The Gargoyle Humor Magazine or The Gargoyle is the official student-run humor magazine for the University of Michigan. It has been satirizing both local and national events for more than one hundred years. The magazine is part of the university's Student Publications, which also includes the campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily, as well as the yearbook, the Michiganensian.
To current and former editors and staff, the magazine is often known simply as The Garg.
Location
The Gargoyles office is located on the second floor of the Student Publications Building at 420 Maynard Street in Ann 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 local army surplus and a poster from popular film Whore 2.
History
thumb|right|Gargoyle Magazine cover by Kris Jacque, December 2003
The Gargoyle was founded in 1909. Its first editor in chief, Lee A. White, eventually became editor of the Detroit News and helped found La Choy Foods. Gargoyle was initially a literary magazine featuring stories, articles and pictures with a back section devoted to comedy.
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. Dabagia became Editor-in-Chief following Eberstein's graduation in April 2022. Under his direction, the Gargoyle 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 the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design.
Mascots
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.
Notable alumni
In the 1999 book, Gargoyle Laughs at the 20th Century, editor John Dobbertin compiled all Gargoyle staff members credited in the masthead to date. This list includes several University of Michigan alumni before they became famous, including the following:
- Lee Blaser, cartoonist.
- Larry Brilliant, philanthropist
- Max Hodge, television writer/director/producer
- Lawrence Kasdan, screenwriter/director.
- Terry LaBan, cartoonist (Edge City).
- George Lichty (under the name Maurice Lichtenstein), cartoonist (Grin and Bear It).
- Janet Malcolm, essayist, journalist, and critic.
- Allen Milgrom, cartoonist/editor (Marvel Comics).
- Arthur Miller, playwright.
- David Newman, screenwriter.
- Robert Shaye, producer (New Line Cinemas).
See also
- Bentley Historical Library