Subitzky went on to various other kinds of humor and comedy work, including appearing on television multiple times with David Letterman, and more work for radio.[3] He has also written broadcast horror stories.
During the 1990s, several comic strips of his appeared as "Op/Art" in the op-ed pages of The New York Times.
Starting in 2003, Subitzky contributed 17 pieces (including essays, stories, cartoons, and comic strips) on the subject of consciousness to a serious science journal, the Journal of Consciousness Studies.[4] He has had over 20 letters published in New Scientist magazine. And since 2015, Subitzky's drawing and writing has appeared in many issues of The American Bystander humor magazine.
For many years, Subitzky worked a day job as an advertising copywriter.
Early life
Subitzky was born in and grew up in Mount Vernon, New York, just outside of New York City. As a child, he read a wide variety of comic books and Mad magazine. He was greatly influenced by the work of Harvey Kurtzman and to a lesser extent that of Will Elder, both of whom he met briefly in Mount Vernon when he was about 12 years old.
A great deal of Subitzky's work was published in National Lampoon magazine. His contributions primarily consisted of comic strips, cartoons, and humor writing.
His connection with National Lampoon magazine was first established in 1972, when contributing editor Michel Choquette visited the School of Visual Arts cartooning class which Subitzky attended.[5] Choquette took a liking to Subitzky's work, and brought him over to the offices of National Lampoon.
Subitzky subsequently became a long-term contributing editor; one or more of his comic strips, cartoons, and written articles appeared in almost every issue of the magazine. In September 1974, he guest-edited the "Old Age" issue of the magazine.[6] His name remained on the masthead of National Lampoon all through the 1970s, through the decline of the magazine in the 1980s, and almost up to the point of its eventual demise.
Shary Flenniken, in the biography on her official website, describes Subitzky as "hysterically funny and unassuming".[7]
Comic strips
Subitzky's roughly 100 comic strips for the National Lampoon included “Saturday Night on Antarius! (The Planet with 12 Different Sexes)", “Two-way Comics!", "Eight Comics in One!”, and “Come Too Soon Comics!” Many of his comic strips ran to several pages, and featured numerous very small panels.
Written humor
His approximately 100 articles and written pieces for National Lampoon included “How I Spent My Summer” in the Self-Indulgence issue (December 1973, Vol. 1, No. 45)[8] and "Stupidworld" in the Stupid issue (March 1974, Vol 1, No 48).[9]
Fumetti
Two of the many fumetti, also known as photo funnies, that Subitzky wrote were "The Perfect Date" and "Every Red-Blooded American Boy's Dream: Three Pretty Girls Doing Just What You Want So You Can Masturbate!"
Also in 1974, Subitzky wrote numerous sections of the National Lampoon book,The Job of Sex, which was a parody of The Joy of Sex.
His writing and cartooning were reprinted in many National Lampoonanthologies.
Other anthologies
Pieces of his have been included in several other anthologies, including the 1990 Harper/Collins Big Book of New American Humor, and more than one cartoon collection edited by the cartoonist Sam Gross.
A comic drawn by Subitzky in 1972 piece entitled "Two-headed Sam in the Singles Bar!" was included in the large-format book The Someday Funnies, which was finally published in 2011. The book was a collection of creative commentary on the 1960s, the content having been collected and compiled by Michel Choquette during the 1970s. The Someday Funnies included pieces by William Burroughs, Federico Fellini, Tom Wolfe, Frank Zappa, and 165 others.
Works for radio
National Lampoon radio
Subitzky was a writer for and an occasional performer on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which ran for just over a year in 1973 to 1974. He conceptualized and wrote all, or nearly all, of the “Public Disservice Announcements” (which were parodies of public service announcements), as well as a number of other pieces. Some selections from the Radio Hour work appeared on the CD albumGold Turkey.
