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| Editor-in-Chief | Sabrina Barnes |
|---|---|
| First issue | 1909 (1909) |
| Company | University of Michigan |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
| Website | GargMag.com |
| OCLC | 3270519 |
The Gargoyle Humor Magazine orThe Gargoyle is the officialstudent-run humor magazine for theUniversity of Michigan. It has beensatirizing bothlocal and national events for more than one hundred years. The magazine is part of the university'sStudent Publications, which also includes the campusnewspaper,The Michigan Daily, as well as the yearbook, theMichiganensian.
To current and formereditors and staff, the magazine is often known simply asThe Garg.
TheGargoyle's office is located on the second floor of the Student Publications Building at 420 Maynard Street inAnn Arbor, Michigan. The office serves as the staff's production area; it is also home to a number of relics, including two bombshells obtained from the localarmy surplus and a poster from popular filmWhore 2.
TheGargoyle was founded in 1909. Its first editor in chief, Lee A. White, eventually became editor of theDetroit News and helped found La Choy Foods.Gargoyle was initially aliterary magazine featuring stories, articles and pictures with a back section devoted tocomedy.[1][2]
In the 1920s and 1930s, a period during which it was selected as America's Outstanding College Comic Magazine,Gargoyle was published monthly during the school year.[3] The decrease in male students brought about byWorld War II resulted in the first woman, Olga Gruhzit, becoming editor ofGargoyle in 1942. In 1944, at the height of the war,Gargoyle briefly ceased publication, only to return in the fall of 1945.[1]
Gargoyle was declared dead in 1950 when the Board in Control of Student Publications took offense to the issue "The Smooth Gargoyle".[3] Publication continued off campus for a year, and whenGargoyle returned the next year, literary pieces were discontinued and the focus became solely humor. During the 1950s the magazine acquired acounterculture reputation, promoting everything from co-ed housing in the 1950s toVietnam War protests in the 1960s. In response to the advent ofPlayboy in the 1950s and thesexual revolution of the 1960s,Gargoyle became progressively more risque. While sex, illegal drugs, and otherwise raunchy jokes have been common fare in issues of theGargoyle since the 1970s, the magazine has generally tried to maintain a level of intelligence and artistry in its humor.[1]
Art editor Phil Zaret's satirical cartoon, "Kill a Commie for Christ", originally published in theGargoyle in 1967, became extremely popular during theVietnam War and was re-published by college publications throughout the United States.[1]
Though theGargoyle was very successful in the '60's, it struggled to publish in the early 1970s, returned for a few issues in 1974–75, and returned to consistent publication in 1979. The magazine has been forced off-campus (in 1950) and shut down completely (1960–61, 1997) as the result of editorial and financial conflicts with the Board for Student Publications (previously the Board in Control of Student Publications). At one time the magazine was sold for prices varying from fifty cents to two dollars, but for the last five years, it has been free, all revenue being generated by advertisements.[1]
In 1962, cartoonistCharles M. Schulz responded to a request for aPeanuts cartoon by drawingSnoopy with his nose perched over the end of his dog house in the manner of a gargoyle—this became a standard Snoopy pose.[1][3]
In March 2020, theGargoyle entered exclusively digital circulation as theCOVID-19 pandemic raged. Editor-in-Chief Maddie Eberstein and Business Manager Nick Dabagia orchestrated the magazine's return to print in Fall 2021 with theUnwelcome Back issue.[4] Dabagia became Editor-in-Chief following Eberstein's graduation in April 2022. Under his direction, theGargoyle staff grew to pre-pandemic levels, and the print magazine underwent an expansion from 16 to 24 pages. Art Director Ruth Marks has also facilitated an artistic revival in the magazine, in no small part due to the recruitment and loyalty of numerous artists and illustrators from thePenny W. Stamps School of Art and Design.
Over the decades it has been a Gargoyle tradition for the mascot to periodically change at the whims of the current editor and artists on staff.
In the 1999 book,Gargoyle Laughs at the 20th Century, editor John Dobbertin compiled allGargoyle staff members credited in themasthead to date. This list includes several University of Michiganalumni before they became famous, including the following:[1]
