Alfred E. Neuman
Alfred E. Neuman is the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine Mad.
The cover of issue #411 (November 2001), the first to be produced following the 9/11 attacks in the United States, showed a close-up of Neuman's face, but his gap was now filled with an American flag.
A text gag on the cover of issue #263 (June 1986) claimed that the UPC was really a "Close-up Photograph of Neuman's Missing Tooth".
[2] In 1958, Mad published letters from several readers noting the resemblance between Neuman and England's King Charles, then nine years old.
P." The letter was authenticated as having been written on triple-cream laid royal stationery bearing an official copper-engraved crest.
[1] For many years, Mad sold full-color prints of the official portrait of Neuman through a small house ad on the letters page of the magazine.
[4] A description of the stage play's advertisement was published in the October 31, 1894, Hartford Courant, using words that could easily be describing the character of Alfred E. Neuman.
According to original Mad publisher William Gaines, Neuman had his origin in Topeka with the Painless Romine Topeka Dental College, actually a dental group at 704 Kansas Avenue, at the office of William Romine – often misspelled as Romaine – , a dentist who resided and practiced in Wichita.
[6][7] A face virtually identical to Neuman's appears in the 1923 issue of the University of Minnesota humor magazine The Guffer above the caption "Medic After Passing Con Exam in P.
An almost-identical image appeared as "nose art" on an American World War II bomber, over the motto "Me Worry?"
In some instances the "idiot" implication may have been used as a Jewish caricature, as Carl Djerassi's autobiography claims that in Vienna after the Anschluss, he saw posters with a similar face and the caption Tod den Juden ("Death to Jews").
In 2008, Eastern Michigan University held an exhibit and symposium on the evolution of Neuman images, dating back to 1877.
On the cover of current printings of the paperback The Ides of Mad, as rendered by long-time cover artist Norman Mingo, Neuman is portrayed as a Roman bust with his catchphrase engraved on the base, translated into Dog Latin – Quid, Me Anxius Sum?
Harvey Kurtzman first spotted the image on a postcard pinned to the office bulletin board of Ballantine Books editor Bernard Shir-Cliff.
The character's first appearance in the comic book was on the cover of Mad #21 (March 1955), in a tiny image as part of a mock advertisement.
Mad switched to a magazine format starting with issue #24, and Neuman's face appeared in the top, central position of the illustrated border used on the covers, with his now-familiar signature phrase "What, me worry?"
Mad #24 had two appearances by a different Alfred E. Neuman, portrayed as a little man in a traditional morning suit, with a mustache, slicked-over hair, and spectacles.
So I put an ad in The New York Times that said, "National magazine wants portrait artist for special project".
The most notorious Neuman-free cover was #166 (April 1974), which featured a human hand giving the profane "middle finger" gesture while declaring Mad to be "The Number One Ecch Magazine".
[18] Neuman's ubiquity as a grinning cover boy grew as the magazine's circulation quadrupled, but the single highest-selling issue of Mad depicted only his feet.
The cover image of issue #161,[19] spoofing the 1972 film The Poseidon Adventure, showed Neuman floating upside-down inside a life preserver.
[20] The image was copied in 1998 for issue #369 by famed illustrator Mick McGinty,[21] spoofing the hit film Titanic.
A small publisher sued the parent company of Mad magazine, claiming infringement of a 1914 copyright of the Neuman character's image.
Mad asked readers to find earlier images of the character in an attempt to show it was part of the public domain.
"[27] On July 10, 2005, speaking at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival, she said, "I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington," referring again to Bush's purported "What, me worry?"
"[29] Neuman also appeared as himself in a political cartoon[vague], after Newsweek had been criticized for using computer graphics to retouch the teeth of Bobbi McCaughey.
[31] Neuman's features have also been compared to others in the public eye, including Charles III, Rick Astley, Ted Koppel, Oliver North, and David Letterman.
[14] German weekly Der Spiegel merged Neuman's likeness with that of then-candidate for British Conservative Party leadership Boris Johnson for their July 20, 2019, issue.
Her name was inspired by Moxie, a soft drink manufactured in Portland, Maine, which was sold nationwide in the 1950s and whose logo appeared as a running visual gag in many early issues of Mad.
