"For generations of readers, the names of the Mad Men now “exist as gods on Olympus,” says art director Viviano. Gaines also brooked no interference from his corporate bosses. He wanted the magazine to tackle the world on its own terms. And it did. Nothing was sacred to Mad. “It was magical, objective proof to kids that they weren’t alone, that in New York City on Lafayette Street, if nowhere else, there were people who knew that there was something wrong, phony and funny about a world of bomb shelters, brinkmanship and toothpaste smiles,” The New York Times wrote in 1977."