LOL Actually, Alfred's image has quite a history.
Alfred E. Neuman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neuman's precise origin is shrouded in mystery and may never be fully known. A comprehensive collection of early Neumanesque images can be found in Maria Reidelbach's comprehensive bestseller, Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine (Little, Brown, 1991). Mad publisher Bill Gaines gave Reidelbach total access to the magazine's own files, including the collection of Neuman-related images that had been assembled for legal purposes at the time of the Neuman lawsuit. The earliest image that she cites is an advertisement for Atmore's Mince Meat, Genuine English Plum Pudding. She wrote that, "[d]ating from 1895, this is the oldest verified image of the boy.... The kid's features are fully developed and unmistakable, and the image was very likely taken from an older archetype that has yet to be found."[9]
An older "archetype" has since been found. The Atmore's advertisement is a nearly exact duplicate of an advertisement for the Broadway play, The New Boy, that debuted in 1894.[10] An example of the advertisement was published in the Los Angeles Herald (December 2, 1894).
"In words that may just as well have been intended for Alfred E. Neuman," the paper reported that the, "comic red-headed urchin with a joyous grin all over his freckled face, whose phiz [(face)] is the trademark of the comedy, is so expressive of the rollicking and ridiculous that the New York Herald and the Evening Telegram have applied it to political cartoon purposes."[10] Elements of the plot of the play explain why the character has adult and childlike features, why the character is dressed as he is, and how he may have lost his teeth.[10] Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the original New Boy image was published with a two-part phrase that is similar in tone to Alfred E. Neuman's, "What? Me Worry?" catch phrase. The catch phrase for The New Boy, was, "What's the good of anything?貉ｧothing!"[10]
The New Boy advertising image was copied widely for use as advertising for "painless" dentistry advertisements and other uses. It is also possible that the image influenced the look of The Yellow Kid, the 1890s character from Richard F. Outcault's strip, Hogan's Alley. The image was used for a variety of purposes nearly continuously until it was adopted by Mad Magazine.[10]
Alfred E. became the standardized full-face portrait we know from
Mad Magazine in 1956. That was the work of Norman Mingo while in his 60's.
[I"]When Al Feldstein took over as
Mad's editor in 1956, he seized upon the face:
I decided that I wanted to have this visual logo as the image of Mad, the same way that corporations had the Jolly Green Giant and the dog[2] barking at the gramophone for RCA. This kid was the perfect example of what I wanted. So I put an ad in the New York Times that said, "National magazine wants portrait artist for special project". In walked this little old guy in his sixties named Norman Mingo, and he said, "What national magazine is this?" I said Mad, and he said, "Goodbye." I told him to wait, and I dragged out all these examples and postcards of this idiot kid, and I said, "I want a definitive portrait of this kid. I don't want him to look like an idiot謔* want him to be loveable and have an intelligence behind his eyes. But I want him to have this devil-may-care attitude, someone who can maintain a sense of humor while the world is collapsing around him." I adapted and used that portrait, and that was the beginning."[/I]
Mingo's defining portrait was used on the cover of Mad #30 in late 1956 as a supposed write-in candidate for the Presidency ... with the slogan, "You could do worse... and always have!"
