CBA Interview
Subitzky: A Mind for Mirth The nicest cartoonist in comics history off the top of his head Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Brian K. Morris Ed Subitzky is a very cool guy. Sure, there’s a bookish aspect about him—hell, Ed studied mathematics! A discipline hardly common among cartoonists—and he is blessed with a sense of humility most of us would benefit to emulate. In getting to know the artist/writer, you begin to realize what a brilliant man he is and, though Ed tells us he’s shy, you learn what an awesome life he’s led thus far! From seeking out satirical genius Harvey Kurtzman as a teen, to holding his own among the stellar humorists at NatLamp, to being a recurring guest on the David Letterman Show, Ed is simply an American original… and, yep, a most righteously cool dude, as well. Many thanks to his domestic partner, Susan Hewitt (who joins in on the conversation here and there) for her welcome assistance. This interview took place via telephone on Sept. 23, 2002, and was copyedited by Ed.
Above: Not only was Stylin’
Subitzky a NatLamp contributor, and frequent guest on the Dave Letterman Show, but Ed’s also a photographer’s model! Here’s a recent head shot of the multi-talented cartoonist! Courtesy of Ed Subitzky and Susan Hewitt.
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Comic Book Artist: When were you born, Ed? Ed Subitzky: I was born in 1943. CBA: Were you an only child? Ed: No, I have a brother and sister, and I’m the oldest. CBA: Were you creative as a child? Ed: I like to think so. [laughs] I was always writing. There were two things I loved as a child as far back as I can remember: drawing and writing. I was always borrowing typewriters to write anything I could at any time, and always drawing whenever I could get a chance. CBA: What did you write? Ed: I’d make a family newspaper that my cousins and I used to mail out to every member of our family. CBA: How did you duplicate it? Ed: I remember they were typed, and that we put a huge amount of carbons and paper into the typewriter, and just pounded the keys as hard as we could. [laughter] That’s way before word processing or even electric typewriters. I was probably about 12 or 13 years old then. CBA: Did you become an accomplished typist early on? Ed: Today, I’m real fast but I type with two fingers. CBA: Yeah, me too. Ed: I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one. [laughs] CBA: Yeah, I used to be a touch typist, but I had to stop because I was getting all the sh*tty jobs. [laughs] So what was the content? Was it factual or
humorous? Ed: I was talking about this with a cousin just two weeks ago: The whole idea of the paper was that it contained super sleazy material; it was pure sleaze. [laughter] We would listen in on the conversations of the adults and try to find anything foolish, or possibly vaguely sexual that they might say. We could tattle about everybody we’d talk into subscribing. I think we charged something like a nickel for a subscription. The subscribers were mostly adults. CBA: I take it the adults had a sense of humor about being ridiculed? Ed: Well, a couple did and a couple didn’t. [laughter] It varied per person. CBA: How long did the newsletter run? Ed: It lasted a couple of years. We did it every couple of months. CBA: Did you stray into fictional territory or feature satire? Ed: No, not at all. Though when I was 14 or 15, I did write a very satirical magazine for one of my good friends at the time. It was full of fake advertisements, supposedly funny articles, drawings, and stuff like that. There was quite a lot of satire in it. CBA: You started drawing as a little kid? Ed: I was always drawing from as early as I can remember. I grabbed all the paper that I could and I’d draw and draw away. CBA: Did you share your drawings with family? Ed: Not really. I had the kind of upbringing where my folks kind of poo-pooed all that, and so it wasn’t very inviting to share it with them. CBA: What were their hopes for you? Ed: They never fully expressed it, but probably they wanted me to become a dentist, or something like that. [laughs] CBA: What was your father’s job? Ed: He was a glazer. He had a store where he sold glass to the public and I used to hang out at the store a lot. I remember the glass came in these wooden boxes, and between every two or three panes of glass, there was a piece of paper that was the same area as the glass, used, I guess, to protect it. I would go into the boxes, separate the glass very carefully with my hands and pull out the big pieces of paper, drag them back into this little office, and spend hours and hours drawing on these oversized sheets. [laughs] It wasn’t the usual sort of drawing paper, but it sufficed! CBA: Did you save any of your drawings? Ed: None of it. None whatsoever. CBA: Did you have any exposure to Harvey Kurtzman and Mad comics? Ed: In those days, I cannot tell you the extent to which I worshiped Mad—I still love those old Mads, actually—and those were the days when Mad comics had merged into the magazine. I worshiped Kurtzman like nobody could worship anybody. A friend of mine at the time happened to live across the street from Harvey in Mount Vernon, and he invited me over to meet Harvey! I was probably 14 years old, or 15. Of course, it was like meeting God! I was a nervous wreck. [laughter] It was like meeting the creator of the universe himself. And it just so happened that another person I adored more than any other was also there, Will Elder! I was just completely freaked out. So Elder shook my hand, and I remember saying to him, “I cannot believe I’m shaking the hand that did all those drawings!” [laughs] I was just utterly overwhelmed. I showed Harvey some humor pieces I had written, and I asked Harvey if he would take a look at them, and he agreed. So I gave him a bunch of stuff, and he didn’t like my material. I was, of course, devastated. COMIC BOOK ARTIST 24
April 2003