Above is a photo I took in 1975 (I think) of Al Feldstein, who was then the editor of MAD Magazine — a post he held for 26 years. During some of those 26 years, the publication sold in the millions (plural) and did an awful lot to instill a sense of humor and healthy skepticism in a couple of generations. Before that, of course, Al was the editor and main writer for many of the great EC comics like Tales from the Crypt and Vault of Horror and Weird Fantasy and he corrupted America that way.
Al retired from MAD in 1984 and embarked on yet another career as a painter, mostly of western scenes. You can see a lot of them at his website and be very impressed. He's also been very active on the convention circuit, and I'm glad of that because it's given me the chance to interview him many times and to just get to know the guy. He's an amazing and important figure in the history of comics and humor. He was kind of brusque to me that day in the MAD offices when I was up there taking pictures but we've now become good friends.
Sad to say, my good friend is cancelling convention appearances for health reasons. He is awaiting admission to the Mayo Clinic where, if all goes according to plan, he will undergo one of them heart bypass things where they cut you open and reroute your blood. This should happen around mid-April and we're hoping it all goes well not for his sake so much as ours. We want to have Al around for a long time.
I expect it will. Matter of fact, I'm just posting this because I had the photo around and I figure it'll be quite a while before I get to use it on an obit.