Subitzky also conceived, wrote, and starred in a one-hour, two-episode radio play broadcast on The National Lampoon Radio Hour in 1974. The play was entitled The Sluts from Space and it was a spoof of popular science-fiction/horror dramas. The two half-hour episodes aired on May 25 and June 2. Subitzky voiced the part of the science-nerd hero, Timmy Johnson, who by clever control of the supply of deodorants, manages to save the world from alien invaders disguised as beautiful and seductive women. The Sluts from Space episodes of the show are listed in detail at: and .
Horror stories
In 1980, Subitzky wrote numerous pieces for a nationally syndicated series of five-minute horror stories, which were broadcast on radio. The series was entitled The Nightwatch. Some of these stories were also made available on an album by Clack, Inc., called Ten Horror Stories: For Radio.[10]
National Lampoon comedy albums
Subitzky conceived and wrote two National Lampoon albums:
In 1980, Subitzky was hired as a comedy writer on The David Letterman Show (the morning show), where he helped create "The Imposter," a series of comedy sketches about a person who pretends to be celebrities in order to get on television. During the sketches, Letterman always completely accepts the fake identity that the Imposter has presented. Subitzky was soon asked to actually play the character of the Imposter, which he did four times on the morning show. He also reprised the role twelve more times on Late Night with David Letterman.[11]
For the sketches, in most cases Subitzky wore his own clothes, and there was usually no attempt to make him look like the person he was purporting to be. However, when he was claiming to be James Clavell, Subitzky wore a tuxedo, and when pretending to be Don Henley, he was dressed in a leather motorcycle jacket and a black sequined teeshirt. When Subitzky was announced as being the viewer Elizabeth Callahan, he appeared in full drag and makeup, however, his real-life moustache was clearly visible. As Santa Claus, Subitzky wore a full Santa costume, beard and hair, and, as the U.S. Airforce Academy Choir, he wore a chorister's robe.
At the end of the first three sketches that were made, Subitzky left the stage via the same entrance that he came in at, i.e. via the wings, however by the 4th sketch and for all the subsequent sketches, Subitzky left the stage by walking up the aisle through the audience, apologizing profusely to audience members as he went along.
For the first three sketches, Subitzky had claimed to be just one celebrity, but by sketch number four he claimed to be two people simultaneously. Late in the series of sketches he claimed to be an entire choir of children.
On The David Letterman Show
The following four Imposter sketches ran on episodes of the morning show, The David Letterman Show (which ran from June 23 to October 24, 1980):
July 2, 1980: Ed Subitzky as the singer Donna Summer
July 18, 1980: Ed Subitzky as the actor Gary Coleman
July 24, 1980: Ed Subitzky as the actress Suzanne Somers
August 5, 1980: Ed Subitzky as actor Burt Reynolds and actress Sally Field (who were a couple at the time)
The morning show was cancelled in October 1980, after only 18 weeks on the air. And it was not until early in 1982 that the first Letterman evening show, Late Night with David Letterman, started airing.
On Late Night with David Letterman
The following twelve Imposter sketches ran on Late Night with David Letterman (a show which ran from February 1, 1982, to June 25, 1993):
July 29, 1982: Ed Subitzky as viewer Elizabeth Callahan of Champion, Pennsylvania
October 4, 1982: Ed Subitzky ask the comedian Bob Hope
December 20, 1982: Ed Subitzky as the U.S. Airforce Academy Choir
December 21, 1982: Ed Subitzky as the Brooke Shields doll (a doll altered to look like Subitzky)
February 4, 1983: Ed Subitzky, in what is claimed to be the First Anniversary edition of the show, is announced as being the singer Bruce Springsteen, who is arriving in a limousine as one of many celebrities who will be attending the anniversary party.
February 4, 1983: Also in the same show (The First Anniversary edition) clips are shown of problems that Letterman says had to be edited out of some of the previous shows. Letterman explains that the following clip was an example of "audience rowdiness". Subitzky is shown as having been fatally shot through the chest with an arrow by an audience member.
