The American Bystander

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The American Bystander is a quarterly humor magazine in trade paperback book format. Edited and published by Michael Gerber, it features contributions from many notable comedy writers, illustrators and cartoonists. The Bystander is designed to provide a classic print humor magazine experience similar to that delivered by National Lampoon, SPY, Harold Hayes-era Esquire and many others in the pre-internet era. Yet according to The New York Times, The American Bystander "does not just belong to the tradition of defunct magazines like The National Lampoon and Spy. Its nostalgic, lightly witty style evokes influences that have been dead even longer, like the raconteur Jean Shepherd and the sophisticated stylist Robert Benchley."^[1]

The Bystander emerged after several years of planning by Gerber, head writer Brian McConnachie, and Alan Goldberg. Issue #1 was successfully funded on Kickstarter on November 13, 2015. This 146-page softcover book featured work by Jack Handey, George Meyer, Roz Chast, Terry Jones, and many others. Issue #2 successfully funded April 21, 2016, with material from even more contributors than the first, including Merrill Markoe, Simon Rich, Todd Hanson, Nell Scovell and a cover by Charles Barsotti. After the first two issues received a positive review in The New York Times in July 2016, issue #3 appeared in November 2016. Since then, issues of The Bystander have been produced on a roughly quarterly basis, increasing to bimonthly in 2019. The staff continues to increase: to date, over 250 writers and artists have contributed to the magazine. Issues are available via an permanent crowdfunding campaign via Patreon, as well as conventional bookstore channels; this allows the magazine to employ a "thousand true fans" model. It reached break-even in April 2019, a signal achievement for an independent, reader-funded magazine.

In an era of lightning-fast comedy shared over social media, "The editors of Bystander think of the quarterly as the comedy equivalent of 'slow food.'"^[2]