "
In aninterview with CBC in 1977 , Mad Magazine publishing house and Centennial State - founder Bill Gaines recalled what he was capable to see about the rootage of Alfred E. Neuman saying
Mad ’s crowd - sourced hunting for answers was really the 3rd attempt by a publication to tag down the face ’s origin . The North Carolina weekly publicationThe Stateissued a plea for data regarding the cheek in its Sept 14 , 1935 issue . The takings featured the face on the screening christened " Athaletic Al " afterThe Charlotte Observercharacter , with an interior article ask if anyone knew if the face had an older name than the oneThe Charlotte Observerhad used , along with an graphics competition solicit draft of the face . The face appeared again on the Dec 31 , 1938 issue due to popular demand , but no answers were gained as to the face ’s line of descent .
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With a closed book dating back over a century , there are many other potential early inspirations behind evenThe New Boyposter , including illustrations of Puck , the god of mischief as depicted in Shakespeare’sA Midsummer Night ’s Dream . Whatever the case may be , the face has always been associate with irreverence , mischief , and farce , so it ’s only appropriate that it would line up itself the mascot of a magazine dedicated to those luny rule . Whether a prankster god or an early meme , Alfred E. Neuman ’s identity is now forever cemented withMad powder magazine .
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Source : CBC Archives , The Paris Review , New York Times , Madtrash , The Real Alfred E.
(left) Alfred E Neuman as he appeared on the original Mad Magazine Masthead (right) the first licensed print of Alfred E Neuman assembled by Will Elder
The Geneology of Alred Neuman by Harvey Kurtzman. Drawn to accompany his 1975 NYT piece.
Submissions to The State’s 1935 “Athaletic Al” drawing contest.
From Peter Jensen Brown’s blog The Real Alfred E.