The National Lampoon

The National Lampoon was a long running humor magazine that was most popular in the 70s and 80s. Nowadays, most people only know the name from the movies it spawned, most notably ANIMAL HOUSE and the Chevy Chase VACATION series.
The humor was often thrown at you with no holds barred, with virtually no subjects being taboo. They made fun of everything.
At times they could be perverse, rude, offensive, or surreal; sometimes all of that in one issue.
I've decided not to show any of the really raunchy ones here, but if any one of these offend you, trust me, they had done worse.

from NATIONAL LAMPOON'S CARTOON BOOK: THE BEST OF 18 YEARS, 1988

This first batch were done by Tom Cheney, John Jonik, and Robert Mankoff.



"The Appletons" by B.K. Taylor ran for a good number of years in the magazine and gained quite a following, it's surprising there's no collection available. Besides his comic work, he has an equally devoted following amongst trading card collectors for his ZERO HEROES and ODD RODS series.




"Trots and Bonnie" by Shary Flenniken was another perennial staple, albeit notorious for being a bit too risque at times. Not shown here, but it featured some very adult situations a few times.



Charles Rodrigues was a rather prolific cartoonist whose work appeared almost everywhere. The one thing about his work that always struck me was that he really didn't care if anyone else got the joke but him.





These next two were done by John Caldwell and (again) Tom Cheney.



Gahan Wilson of course needs no introduction, as his decades-long association with PLAYBOY magazine has cemented his spot in the Cartoonists Hall Of Fame. This strip, "Nuts", ran for years as well.



Fans of alternative and independent comics have probably heard of this guy (Rick Geary) by now. If not, shame on you.



"Dirty Duck" by Bobby London was another regular feature. Like a lot of the old National Lampoon contributors, he now sells cartoons to PLAYBOY.



Finally, this one depicts how most people responded to the magazine.
By Peter Steiner.


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