Q: Is that a drawing by Al Jaffee?
Back in the late 80s my Dad and I took the train in from my Aunt’s house in New Jersey to walk through Manhattan. There are two things I remember about that trip: touching something that looked like a booger on a movie poster in the subway and my dad telling me that it was a booger and visiting Mad magazine’s offices on MAD-ison Avenue.

When we walked in they still had a Christmas Tree up in July and Nick Meglin called back into the office warning people to put away the bad stuff because a kid was coming through. We met Bill Gaines in his cluttered office — he died a few years later — and I got a signed piece of artwork which I still have. A lot of people talk about defining moments: that was mine.

Well, Phil Torrone just visited the offices this year and it looks as chaotic as I remember. Good freaking times.

MAKE visits MAD Magazine [Make]