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.)

Is Your Name Tim Murphy?

I tried answering the question you emailed me recently, but your email address is no good, so my reply could not be delivered. If you want the answer, try again from a valid email address. If your name is not Tim Murphy, never mind.

Matty Simmons, R.I.P.

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

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Happy 50th, National Lampoon!

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

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NatLamp Subscription Promos

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

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Gahan Wilson, R.I.P.

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.

B.K. Taylor Book to Be Published

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

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