Real Life Funnies: "The Carpet Guy" (1987).
Stan Mack is a US comic artist and illustrator, and also one of the pioneers of autobiographical slice-of-life comics. Through his series 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' (1974-1995) in The Village Voice, 'Stan Mack's Out-takes' (1981-1992?) in Adweek, 'Scenes From Real Life' (1978) in Esquire, 'Stan Mack's True Tales' (1995-1997) in Modern Maturity, 'Dispatches' (late 1990s, early 2000s) in The New York Times and 'Stan Mack's Real Lives' (2021-2022) on whowhatwhy.org, he documented conversations with real-life ordinary people from very different backgrounds at a variety of events and other locations. Apart from a fascinating look at colorful and sometimes eccentric individuals, these comics are also a time capsule of New York's many endeavors and events from the 1970s down to the 2020s. Earlier in his career, Mack drew the surreal gag comic 'Mule's Diner' (1972-1979) in National Lampoon. In the 21st century, he published several graphic novels, the first one about his late partner's terminal cancer, 'Janet & Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss' (2000), making him one of the pioneers of the graphic medicine genre. He later delved into history with 'The Story of the Jews: a 4,000-Year Adventure' (2008), chronicling the Jewish people from biblical times to the present, and 'Revolting Rebels' (2023), looking at the American War of Independence. Even at an advanced age, Mack has remained active as a webcomic artist and book illustrator. Several of his illustrated books have also made use of the comic strip format.
Illustration for Adweek (1981).
Early life and career
Stanley Mack was born in 1936 in Brooklyn, but spent most of his childhood in Providence, Rhode Island. He enjoyed drawing from a young age and was encouraged by his teacher in Social Studies at Junior High School to draw political cartoons for her ancient history assignments. Mack studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1960, during his military service, he won an art contest by the US Army in the "Drawings and Cartoons" category. Among his main graphic influences were painters and illustrators like Honoré Daumier, Gustave Doré, Francisco De Goya, William Hogarth and N.C. Wyeth, graphic designers like Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, George Lois, Herb Lubalin, Henry Wolf, sports cartoonist Willard Mullin and 'Terry and the Pirates' comic artist Milton Caniff. Mack liked Mullin's "genius in drawing the body in action" and Caniff's "brilliant use of shadows". Still, he aspired to become a magazine illustrator more than a cartoonist.
In 1963, Mack became art director for the pulp magazine Climax, and later also had this role at Book Week (published by the New York Herald Tribune). Between 1969 and 1973, he was art director of The New York Times Magazine and later the New York Times Book Review. In 1973, he grew tired of the corporate mindset and quit his job. Although his parents weren't happy, Mack was very glad to get out of the 9/5 work schedule. Throughout most of his career, he has remained active as a freelance illustrator and comic artist and additionally taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
'Stan Mack's Notebook', from Gump magazine.
Mule's Diner
Between 1970 and 1979, Mack's earliest comics and cartoons ran in the satirical monthly National Lampoon, although he also made occasional illustrations and comics for The New York Times' travel and lifestyle sections and a comic titled 'Stan Mack's Notebook' for the humor magazine Grump (1965-1967). His most notable contribution to National Lampoon was the gag comic 'Mule's Diner', launched in February 1972. All action in this surreal comic strip took place at or in front of a diner. In the June 1972 gag, for instance, a man asks a passerby to hide him inside his briefcase, because the police are chasing him. It turns out he's a mugger, but before he can rob the innocent passerby, a religious pacifist interferes and tricks the criminal into climbing back into his case.
'Mule's Diner' (National Lampoon, January 1974).
In another story (January 1974), a woman and a two-headed man fall in love and get married. When she meets his family, though, she can't help laughing uncontrollably at all his multi-headed relatives until his ten-headed father turns her into a maple tree. Mack took a lot of inspiration from Native American folklore, which helped his mind wander into strange directions. As daft as some of the stories were, Mack knew that readers would accept them as long as he kept the diner as a narrative frame. The restaurant was always visible in the first and the last panel, where the owner offers customers a free cup of coffee if they can tell him a remarkable (tall) tale. 'Mule's Diner' ran irregularly in National Lampoon until at least 1979.
'Mule's Diner' (National Lampoon, January 1973).
Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies
In 1973, Stan Mack accompanied reporter Georgia Dullea for a graphic report for The New York Times. As she was taking interviews, he sketched the people she talked with, including some of their quotes in his drawings. This made him realize that adapting real-life conversations into a comic strip would be a neat concept. He suggested his idea to Milton Glaser, graphic designer at the Village Voice, who, unbeknownst to Mack, was already planning a weekly column in the magazine, titled 'Urban Comics'. Glaser encouraged Mack and offered him a spot in this column. However, he felt it would be better if he turned it into a weekly feature of its own, since this would attract more loyal readers. However, other editors were more sceptical. They worried that, since it was a comic strip, nobody would believe Mack's transcribed dialogues were authentic. Throughout the 20th century, there had been comic artists and one-panel cartoonists who made slice-of-life features, most notably Frank King's 'Gasoline Alley', the gentle, recognizable observation comedy of Gluyas Williams and Jules Feiffer's 'Feiffer'. But these were in essence fictional stories inspired by the mundanity and humanity of ordinary life rather than actual transcribed graphic reports. As a precaution, The Village Voice editors suggested the title 'Real Life Funnies', with the tagline "All dialogue guaranteed verbatim." Since they didn't want to be held responsible, they insisted that Mack added his own name to the title, hence 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies'. To safeguard themselves completely, the magazine lawyers would check each comic before print, to make sure nobody could sue them for defamation.
'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' debut episode (14 November 1974).
Appearing between 14 November 1974 and 8 August 1995, 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' was a popular feature for two decades. Each episode featured the cartoonist at a certain location in New York City, where he either talks directly to people, or overhears some of the bystanders' small talk, remarks and interactions. Some dialogue was presented as actual conversations, with a clear continuation in each speech balloon. Others were more a collection of quotes from different people within a crowd, intended as if the reader was observing and overhearing them. Mack wrote everything down in slang. Since his editors were more concerned about the topics themselves than the dialogue, occasional spelling errors and typos were left in. 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' had no recurring cast members other than Mack himself, who drew himself as a mustached figure. But even he wasn't always visible in each installment.
Whenever Stan Mack went on his weekly excursions, he took notepads, pencils, two ballpoint pens for backup, and a camera with him. He bought a grenade bag at an Army & Navy store, so he could wear it on his belt. While many people assumed he used a dictaphone or tape recorder, he preferred taking notes, sometimes on napkins or his shirt cuff. Since he tried to be anonymous and secretive, a dictaphone would have attracted too much attention and, at some noisy locations, result in inaudible recordings. Interviewed by Joe Enright (Star Revue, 9 April 2024), Mack recalled that he simply took pages and pages of notes and afterwards reread everything to see if he could distill a narrative out of them. Interviewed by Matthew Thurber for The Comics Journal (8 January 2025), he said he often had trouble deciphering his scribblings afterwards, but the little sketches he'd made of people were always useful, since their caricatural distortions could easily be redesigned by him later. Mack used a camera for certain buildings or objects that were too time-consuming to draw quickly, like ambulances, fire engines and police uniforms. At home, he could then sketch everything out to give his backgrounds and close-ups more atmosphere.
'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' (1977).
In the Comics Journal interview, Mack explained his tactics to eavesdrop on people's conversations: "(...) Dress to blend in quietly. Get to the destination with enough time to case the joint. It helps to be not too tall, not too short, not too dark, not too handsome, not too ugly, not too old and not too young. When I arrive, if I find that everybody knows each other, I make a quick exit and forget it. Otherwise, the system continues: smile and keep your ears open. Find the men's room (always good for a line), find coffee and food, which is very helpful unless you are trying to take notes. Look for a few convenient corners in which to hide. Learn to walk backwards in order to get closer to groups. Learn to stand in the middle of a mob and like it. And, finally, learn to change direction suddenly in order to follow a good line floating by. Appear preoccupied. If you are engaged in conversation, pay no attention to what you are saying. Say anything. Fake it. You can't listen and think at the same time. Float through the event. Each has its own particular current. Professional wrestlers and East Side gallery-hoppers move at different speeds."
Mack challenged himself by visiting places he'd normally never go to, like squatter's apartments, a conference for UFO believers, the national Democratic/Republican Party conventions and even hospitals where AIDS patients were treated. The ambitious artist attended cocktail parties, parades, music video shoots and the Pink Pussycat sex shops. He talked with transvestites, homeless people, pigeon fanciers and costume actors during promotional stunts.
'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' (1975).
In many cases, he had no clue what to expect, but in the 1970s there was, at least, far easier access to these events. For instance, he once went to the music club CBGB where he managed to get backstage to meet the punk band Plasmatics. He entered the singles' club Plato's Retreat by pretending to search for a partner. Another time, he spent Thanksgiving at a Port Authority bus terminal, just for the experience. One night, he was up until the early dawn, attending a St. Patrick's Day parade. Once home and tired, he instantly worked everything out in a comic strip, since he faced a deadline. It made him decide to never do this again, "except perhaps during wartime." From that moment on, after each attended event, he deliberately took some time to decompress for a few hours, before picking up his notes and pencil again.
