Former publisher of the National Lampoon Matty Simmons has died at the age of 93. Besides helping to found the magazine with editors Henry Beard, Doug Kenney, and Rob Hoffman, Simmons was responsible for taking National Lampoon to Hollywood with the hit comedy Animal House and the Vacation movie series. New York Times Obituary LA
I can’t believe I forgot about this, but someone in one of the comment threads reminded me. Fifty years ago this month, the first issue of National Lampoon hit the stands. (Read the inside story of that first cover here.) So far, I haven’t seen any notice of this in the media. But it’s not
Reader Cullum Rogers, who runs the amazing Magazine Parody website, recently did a detailed post about a NatLamp subscription promo from the late seventies that was probably not widely seen. It’s a parody of the typical Publisher’s Clearing House sweepstakes offer that was so ubiquitous back then. As a NatLamp subscriber at the time, I
Q: Do you remember a cartoon from around 1973 where there are two bathroom stalls and the one guy is asking the other if he has TP, and finally asks if has singles for a $20 bill? The artist might have been Sam Gross or Charles Rodrigues. A: That would be “Farouk Comix” by Yossarian
A collection of Shary Flenniken’s Trots and Bonnie strips is coming out in September. More info at Amazon and Penguin/Random House. (Thanks to Joseph for the tip.)
Cartoonist Gahan Wilson, who was a frequent contributor to National Lampoon, passed away yesterday at the age of 89. The announcement appeared this morning on the fundraising site set up by his stepson Paul Winters to help pay for his memory care. Update: Gahan’s New York Times obituary.
At long last, a collection of B.K. Taylor’s National Lampoon comics will be published. For years, readers of my site have asked about such a collection and it’s finally happening. Taylor created both “The Appletons” and “Timberland Tales” comic strips which appeared for over a decade in the Funny Pages section of National Lampoon, generally
Reader David Beckham sent me a link to a nice video tribute he made about Michael Gross. (Gross died in 2015 of cancer.)
Q: I have been looking for the longest time for the Wood Village “live” performance—the 1971 one, not the 1973 one I usually find—of Lemmings wherein Belushi summarizes today’s PC idiotology: “if you’re not a third world black lesbian you deserve to die”. It could be on one of the officially-released LPs or in the Radio
I’ve been on the email list for the Gahan Wilson Fundraiser (see below or here), and today the guy running it, Gahan’s step-son Paul, posted a link to an interview with Gahan from back in 2011 for the Mr. Media podcast. It’s mostly about his relationship with Playboy magazine, but National Lampoon comes up a