February 4, 1984: A year later it is the Second Anniversary of the show, which is cause for another party. During the closing sequence, Subitzky is visible (mostly from behind) as a guest at that party.[12]
(When Letterman moved from NBC to CBS, the name of Letterman's show was changed to the Late Show with David Letterman, which ran from August 30, 1993, to May 20, 2015, when Letterman retired. However, Subitzky did not appear on that show.)
Cartoons on The New York Times op-ed page
During the 1990s, Subitzky had seven cartoons published as "Op-Art" on the op-ed page of The New York Times. The titles of the pieces were:
February 22, 1997: Too Many Lawyers
June 27, 1997: The First signs of Global Warming in New York
September 27, 1997: After Managed Care
November 22, 1997: Sure-fire Ways to improve the I.R.S.
February 16, 1998: Other Pedestrian Safety Measures
August 15, 1998: Some More Ways to Improve Our Taxi Service
October 9, 1998: Still More... Reasons for Impeachment and For Either Party... Safe Choices for 2000
Cartoons and humor for magazines other than National Lampoon
Before National Lampoon started running Subitzky's work, back in 1968 and 1969 Subitzky had two cartoons published in Cavalier. In 1970, six of his cartoons were published in Scanlan's Monthly, and one cartoon of his was published in The Magazine, probably in 1971.
The New Yorker
Two of Subitzky's cartoons ran in The New Yorker. One was a cartoon which The New Yorker bought from Subitzky in 1974, in order to hand it over to Charles Addams, so Addams could draw it up as if it had been his own idea (apparently this kind of thing was not uncommon in Addams's later years). That cartoon was published in the August 12, 1974, issue of The New Yorker. It shows an invisible man begging, with a hand-drawn sign that says, "BE THANKFUL YOU CAN BE SEEN, GOD BLESS YOU.
The other cartoon of Subitzky's that was in The New Yorker was run normally under Subitzky's own name. That one, "Cinema East Schedule", ran in the August 26, 1974, issue.
Cartoons for other magazines
Subitzky's cartoons have appeared in several other magazines.
During the 1990s, five written humor pieces of Subitzky's appeared in Cracked:
In 1994, "What if Comic Strips...Guest Stars"
In 1996, "What Really Happens When...",
"Dirty Jokes from other Galaxies", and
"Miranda Rights for Everyday Living"
In 1998, "Paper Airplane"
Science-related work
Starting during the 1990s, Subitzky has created a number of science-related pieces for outlets other than National Lampoon.
Letters to New Scientist
Starting in 1997, but primarily since 2012, Subitzky has had over 20 letters, some humorous, and some serious, primarily about ideas in physics and cosmology, published in the international science magazine, New Scientist, and he has also had one letter published in Science News.
Journal of Irreproducible Results
In 1991, Subitzky co-wrote a science humor piece for the science humor magazine Journal of Irreproducible Results entitled, “A Call For More Scientific Truth in Product Warning Labels”, by Susan Hewitt and Edward Subitzky. This piece was subsequently quoted by both New Scientist and Atlantic Monthly. More than 20 years after the piece was first published, it was still featured (both with and without its title, attribution, and introduction) on hundreds of websites, including versions translated into Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, and Spanish.
Philosophy-related work
Subitzky has had a life-long interest in both science and philosophy, and he is especially fascinated by the very challenging "hard problem" of consciousness, i.e. why there is a subjective component to experience. Because of these interests, in 2003, Subitzky started contributing to the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS), an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed academic journal that is dedicated entirely to the field of consciousness studies. JCS is published by Imprint Academic, of Exeter, England.
Journal of Consciousness Studies
Subitzky at his drawing table in 2012, working on a JCS comic strip
From 2003 to 2016, Subitzky had nine drawn pieces and ten written pieces published in the Journal of Consciousness Studies. All the pieces made serious points, although some had a humorous perspective. The pieces included an essay, a visual essay, cartoons, comic strips, science-fiction short stories, a poem, and a fictional research paper. All of the pieces contain philosophical commentary on theories concerning the nature of consciousness.
