Drew Friedman

Drew Friedman is not just one of America’s most well-known and widely respected illustrators, but his work is arguably the most identifiable. Having worked for counterculture bibles over the years like National Lampoon, RAW, Screw, SPY and Mad, Friedman has, in the past fifteen years, garnered mainstream respectability with onslaughts of work for Entertainment Weekly, Mother Jones, Newsweek, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, Time and countless others. Friedman has also published several entertaining books, including his two critically acclaimed collections of portraits titled Old Jewish Comedians. I spoke with Drew Friedman recently in anticipation of his new collection, an overview of those last fifteen years of mainstream respectability: Too Soon? Famous/Infamous faces 1995-2010 from Fantagraphics Books.
This interview was conducted by Kliph Nesteroff from WFMU’s Beware of the Blog and has been posted as a transcription there as well. Kliph is also a fellow radio host at CITR and you can find more of his writing here.