Estate / Collection: The Personal Collection of Al Jaffee

A large and varied archive of Al Jaffee's sketches, notes, ideas, and various other items relevant to his career as a cartoonist. The archive comprises fifteen binders, mostly labeled; a box of files; a group of folders including two marked "Original Artwork"; eight plastic bins labeled by Jaffee containing stationery and other personalized printed labels; a small group of items from his studio such as paint catalogs and a hand-ruled illustration board used for making MAD Fold-Ins; a group of photographs of Jaffee; a printed proof of Jaffee's final MAD Fold-In, printed proofs for various other fold-ins and cartoons; a group of personal hand-drawn drafts and printed proofs of thank-you, graduation, and wedding cards for friends and family, including one for Art Spiegelman; a group of artwork and printed proofs for Fold-Ins that appeared in 'Alter Ego' and 'The Cartoonist;' and two prints of a WWII warplane, the Martin Mariner, by Al's brother Harry Jaffee, and more. Condition varies, the lot should be examined in person and is sold as is.

Some of the highlights from the archive include:

Two untitled green binders containing, among other things, a series of prototypes for birthday cards, some of which include elaborate movable flaps and multiple pages, preliminary book ideas including "Kaka Doody" and a children's book about unicorns in the modern world, printed mock-ups for unpublished books including one of MAD inventions, a book titled, "Jaffee's Monster," one called "How Famous Cartoonists work," preliminary sketches for comics and fold-ins, a group of artwork including hand colored finished sketches for a gag comic called "Fallen Angels," some ideas for "Classic art Fold-ins," and a large number of notes and preliminary drawings for potential cartoons.

The binder labeled "Ideas and Gags" contains notes and sketches for comics, including, "picture anagrams," "consumer bills," "crime foilers," "chick's illustrated," "don't you feel like a shmuck," "great moments in everyday life," "you know it's over when..." "MAD safety," "uppers and downers," "violent illustrations in fairy tales," and a group of photocopied reference illustrations for "Feelthy Pictures." It also contains letters from publishers regarding a syndicated strip called "The Puritans" that Jaffee had created in the 1980s.

The other binders, which contain a mixture of sketches, notes, photocopies, correspondence, press clippings, and various other materials, are titled, "Ideas for MAD that probably weren't submitted," "AJ Timely Comics," "Kid Book Ideas" (with a mock-up for the unpublished book by Jaffee "Georgie's Dragon"), "MAD - Ideas, Rejects, Bonuses, Unused," "Interviews, Exhibits, Tributes, Awards, Panels," "Ideas - Political, Syndicated, Product, Children's Book / Inferior Man," "AJ's MAD Life specific," "Sunday Tall Tales," "Shpy," "Humbug Proofs," an unlabeled blue binder, and a blue binder containing the mock-up for an unpublished children's book by Jaffee titled "A Bear Can Eat Anything... But You Shouldn't."

The box of files contains approximately 50 green folders, mostly labeled. Some of the titles on the folders include, "AJ Logos," "Inferior Man," "Caricatures A.J. and others," Making a Fold-In Pix," "The only rejected MAD Fold-In," "Work Ideas," "Gags" "Jaffe Bios," "Talking points for speeches," "AJ Ideas that came true."

And much more!