HARPOON was an imitation of NATIONAL LAMPOON that had to change its name to APPLE PIE. LAMPOON's legal department thought the name was too similar to it and the college humor magazine it got its name from, HARVARD LAMPOON. You can see why there would be some confusion.
Notice how they have a lot of mainstream comics people. My friend Lester wrote for them. I should ask him about it.
Thanks for posting this! I'm amazed by how closely they aped National Lampoon's layout and design. I remember hearing that Kim Deitch drew for Harpoon/Apple Pie. Is there any truth to that?
ReplyDeleteYes. I dont have issues in storage he was in. They had a Funny Pages clone that included him, Justin Green, and I think Ted Richards. It seems a lot of the underground cartoonists that weren't in LAMPOON were here.
ReplyDeleteHey, Ned Sonntag here. The peak was when Raphael de Soto, the Pulp Era illustrator of the GONE WITH THE WIND poster came into Dennis Lopez' office to turn in his painting for the 'Le Petomaine' cover. I had comix in most of those issues. The absolute coolest thing was when all the Cloud Studios gang went over to A&P heir Huntington Hartford's pad. He thought that funding a humor-mag (INTERNATIONAL INSANITY, after Lopez' dad lost interest, but basically the same magazine) would help him meet chicks! Mike bumped into a Ming vase and busted it, but 'Hunt' was kool about it!! I think I still have all those issues.
ReplyDeleteI should also note to anyone that wonders, the Mike Sullivan I know who posted a comment above is not the same one from Cloud Studios.
ReplyDeleteI used to have this HARPOON issue...I remember being disappointed at the time because it wasn't as good as Nat Lamp. I was fairly young and kind of weirded out by the creepy Santa molester cover too.
ReplyDelete