Here's to the great Sam Gross. 87 years old and still as funny as hell.

One of the comics stars of National Lampoon magazine. Gross was a bridge between the underground and the mainstream. Drew like a New Yorker cartoonist, but his gags were hilariously fucked up!

His legless froggy became the de facto National Lampoon mascot. They even made swag out of it.

The ones that were too rtasteless even for the Lampoon, were packaged in a series of books like this! It's packed with Gross cartoons. He had the perfect name for his work. "Gross!", said while laughing hysterically.

Haha!

Every Weds Gross sits down to write ideas. He comes up with 15 or so, and numbers and dates every one. He never throws them away! He puts them into loose-leaf binders, to use down the road. 15 ideas a day. Damn. I couldn't come up with 15 a MONTH.

That sweet sketchy style, man. How long did this one take? 15 minutes?? This is how you want to be as a cartoonist. No being bent over a board noodling away with a million lines, like (koff koff) some cartoonists I could mention. The tricky part is the brilliant gag idea.

Of course, Sam Gross IS now a beloved New Yorker cartoonist. The intelligensia culture came around to his skewed way of thinking, I guess.