Albert B. Al Feldstein

Al Feldstein, artist/ writer/editor for EC Comics and MAD magazine, has died at 88. By Grant Geissman April 29, 2014 Albert B. Feldstein, an influential artist and writer for the 1950s EC Comics as well as the editor of MAD magazine for nearly thirty years, has died at his home near Livingston, Montana. He was 88. Mr. Feldstein began working in comics while still a student at the High School of Music and Art in New York, doing work part-time after school in the S.M. Iger shop. In 1947 he created, wrote and illustrated his own comic books Junior and Sunny for Fox Feature Publications; these were knock-offs of Archie, but with much more titillating artwork. In 1948 he moved to the publishing house EC Comics, which was owned by William M. Gaines, where Mr. Feldstein soon became Mr. Gainess right-hand man. In 1950 Mr. Gaines and Mr. Feldstein launched what they called a "New Trend" in comics, which included the horror titles Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear. Mr. Feldstein both wrote and illustrated stories for the company, usually collaborating on the story ideas with Mr. Gaines. The pair also introduced in 1950 what were the first pure science fiction comics, Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. After horror and crime comic books came under fire in the mid-1950s, Mr. Feldstein developed a "clean" line of comics for EC that they called the "New Direction," as well as a magazine format which was dubbed "Picto-Fiction;" ultimately neither was successful and Mr. Gaines was forced to fold all of his titles except for MAD magazine. After Mr. Gaines and MAD creator Harvey Kurtzman parted ways in a financial dispute in 1956, Mr. Gaines asked Mr. Feldstein to take over as MADs editor, a position he held for nearly thirty years. Although essentially not a humorist, editor Feldstein has been credited with helping to steer MAD into the commercial success that it became. Most of the features that Baby Boomers now associate with the magazine, including Al Jaffees "MAD Fold-In," Mort Druckers movie and TV parodies, Antonio Prohiass "SPY vs SPY," and the wacky cartoons of Don Martin, all came in under Mr. Feldsteins tenure. And while it was Mr. Kurtzman who first found and used the visage of the "What, Me Worry?" face in MAD (and who first paired the name "Alfred E. Neuman" with that face), it was Mr. Feldstein who had it fleshed out into a full-color image, elevating Alfred E. Neuman to MADs cover boy. After retiring from the magazine at the end of 1984, Mr. Feldstein ultimately moved west, first to Jackson, Wyoming and then to Livingston, Montana, where he began to realize his life-long dream of being a fine-art painter, doing landscapes, wildlife, and Western art. He also produced numerous paintings "revisiting" his iconic cover images from the EC Comics. In later years Mr. Feldstein became in-demand as a featured guest at comic-book conventions. A fully illustrated biography/coffee table art-book about Mr. Feldstein, called FELDSTEIN: The MAD Life and Fantastic Art of Al Felstein, was released in August 2013. Al Feldstein was also a very generous man who dedicated and used his ranch in Montana as a rescue and rehab facility for unwanted and abused animals of all kinds. His survivors include his wife, Michelle; a step-daughter, Katrina Oppelt and her husband Bob, and two grandsons, Colton and Winston Oppelt. Arrangements are under the direction of Franzen-Davis Funeral Home and Crematory.