comic

q&a Mad Magazine has been running its back-page satire Fold-In since 1964. What many don't realize is that one man has been the driving artistic force behind every Fold-In since then: Al Jaffee.

Now 91, Jaffee is still painting the Fold-In monthly, and says he has no plans to give it up. It started as a parody of a regular feature called the fold-out in much higher-brow (and higher-profile) publications of the time, and caught the public's attention instantly.

He now has numerous collections and books out, including "Tall Tales," a collection of his syndicated comic strip from the New York Herald-Tribune that had a unique vertical orientation; "The Mad Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010"; and a biography by Mary-Lou Weisman called "Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography."

Jaffee hasn't missed an issue since he started, and his work is widely appreciated. In 2006, Stephen Colbert celebrated Jaffee's 85th birthday with the birthday cake equivalent of a Fold-In.

Since the Fold-In in this month's Mad answers the question, "What's the only thing unavailable on the Internet?" we figured we'd turn the tables on Jaffee and ask him some far less humorous questions of our own. … Read more

The Batcave is located in Gotham and the Daily Planet in Metropolis, but when I was in New York City recently, I got a chance to see where Alfred E. Neuman, Bruce Wayne, Diana Prince, and other comics characters really come from.

Getting a camera inside DC Comics is no mean feat, since photos can potentially reveal sensitive storyline information, and in the comics business, there's often a direct connection between storyline and marketing plan. At times I felt like I was visiting NORAD. … Read more

Concertgoers who attended last week's Coachella music festival apparently had their minds blown by a "hologram" performance by the late rapper Tupac Shakur. The centuries-old illusion made it seem that Snoop Dogg and Tupac were sharing the same stage.

That got us thinking about what the future of concerts will look like. We've already seen some jokes about the next "all hologram Coachella lineup," but will the concert experience 50 years from now allow us to watch the show from the comfort of our homes? We can only hope to still be rocking out when we're that age -- minus the skull head-tattoo. … Read more

Our guest today is documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, who joins us today to talk about his new film "Comic Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope."

He'll tell us about what it was like to meet geek royalty like Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Frank Miller, Kevin Smith, and more. We also ask him about his own history with comic books and how sci-fi movies pushed him to create his own movies.… Read more

The Flashback Trojan that found its way onto more than 600,000 Macs isn't the first bit of malicious code that has hit an Apple computer, but it sure has the casual Mac user thinking twice. It's the most significant malware in recent memory that dents the otherwise unrealistic reputation that Macs are somehow invulnerable to viruses.

The truth is, there are more PC/Windows viruses because there are more Windows machines. The more popular Macs get, the more OS X-based viruses will surface.… Read more

A world without used video games means the days of letting a friend borrow a game are numbered.

While the end of physical media is a certainty, we're not sure how the pursuit of its elimination right now will go over. With anti-used-games technology, unique user IDs, and the requirement of a constant Internet connection, showing a friend a new game might be more of a hassle than it's worth. Of course, we'd imagine there would be ways to sign in on other consoles, but is the reality pictured above that much of a stretch? … Read more

A new interface designed to emphasize creators and book discoverability arrived today in Comixology's Comics app (download).

Comics 3.0 brings to Android the changes that people with iPhones and iPads got last fall. Chief among these is a redesign that allows Comixology to make the app more usable, but in fact the app has been entirely re-coded.

The new layout, download speeds, and searchability are a key part of Comixology's "download once, read anywhere" strategy, co-founder and CEO David Steinberger said in a statement. The app loads noticeably faster than before, offers expanded categories for … Read more

Despite Apple's ostensibly strict rules that prevent inappropriate content from its App Store, DC Entertainment, publisher of such upstanding heroes as Superman and Wonder Woman, is about to sneak through its first dedicated MAD Magazine app.

Not available until Sunday, which is known to watercooler comedians as both April Fools' Day and the birthday of MAD mascot Alfred E. Neuman, the MAD app might surprise you: it's not a waste of time.

Guarantees against it insulting your intelligence, however, have yet to be made.

The app itself will be free and offer some free content, although full issues … Read more

In an effort to scoop up the smash-hit social-gaming app Draw Something, mobile gaming publisher Zynga acquired OMGPOP for an unprecedented $180 million, plus an extra $30 million in employee retention.

Not only is it the first major acquisition for Zynga, it's also a bit out of character for the company, especially considering some recent controversy the mobile powerhouse ran into with the developer of Tiny Tower, NimbleBit. … Read more