Ed Subitzky

Ed Subitzky
A detail of a self-portrait from circa 1995
A detail of a self-portrait from circa 1995
Born (1943-03-19) March 19, 1943 (age 81)
Mount Vernon, New York, United States
OccupationWriter, Cartoonist
Period1968 – present
GenreHumor and comedy, also horror, fantasy, and philosophy

Ed Subitzky, full name Edward Jack Subitzky (born March 19, 1943), is an American writer and artist. He is best known as a cartoonist,[1] 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,[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] 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.

  1. ^ "Saturday Night on Antarius! The planet with 12 different sexes)" by Ed Subitzky for National Lampoon (magazine)
  2. ^ "National Lampoon Encyclopedia of Humor, editor Michael O'Donoghue, 1973, table of contents, shown at "Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site" downloaded Aug 9, 2009". Archived from the original on February 10, 2009. Retrieved August 9, 2009.
  3. ^ section, "Theater of the Air"[permanent dead link‍] written 2009, downloaded August 9, 2009
  4. ^ Off The Page Archived 2008-04-02 at the Wayback Machine/Journal of Consciousness Studies December 2003, contents, listed under "Off the Page"