Author: Mark

You might think, as you wade through this site, that I have no life. Not true. I spend about two days a year working on Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site. The rest of the time I spend making fonts. (Like that's any better.)

Sam Gross, R.I.P.

Sam Gross, probably the most iconic of all the single-panel National Lampoon cartoonists, has died at the age of 89. Sam’s work appeared in the magazine almost from the beginning, starting with the May 1970 Vol. 1, No. 2 (“Greed”) issue, and then regularly thereafter, well into the 1990s when it finally ceased publication. He

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Bruce McCall, R.I.P.

Bruce McCall, a frequent contributor to National Lampoon in the seventies and into the eighties, has died at age 87. McCall both wrote and illustrated most of his articles and was especially known for what he called “retro futurism”, which he described as a vision of the future seen through the eyes of the past.

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Sean Kelly, R.I.P.

Sean Kelly, editor of National Lampoon in the seventies and early eighties, has died at age 81. Sean Kelly was involved with National Lampoon from nearly the start. His earliest byline appears in the July 1970 (Bad Taste) issue. He was soon on staff, eventually becoming Senior Editor in 1977 until he left the magazine in 1984.

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P.J. O’Rourke, R.I.P.

P.J. O’Rourke, one of the best-known contributors to National Lampoon, has died of lung cancer at age 74. (NY Times obit here; Reason magazine video tribute here.) He began writing for the magazine in 1972, became executive editor in 1973, managing editor in 1976, and finally editor-in-chief from 1978 through 1981. As far as I

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New National Lampoon Issue Listing

You may have noticed that, while I do provide listings (some of them detailed) for many issues of National Lampoon, they only cover the first five years of the magazine—1970–1975, or what I call the Golden Age. Obviously, the magazine continued to be published for another twenty plus years. So, my listings aren’t much help

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R.I.P. Anne Beatts

Anne Beatts, regular contributing editor in the early years of National Lampoon, has died at the age of 74. She was also one of writers of Saturday Night Live in its first few seasons and created the tv series Square Pegs in 1982. (NY Times obit here.) She was born in upstate New York, but

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Tony Hendra, R.I.P.

Tony Hendra passed away at the age of 79 on March 4, 2021. You can read the full obituary at The New York Times. Hendra was a contributing editor from 1970-71, managing editor in 1972, an editor from 1973-76, and senior editor in 1977, after which he parted ways with the magazine. In his early

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