page_title: Alfred E. Neuman
section_title: Genesis
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred E. Neuman / Genesis
caption_attribution_description: English: Antikamnia Tablet Calendar for 1908
context_page_description: Alfred E. Neuman is the fictitious mascot and cover boy of the American humor magazine Mad. The character's distinct face, with his parted red hair, gap-tooth smile, freckles, protruding nose, and scrawny body, had actually first emerged in U.S. iconography decades prior to his association with the magazine, appearing in early twentieth-century advertisements for painless dentistry— the origin of his "What, me worry?" motto. He also appeared in the early 1930s, on a presidential campaign postcard with the caption, "Sure I'm for Roosevelt". The magazine's editor Harvey Kurtzman claimed the character in 1954, and he was named "Alfred E. Neuman" by Mad's second editor, Al Feldstein, in 1956. Since his debut in Mad, Neuman's likeness has appeared on the cover of all but a handful of the magazine's over 550 issues. Rarely seen in profile, Neuman has almost always been portrayed in front view, silhouette, or directly from behind.
context_section_description: Neuman's precise origin is shrouded in mystery and may never be fully known.  A collection of early Neumanesque images can be found in Maria Reidelbach's comprehensive work, 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 a 1965 copyright infringement lawsuit.
  The earliest image cited in Reidelbach's book is from 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..." After the publication of the book, an older "archetype" was discovered in an advertisement for the comical stage play, The New Boy, which debuted on Broadway in 1894.  The image is nearly identical to what later appears in the Atmore's ads.
  A description of the stage play's advertisement was published in the December 2, 1894, Los Angeles Herald. Using words that could easily be describing the character of 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."  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. The original New Boy image was published with a two-part phrase that is similar in tone to Neuman's, "What? Me Worry?" catch phrase: "What's the good of anything?—Nothing!"
  The New Boy advertising image was copied widely in advertising for "painless" dentistry and other products.  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.
  Similar faces turned up in advertising for "painless" dentistry. According to Gaines, 'Alfie' has his origin in Topeka with the Painless Romine Topeka Dental College, actually a dental group at 704 Kansas Avenue, at the office of Dr. William Romine—often misspelled as Romaine—a dentist who resided and practiced in Wichita. 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. Chem." Another identical face shows up in the logo for Happy Jack Beverages, a soda drink produced by the A. B. Cook company in 1939. An almost-identical image appeared as "nose art" on an American World War II bomber, over the motto "Me Worry?" (this painted face was sometimes referred to as "The Jolly Boy").
  Neuman's image was also used negatively, as a "supporter" of rival political candidates, with the idea that only an idiot would vote for them.  In 1940, those opposing Franklin Delano Roosevelt's third-term reelection bid distributed postcards with a similar caricature bearing the caption, "Sure I'm for Roosevelt".  In some instances, there was also the implication that the "idiot" was in fact a Jewish caricature. Carl Djerassi's autobiography claims that in Vienna after the Anschluss, he saw posters with a similar face and the caption Tod den Juden ("Kill the Jews").
  The EC editors grew up listening to radio, and this was frequently reflected in their stories, names and references. The name "Alfred E. Neuman" derived from comedian Henry Morgan's "Here's Morgan" radio series on Mutual, ABC and NBC. One character on his show had a name that was a reference to composer Alfred Newman, who scored many films and also composed the familiar fanfare that accompanies 20th Century Fox's opening film logo. The possible inspiration for Henry Morgan was that Laird Cregar portr
caption: 1908 Antikamnia Tablet Calendar
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