Alfred E. Neuman first appeared in MAD Magazine in issue 21, 1955. At that time, he had yet to be named (Actually, he had been called both Melvin Coznowski and Mel Haney at that point), but his motto, "What, Me Worry?", was already in place.
There was a major lawsuit involving Alfred E. Neuman in 1965, as a Helen Pratt Stuff claimed her late husband had created the character in early 1914. She had won several lawsuits during the fourties, and MAD Magazine was about to lose the suit. However, Martin Scheiman, MAD's lawyer, put in a lot of research and found several instances of prior art, dating as far back as 1895, in a commercial for Atmore's Mince Meat Plum Pudding in an English tabloid called The Illustrated London News. While MAD had not created Alfred, it was ruled that they were allowed to use it, as they had found so many examples from so many different sources that it was to be considered as public domain.
The version of Alfred that we know today was painted by Norman Mingo for a front cover in 1956, issue 30, as a presidential candidate (he has since run for president at every election).
Audited August 7, 2002