Drew Friedman visits MAD Magazine, 1974

Mad Souvenir

In 1974, my favorite portrait artist Drew Friedman, then 15-years-old, visited the offices of MAD Magazine. And all he got was the crummy souvenir above. Actually, he also got a terrific blog post out of it that he's just now published. From Drew's site:

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(MAD publisher) Bill Gaines' office was a cluttered, messy mini-museum, filled with Zeppelin artifacts (he was obsessed with dirigibles, King Kong and the Statue of Liberty), A human skull (which he told me belonged to his father) stacks of MAD's and EC comics book collections and comic fan magazines (Squa Tront, etc). Instead of a view of the New York skyline, the lone window had a giant King Kong head peering in…

Amongst the debris and wall decor there was of course a lot of MAD and EC items, including 3 large framed color paintings above his desk depicting the three EC horror mascots, the Vault Keeper, the Crypt Keeper and the Old Witch, all of which I studied up close. I was in heaven…

"A Visit to MAD Magazine"