Drew Friedman interview in Ink magazine (Spring 2012)

Drew-Friedman

One of our favorite illustrators, Drew Friedman, is reviewed in this exceptionally fine magazine about comics called Ink, which is produced by students at New York's School of Visual Arts

Ink: Eventually you wound up getting work for Mad. How did that come about?

Drew: Oddly enough, by the time I was an adult, I had kind of lost interest in being in Mad. For years, the founder, William M Gaines, had this policy that they would not return any of your original artwork. So, I always knew about that, and I was like, "I'm not gonna work for Mad because I have to have my artwork back."

But then, the year after William Gaines died, [Mad editor] John Ficarra called and asked if I wanted to do a page for them. This was at a time when I was doing a lot of editorial work, for all different kinds of publications. So, I said, "Yeah, sure, that'll be fun, but I can't because you don't return artwork." And he said, "No, no we changed that policy as soon as Bill Gaines died, we return your artwork now." So that's another dream fulfilled. Also, getting the chance to meet some of those guys who worked there, especially the old-timers like Mort Drucker, that was fun.

SVA's Ink Magazine (PDF)