9th
![That cover cartoon! That’s by WFMU’s own Andy Breckman!
cherrypicker:
Army Man (tagline: “America’s Only Magazine”) was a short-lived comedy magazine published in the late 1980s by George Meyer, the acclaimed writer for The Simpsons.
The magazine consisted mostly of very short and very surreal jokes, along with some cartoons. Each issue also featured Jack Handey’s “Deep Thoughts.”
Although Army Man was never widely distributed, it gathered a lot of attention in the comedy world. A number of its writers—including John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, Ian Maxtone-Graham and David Sacks —were picked up alongside Meyer to write for The Simpsons by producer Sam Simon, an enormous fan of the magazine.[1] Other notable contributors included Andy Borowitz, Andy Breckman, Mark O’Donnell, Ian Frazier, Tom Gammill and Max Pross, Spike Feresten (credited as Mike Feresten), Billy Kimball and Bob Odenkirk.
Only three issues were ever published. The first issue was reprinted and included in the September 2004 issue of The Believer, which also featured interviews with Meyer and Frazier.
Yes. Yes. The scans are shitty. They are hard to read. And the jokes seem… well, odd, by today’s standards. But trust us when we say there would be few things that we here love without Army Man, George Meyer’s long-lost, totally brilliant, self-published zine from the late 1980s. These are the kinds of things that we look on eBay for futilely all the time and can never find. And yet—and YET—here they are, scanned for your enjoyment.
Squint, dive in, and wonder at the fact that this all predated the Simpsons, Arrested Development, and pretty much everything we think of as modern comedy.
Read More http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-q/2010/03/time-waster-of-the-day-army-man-magazine.html#ixzz1AXl6wLoT
Via GQ
Maud Newton has some excerpts from Army Man: You can make fun all you want, but when a zebra talks, people listen.
STRAY DIALOGUE
“The Nobel Prize! Gee, thanks, fellas!”
“Aw, you’re throwing up like a girl.”
“He’s got coffee lodged in his mouth! Quick, tell him a joke!”
AN AMUSING ANECDOTE
My wife and I rent a small cottage on the shimmering shores of Lake Superior every summer. The rustic little bungalow is made of rough-hewn logs chinked with mud, and the front door opens onto an unequaled vista of towering evergreens and azure water -— just the thing to settle the nerves of an addled contestant in the “rat race.”
Last summer my wife and I were merrily preparing a hearty supper of fresh-caught trout and corn on the cob, when who should wander up but a little old man with a bulging knapsack strapped to his ancient back. He looked like a crusty forest tracker from the days of Lewis and Clark. Hailing us from a distance, he approached our modest lakeside cabin and extended his weathered hand in greeting. Bending forward under the weight of his burden, he whispered something in my ear.
It was an amusing anecdote!
Discouraging news from researchers at Johns Hopkins: Hope causes cancer.
Via Boing Boing](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lerbimDXcX1qzomx8o1_400.png)
That cover cartoon! That’s by WFMU’s own Andy Breckman!
Army Man (tagline: “America’s Only Magazine”) was a short-lived comedy magazine published in the late 1980s by George Meyer, the acclaimed writer for The Simpsons.
The magazine consisted mostly of very short and very surreal jokes, along with some cartoons. Each issue also featured Jack Handey’s “Deep Thoughts.”
Although Army Man was never widely distributed, it gathered a lot of attention in the comedy world. A number of its writers—including John Swartzwelder, Jon Vitti, Ian Maxtone-Graham and David Sacks —were picked up alongside Meyer to write for The Simpsons by producer Sam Simon, an enormous fan of the magazine.[1] Other notable contributors included Andy Borowitz, Andy Breckman, Mark O’Donnell, Ian Frazier, Tom Gammill and Max Pross, Spike Feresten (credited as Mike Feresten), Billy Kimball and Bob Odenkirk.
Only three issues were ever published. The first issue was reprinted and included in the September 2004 issue of The Believer, which also featured interviews with Meyer and Frazier.
Via GQYes. Yes. The scans are shitty. They are hard to read. And the jokes seem… well, odd, by today’s standards. But trust us when we say there would be few things that we here love without Army Man, George Meyer’s long-lost, totally brilliant, self-published zine from the late 1980s. These are the kinds of things that we look on eBay for futilely all the time and can never find. And yet—and YET—here they are, scanned for your enjoyment.
Squint, dive in, and wonder at the fact that this all predated the Simpsons, Arrested Development, and pretty much everything we think of as modern comedy.
Read More http://www.gq.com/blogs/the-q/2010/03/time-waster-of-the-day-army-man-magazine.html#ixzz1AXl6wLoTMaud Newton has some excerpts from Army Man: You can make fun all you want, but when a zebra talks, people listen.
STRAY DIALOGUE
“The Nobel Prize! Gee, thanks, fellas!”
“Aw, you’re throwing up like a girl.”
“He’s got coffee lodged in his mouth! Quick, tell him a joke!”
AN AMUSING ANECDOTE
My wife and I rent a small cottage on the shimmering shores of Lake Superior every summer. The rustic little bungalow is made of rough-hewn logs chinked with mud, and the front door opens onto an unequaled vista of towering evergreens and azure water -— just the thing to settle the nerves of an addled contestant in the “rat race.”
Last summer my wife and I were merrily preparing a hearty supper of fresh-caught trout and corn on the cob, when who should wander up but a little old man with a bulging knapsack strapped to his ancient back. He looked like a crusty forest tracker from the days of Lewis and Clark. Hailing us from a distance, he approached our modest lakeside cabin and extended his weathered hand in greeting. Bending forward under the weight of his burden, he whispered something in my ear.
It was an amusing anecdote!
Discouraging news from researchers at Johns Hopkins: Hope causes cancer.
Via Boing Boing