In chronological order, Subitzky's JCS pieces were:
2003: * "I am a conscious essay", an essay, Volume 10, No. 12, December, pp.64–66
2004: A single-panel untitled cartoon (man enclosed in his own thought balloon) was used as a frontispiece for the journal, Volume 11, No. 9, September, frontispiece
2005: In 2005, the same untitled cartoon about consciousness (man enclosed in his own thought balloon) was used as cover art for What does it all mean? A humanistic account of human experience by William A. Adams, 2005, 250 pages, published by Imprint Academic; "Inkland", a 4-page comic strip, Volume 12, No. 12, December, pp.80–83
2006: "The Voyage", a science fiction short story, Volume 13 No. 9, October, pp.87–89
2008: "The Experiment", another science fiction short story, Volume 15, No. 4, April, pp.83–85
2009: "Mirage", a poem, Volume 15, No. 12, December
2010: A single-panel cartoon on the subject of the Turing test was used as the cover art for a double issue of JCS, and a more complete version was printed inside: Untitled cover art ("A man gives himself the Turing test ... and passes"), Volume 17, No. 1–2, January–February, cover and p.228 , "Consciousness Puzzle Page" (part 1) cartoon page, Volume 17, No. 9-10, September–October, p.229 , , "Consciousness Puzzle Page" (part 2) cartoon page, Volume 17, No. 11-12, November–December, p.180
2012: "The Big Question", a single-panel cartoon, Volume 19, No. 3–4, March–April, p.244, "A Man of Letters", a two-page comic strip, Volume 19, No. 9–10, September–October, pp.237–238
2013: "Consciousness Puzzle Page" (part 4) cartoon page, Volume 20, No. 1–2, January–February, p.226, "Report from the Future", an imaginary research paper entitled, "An examination of conscigenesis in an artificially created quantum mechanical universe: a physical perspective" by Kranz Tullen, Bvorn Ellin & Shan Tavid, Volume 20, No. 3–4, pp.230–232, "Where am I?" a two-page visual essay, Volume 20, No. 9-10, September–October, pp.206–207
2016: "The Reader", a two page comic strip, Volume 23, No. 3–4, pp.264–265, "Word Play", a two-page comic strip, Volume 23, No. 9–10, pp.254–255
Film-related work
Subitzky conceived, wrote, and did the original drawings for, a short animated film which was then produced, and subsequently bought by Saturday Night Live, but was not aired. He co-wrote a screenplay, which was bought but not produced. He also wrote the lyrics for a country song which appeared as background music in a bar scene in another film (Kandyland, 1987).[13][14]
Character modeling and acting in a commercial
Subitzky appeared in National Lampoon magazine as a character model in editorial photographs 54 times. In 1977, he appeared on the cover of the book National Lampoon The Gentleman's Bathroom Companion as the Ty-D-Bol man (a spoof of commercials for a blue-tinted toilet bowl cleaner).
In 1988, he was featured on the cover of the March–April issue of National Lampoon magazine, as a disappointed television viewer .
During the 1990s, Subitzky occasionally worked for the modeling agency FunnyFace Today, appearing in editorial images in a few publications, including Redbook.
2006 parody in POX
In 2006, an Australian magazine, POX, ran a multipage National Lampoon magazine parody, which included a take-off of Subitzky's comic strips.
2010 book Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead
A chapter about Subitzky (pages 208 – 213) forms part of the 2010 coffee-table book about the early years of National Lampoon magazine, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made the National Lampoon Insanely Great by Rick Meyerowitz.
2011 book The Someday Funnies
A one-page comic strip by Subitzky is included in the book The Someday Funnies, a collection of original comics about the 1960s, edited by Michel Choquette. It was released by Abrams on November 1, 2011. Other contributors included the writer William Burroughs, the filmmaker Federico Fellini, the writer Tom Wolfe, and the musician Frank Zappa.
