Tom Tomas in comments mentioned the “I am blind and my dog is dead” cartoon by Sam Gross. Sam was a friend of mine. When I first started drawing cartoons I dreamed of one day meeting Sam. And I did back in 83 or 84. He was a heck of a character and one of my inspirations. 40 years ago I drew this one. Of course it was inspired by Sam’s I am blind and my dog is dead cartoon. My cartoon appeared in the Lampoon collection Cartoons We Dare Not Print. I think that was the title.
Later on when Lampoon was bought out I had to threaten to sue them to get my submissions back. The new owners were located in California. Remember Mell Lazarus? Miss Peach and Momma? He was also a friend of mine. His wife, Sally Mitchell, was not only a wonderful person like Mell, she was also a lawyer. BTW, another time several of my cartoonist friends had their original art work stolen it was by the Heritage Foundation. The magazine was The National Review. They wouldn’t return their work. I went into their office in DC and the guy there flat out lied to me. What pigs they were.
This is from August 2005
Good story today. When moving from Seattle to Arizona during the pandemic, I gave my collection of National Lampoons to a struggling used bookstore – they sold them within weeks. Looking over them, I had forgotten how gross they were. I loved ’em.
I never saw your cartoons in the National Review. Of course, I never read it, either.
I never submitted anything to the SOBs. But I published in all the major mags at that time except Playboy. That was because I previously had published in Penthouse. The
editor at Playboy was a gal named Michelle Ury, or something like that. She was an early centerfold. She refused to publish any cartoonist that had published in Penthouse. I think she made a big mistake with me. The bitch.