This is the original desk used by the great Bill Gaines, Founder and Publisher of MAD Magazine and the legendary line of EC Comics. Gaines used the desk from the 1950s and beyond, during the heyday of this comic icon, the supposed "idiot son" of the prior "Educational Comics" publisher Max Gaines, who is credited with virtually "inventing" the comic book back in the 1930s. Upon Max's accidental death, William M. "Bill" Gaines took over, taking the comic book to new dimensions. His groundbreaking line of EC comics (horror, sci-fi, crime, war, etc.) attracted the greatest comic illustrators ever: Frank Frazetta, Harvey Kurtzman, Al Feldstein, Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Wally Wood, Basil Wolverton and many, many more. After EC was gutted by the '50s McCarthy-inspired censorship, Gaines took his gem MAD comics to magazine form to avoid the Comics Code Authority. Rebooting satire, MAD influenced everything after it, from Monty Python to Saturday Night Live, et al. Danish-style, the wood desk in convenient sections is all-original with drawers intact. Leather oversized blotter has original scribblings, coffee and food stains from known messy Gaines, and random phone numbers all by Gaines himself. Desk was sold in the 1995 Sotheby's "MAD about MAD" auction for over $7,475. Comes with the auction catalogue picturing it and prices realized. Consigned directly to the 1995 auction by MAD Magazine, it is photomatched as shown here with images of Gaines behind it from the McCarthyism 1950s to the hippy 1960s. This desk was offered in our most recent auction and it went unpaid by the buyer.