Ed Subitzky

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Ed Subitzky

A detail of a self-portrait from circa 1995
Born 1943
Mount Vernon, New York, U.S.
Occupation Writer, Cartoonist
Nationality American
Period 1968 – present
Genres Humor and comedy, also horror, fantasy, and philosophy

Ed Subitzky, full name Edward Jack Subitzky (born March 19, 1943), is an American writer and artist, who is best known as a cartoonist,[1] comics artist, and humorist/humor writer. He has also worked as a television comedy writer and performer, a writer and performer of radio comedy, and a writer of radio drama, as well as creating comedy and humor in various other media. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and the Writers Guild of America.

In the early 1970s, Subitzky became a contributing editor at National Lampoon magazine,[2] where he worked with many well-regarded humor and comedy creators such as Henry Beard, Doug Kenney, Michael O'Donoghue, P. J. O'Rourke, Michael Gross, and comedy performers including John Belushi and Chevy Chase. As well as his work for the magazine, Subitzky contributed to many other National Lampoon projects.

Subsequently 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.

Since 2003 he has contributed fourteen pieces (some written and some drawn) on the subject of consciousness to a serious science journal, the JCS.[4]

For many years Subitzky had 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.

He was educated at what is now Binghamton University, where he was a math major who also took many philosophy courses.

A few years later he moved into Manhattan, and took cartooning classes at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). The classes were taught by Bob Blechman and Charles Slackman.

National Lampoon magazine

Subitzky ended up doing a great deal of work for National Lampoon magazine. His contributions primarily consisted of comic strips, cartoons and humor writing.

His connection with the magazine was first established in 1972, when contributing editor Michel Choquette of National Lampoon magazine visited the SVA cartooning class that Subitzky was part of (p. 47, Levin, 2009). 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.[5] His name remained on the masthead of National Lampoon all through the 70s, through the decline of the magazine in the 1980s, and almost up to the point of its eventual demise.

Comic strips

Subitzky's approximately 100 comic strips for the Lampoon included “Saturday Night on Antarius!”, “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)[6] and "Stupidworld" in the "Stupid" issue (March 1974, Vol 1, No 48).[7]

Fumetti

Two out of many fumetti or photo funnies he 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!"

Lampoon books

In 1974, Subitzky wrote two sections of the infamous National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook Parody: the first piece in the yearbook, which is the Principal's letter, and "In Memorium" [sic], which is a parody of a student In Memoriam piece.

In the same year Subitzky wrote numerous sections of the Lampoon book,The Job of Sex, which was a parody of The Joy of Sex.

His writing and cartooning were reprinted in many National Lampoon anthologies.

Other books

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 collection edited by the cartoonist Sam Gross.

In 1972, a comic of Subitzky's, Two-headed Sam in the singles bar! was drawn especially for the comic book about the 1960s entitled "The Someday Funnies", which was put together by Michel Choquette during the 1970s, and which was finally published in 2011.

Works for radio

National Lampoon radio

Subitzky was a writer for and an occasional performer on The National Lampoon Radio Hour, which ran for a little 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 album Gold Turkey.

He also conceived, wrote, and starred in a one hour, two-episode radio play for The National Lampoon Radio Hour. The play was a spoof of popular science fiction/horror dramas, and it was entitled The Sluts from Space. The two episodes aired on May 25 and June 2 of 1974. 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, broadcast on radio. The series was entitled Nightwatch.

Comedy albums

Subitzky was the sole author of two National Lampoon comedy albums:

  • The Official National Lampoon Stereo Test and Demonstration Tape, 1980, on cassette tape for car stereo.

Television work with David Letterman

Comedy writing and performing

Subitzky was a comedy writer on The David Letterman Show for its first season on the air in 1982, and he also appeared on the show many times, in variations of a sketch which is sometimes referred to as “The Imposter". In these sketches, Letterman introduces Subitzky as someone else altogether, often a minor celebrity, and after a few minutes of interviewing, Subitzky breaks down and admits to Letterman that he had only pretended to be the other person so that he could be on television. He then runs through the audience apologizing abjectly.

Subitzky reprised this role in twelve more appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.

The New York Times Op/Ed page, and magazine work

During the 1990s, Subitzky had several Op/Art cartoons published on the Opinion/Editorial page of the New York Times.

His cartoons have also appeared in Natural History, The New Yorker, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, and some written pieces of his appeared in Cracked.

Science and philosophy-related work

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. Over 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.

Journal of Consciousness Studies

Since the year 2003, because of his life-long interest in science and philosophy, especially the "hard problem" of consciousness, Subitzky has been contributing to a peer reviewed academic journal, the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS), published by Imprint Academic, out of Exeter, England.

Subitzky has had 10 drawn pieces and 5 written pieces published in JCS. Some of these pieces are humorous, and some are more serious. In chronological order they are:

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

2011

  • "Consciousness Puzzle Page" (part 3) cartoon page, Volume 18, No. 3-4, March/April, p 234

2012

  • "The Big Question", a single panel cartoon, Volume 19, No. 3–4, March–April, p. 244
  • "A Man of Letters", a 2-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 poem, Volume 20, No. 9-10, pp 206–207

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).[8][9]

Character modeling

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 a few publications including Redbook.

In the 1980s Subitzky was the sole actor in a television commercial for a video game called Mountain King.

2006 parody in POX

In 2006, an Australian magazine, POX, ran a multi-page National Lampoon magazine parody, which included a take-off of Subitzky's comic strips.

2010 book Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead

A chapter about Ed Subitzky (pages 208 – 213) is included in 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, which was released by Abrams on November 1, 2011.

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 Ed 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."

On page 114 of the same book, talking about her 1981 publication "Boys and Girls", Barry says, "Here is what I know now that I did not know then", and the third thing she lists is, "That the first drawings I copied would leave traces in my work and drawing style that were unshakable and strong."[10]

2013 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.[11]

2013 book That's Not Funny, That's Sick

In June 2013, That's Not Funny, That's Sick; The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream, by Ellin Stein was published.[12] Subitzky is mentioned on pages 172 and 174 of the book.

References

  1. ↑ "Saturday Night on Antarius! The planet with 12 different sexes)" by Ed Subitzky for National Lampoon (magazine)
  2. ↑ The National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor, editor Michael O'Donoghue, 1973, table of contents, shown at "Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site" downloaded Aug 9, 2009
  3. ↑ section, "Theater of the Air" written 2009, downloaded Aug 9th 2009
  4. ↑ /Journal of Consciousness Studies December 2003, contents, listed under "Off the Page"]
  5. ↑ 's Very Large National Lampoon Site, table of contents for National Lampoon Issue September 1974, Vol. 1. No. 54
  6. ↑ Marksverylarge.com
  7. ↑ Marksverylarge.com
  8. ↑ Fandango.com
  9. ↑ VH1.com
  10. ↑ Blabber, Blabber, Blabber: Volume 1 of Everything, Lynda Barry, 31 October 2011, page 13 & page 114, Drawn and Quarterly Comics and Graphic Novels, ISBN 1770460527; ISBN 978-1770460522
  11. ↑ Black Eye 2: Anthology of Humor and Despair edited by Ryan Standfest, June 2013, Rotland Press, Detroit, ISBN 978-0-615-80156-8
  12. ↑ 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, ISBN 978-0-393-07409-3

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

Further reading

Books

Magazines and journals

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