2011 Lynda Barry book Blabber, Blabber, Blabber
On page 13 of her 2011 book, Blabber, Blabber, Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything, American cartoonist Lynda Barry lists Subitzky as one of her early influences:
"By the time I graduated from high school I knew about bitter and sweet, but thanks to cartoonists like M.K. Brown, Gahan Wilson, and Ed Subitzky, I also knew about weird and rare and hilarious ways of changing one into the other. These three cartoonists taught me to watch the people around me and listen to how they talk and to write down what they say. But I learned the most by copying their drawings, and these three were especially good teachers." And on page 114 of the same book, Barry says, "...the first drawings I copied would leave traces in my work and drawing style that were unshakable and strong."[15]
2013 anthology Black Eye 2
A one-page comic strip by Subitzky was featured on page 18 of Black Eye 2, a limited-edition anthology of black humor.[16]
On stage at the April 2015 Tribeca Film Festival where the documentary film "National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead" was shown, Subitzky is the second on the left, in beige.
In 2015, a documentary film entitled National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead was released. The film is about how National Lampoon and its contributors changed American humor. The film features clips from interviews with many of the magazine's major artists and writers, including Subitzky.[18]
In 2022, Subitzky was approached by New York Review Comics, the comics imprint of New York Review of Books (NYRB) (nybooks.com is the website of the company that publishes the New York Review of Books magazine). NYRB was interested in creating a retrospective volume of Subitzky's humor work. The idea of a book about Subitzky's work was suggested to NYRB by the underground cartoonist Mark Newgarden, who had been a fan of Subitzky's for many years, and who ended up creating an interview with Subitzky which became an essential part of the book.
A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.
National Lampoon was an American humor magazine that ran from 1970 to 1998. The magazine started out as a spinoff from The Harvard Lampoon.
Addison Morton Walker was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips Beetle Bailey in 1950 and Hi and Lois in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips.
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons or comics. Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literary and graphic components of the work as part of their practice.
Crazy Magazine is an illustrated satire and humor magazine that was published by Marvel Comics from 1973 to 1983 for a total of 94 regular issues. It was preceded by two standard-format comic books titled Crazy. The magazine's format followed in the tradition of Mad, Sick, Cracked and National Lampoon.
Michael O'Donoghue was an American writer and performer.
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book Mad from 1952 until 1956, and writing the Little Annie Fanny strips in Playboy from 1962 until 1988. His work is noted for its satire and parody of popular culture, social critique, and attention to detail. Kurtzman's working method has been likened to that of an auteur, and he expected those who illustrated his stories to follow his layouts strictly.
Shary Flenniken is an American editor-writer-illustrator and underground cartoonist. After joining the burgeoning underground comics movement in the early 1970s, she became a prominent contributor to National Lampoon and was one of the editors of the magazine for two years.
M. K. Brown is an American cartoonist and painter whose work has appeared in many publications, including National Lampoon (1972–1981), Mother Jones, Wimmen's Comix, The New Yorker, Playboy, among others. She has written several books, created animations for The Tracey Ullman Show, and was a contributing artist to the "comic jam" graphic novel The Narrative Corpse. She is also an accomplished painter with work in galleries and many private collections.
Fred Hembeck is an American cartoonist best known for his parodies of characters from major American comic book publishers. His work has frequently been published by the firms whose characters he spoofs. His characters are always drawn with curlicues at the elbows and knees. He often portrays himself as a character in his own work, in the role of "interviewer" of various comic book characters. Interviewer Daniel Best has said of his work, "If you take your comic books seriously, and think that those characters are real, then you're probably not a fan of Hembeck."
"Superduperman" is a satirical story by Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood that was published in the fourth issue of Mad. Lampooning both Superman and Captain Marvel, it revolutionized the types of stories seen in Mad, leading to greatly improved sales. Writers such as Alan Moore have cited this story as an influence.
National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor is an American humor book that was first published in 1973 in hardback. It was a "special issue" of National Lampoon magazine, so it was sold on newsstands; however, it was put out in addition to the regular issues of the magazine.
