Ed Subitzky, full name Edward Jack Subitzky (born March 19, 1943), is an American writer and artist. He is best known as a cartoonist, comics artist, and humorist. He has worked as a television comedy writer and performer, a writer and performer of radio comedy, and a writer of radio drama. He has also created comedy and humor in other media. Subitzky 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 long-term contributing editor at National Lampoon magazine, where he worked with many well-regarded humor and comedy creators including Henry Beard, Doug Kenney, Michael O'Donoghue, P. J. O'Rourke, and Michael Gross. Subitzky also wrote for, and voice acted with National Lampoon comedy performers John Belushi and Chevy Chase, in many episodes of the National Lampoon Radio Hour. Subitzky also directed John Belushi and Chevy Chase on Subitzky's Lampoon comedy record album, the Official National Lampoon Stereo Test and Demonstration Record.
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. 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. 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.
In 2015, clips from an interview with Subitzky were used in the documentary film National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, and his likeness was used in one of the Rick Meyerowitz cartoon posters for the film.
In the fall of 2023, a retrospective book of Subitzky's humor work was published by the New York Review Books, see Poor Helpless Comics!.
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.
He was educated at what is now Binghamton University, where he was a mathematics 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. The classes were taught by Bob Blechman and Charles Slackman.
National Lampoon magazine
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. 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. 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".
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) and "Stupidworld" in the Stupid issue (March 1974, Vol 1, No 48).
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!"