National Lampoon The Gentleman's Bathroom Companion was a humorous book that was first published in 1975. It was a "special edition" of National Lampoon magazine, and as such it was sold on newsstands in addition to that month's regular issue of the magazine. The pieces in the book were created by regular contributors to the National Lampoon including Michael O'Donoghue, Henry Beard, Doug Kenney, Sean Kelly, Tony Hendra, P.J. O'Rourke and Ed Subitzky as well as Terry Southern and William Burroughs. The content was mostly, but not entirely, compiled from material that had already been published in the magazine.
National Lampoon Tenth Anniversary Anthology 1970–1980 was an American humor book that was published in hardback in December 1979 by Simon & Schuster. Although it appeared to be a regular book, it was a "special issue" of National Lampoon magazine. It was available for purchase on newsstands, not in bookstores. The National Lampoon "special issues" were published in addition to the 12 regular monthly issues of the magazine.
National Lampoon Comics was an American book, an anthology of comics; it was published in 1974 in paperback. The book was art directed by Michael C. Gross and David Kaestle.
The Official National Lampoon Car Stereo Test & Demonstration Tape is a comedy album in cassette tape format which was put out by National Lampoon magazine in 1980. The album was a follow-up to the Official National Lampoon Stereo Test and Demonstration Record, which was released in 1974. The tape is however a completely different album consisting of entirely new material.
The Best of National Lampoon #3 was an American humor book published in 1973. The book was an anthology of articles from National Lampoon magazine. It was sold on newsstands, but was published in parallel with the regular issues of the magazine. The book is a "best-of" compilation of pieces that had already been published in the National Lampoon. The pieces were from various 1971 and 1972 (monthly) issues of the magazine.
Robert Leighton is an American cartoonist, writer, artist, puzzle writer, illustrator, and humorist. He lives and works in New York City. His cartoons have appeared regularly in The New Yorker and other periodicals. In 1996, with Mike Shenk and Amy Goldstein, Leighton co-founded Puzzability, a puzzle-writing company. As part of Puzzability, Leighton has coauthored many books of puzzles, as well as puzzle-oriented Op-Ed pieces for The New York Times.
Poor Helpless Comics!: The Cartoons of Ed Subitzky is a retrospective book of the humor work of cartoonist and writer Ed Subitzky. The book is published by the New York Review Books imprint New York Review Comics, and was released on October 10, 2023. The blurbs on the back cover were written by cartoonists Lynda Barry and Roz Chast and comedy writer and producer Mike Reiss of The Simpsons.
↑ Blabber, Blabber, Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything, Lynda Barry, 31 October 2011, page 13 & page 114, Drawn and Quarterly Comics and Graphic Novels, ISBN1770460527; ISBN978-1770460522
↑ Black Eye 2: Anthology of Humor and Despair edited by Ryan Standfest, June 2013, Rotland Press, Detroit, ISBN978-0-615-80156-8
↑ That's Not Funny, That's Sick; The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream by Ellin Stein, June 2013, W.W. Norton & company, New York, London, ISBN978-0-393-07409-3
↑ Yahoo! Movies, "Check Out the "Animal House" Style Poster for the New "National Lampoon" Documentary" by Jordan Zakarin, January 24, 2015, Accessed 8 April 2015
External links
Currently this is the major, and definitive, Lampoon information site
Shows all the Lampoon covers
One of many sites which show the "product warning labels" piece
Saturday Night on Antarius! (The Planet with 12 Different Sexes), a four-page comic
Josh Karp, 2004 Chicago Review Press, A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever, Chicago Review Press, 2006, ISBN1-55652-602-4, ISBN978-1-55652-602-2
Matty Simmons, 1994, Barricade Books, If You Don't Buy This Book We'll Kill This Dog: Life, Laughs, Love and Death at the National LampoonISBN1-56980-002-2; ISBN978-1-56980-002-7
COOKE, Jon B., April 2003, Comic Book Artist, 24, "Ed Subitzky Interview: A mind for mirth, the nicest cartoonist in comic book history off the top of his head"
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