In some cases, Mack's exploits could have gotten him into genuine danger, or even arrested. He once spent a day in the presence of cocaine users. Another time, he was present during the illegal shooting of a porn movie in Central Park. But to him, the excitement of all these unexplored subjects made it all worthwhile. All he wanted was topical variety and "to be as accurate as possible while never being afraid to make the reader uncomfortable." Mack regarded himself as a cross between a "real" reporter and a voyeur, covering subjects and social phenomena that most mainstream magazines had never written about, especially not in comic strip form. Only twice did he get into trouble. When he attended an antique fair, he was mistaken for an IRS agent and thrown out. To prevent such misunderstandings in the future, The Village Voice gave Mack a press pass. The only time he ever received a lecture from them was when he had joined a training for people who played Santa's elves during a Macy's Christmas Parade. Since the comic also brought criticism of Macy's to the light, they registered an official complaint against the magazine.
'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' (1992).
Looking back on 'Real Life Funnies' in an interview with Print Magazine (13 October 2011), Mack recalled his three favorite subjects in three favorite categories: "Sex: spending the evening with the lifeguard at the pool at Plato's Retreat [a sex club]. Politics: joining a protest and confrontation with police at the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Eccentrics: hanging out with the man who hid himself in a rolled up rug on sidewalks. He got his kicks when unsuspecting people would unavoidably walk on it and him."
'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' is a fascinating glimpse into the lives and activities of many vastly different people, some ordinary, some eccentric and some famous, like his encounters with Lionel Ritchie and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Mack often overheard quotes that were astoundingly bizarre, perplexingly offensive, unintentionally funny or deeply moving. People's attempts at small talk often had them reveal more about themselves than they would have suspected. Other times, they obviously presented themselves differently than they probably would have under normal circumstances. Thanks to Mack's observational skills, the comic was also an unintentional, all-encompassing time capsule of "the city that never sleeps". In the 1970s, he hung out with people who discussed societal change and the search for the inner self. In the 1980s, he saw the arrival of career-driven yuppies, while the sexual experimentation of the previous two decades was thwarted by the AIDS crisis and Reaganomics increased the homelessness problem.
'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' at a comic convention (1972).
In 1981, 'Real Life Funnies' was adapted into a musical revue by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken (later famous for writing the music for the Disney films 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Beauty & the Beast'). In a 1983 episode of Mack's comic, 'Impolite Society', he talked with a man who was recently divorced and, in a throwaway line, tells his son to watch the children's TV show 'Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood' together. Much to Mack's surprise, he received a signed photograph from the real-life children's TV show host Mr. Rogers soon after.
In June 2024, 275 episodes of 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies' were compiled in book format under the title 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995' (Fantagraphics, 2024).
'Stan Mack's Out-Takes' (1992).
Similar slice-of-life comics by Mack
Apart from 'Real Life Funnies', Mack also made several other and similar weekly or monthly comics for different magazines. The earliest was 'Scenes From Real Life' (1978), published in Esquire. Next was 'Stan Mack's Out-takes' (1981-1992?) in Adweek, a gag comic based on the advertising industry. For inspiration, he attended meetings of various agencies in New York City. At their request, he sometimes changed the identities of the people, companies or products involved for his comic. While similar to his 'Real Life Funnies' in format, it was presented as a four-five panel comic with a clear punchline. A book compilation was published in 1984 by Overlook Press. In 2014, he rebooted this comic under the title 'Stan Mack's Real Mad: True Tales From Inside the Ad Biz', published in Media Post.
Segment of 'A Nurse's Tale' (New York Times, 16 September 2001), one of Stan Mack's personal favorites.
Between 3 November 1995 and 1997, 'Stan Mack's True Tales' ran in the senior magazine Modern Maturity. In 1996, the cartoonist and his wife visited Burma, Soviet Russia and Thailand and chronicled their voyages in the pages of Print magazine, under the title 'Between the Lines', with specific focus on autocratic regimes and resistance groups. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Mack's 'Dispatches' ran in The New York Times' column devoted to 'Suburban Sections'. This feature was a genuine challenge for him, since slice-of-life comics set in suburban communities were far more difficult to present in an interesting manner than city life. During the 1990s, he also adapted interviews with cooks for the culinary magazine Bon Appetit and about natural history in the magazine Natural History. When astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson took Mack on a tour through Manhattan, a comic by Mack about their encounter was printed in the April 1997 issue of Natural History. Decades later, when Tyson had become one of the most famous scientists in the world, this comic was shared on his official website.
'How America Eats: Real People Talk About Life With Food' (from Bon Apetit).
Since the 2010s, Mack's slice-of-life comics have occasionally run in The New York Times, while 'Stan Mack's Real Lives' (2021-2022) was posted on whowhatwhy.org, a non-profit reader-supported news website. In 2018, Mack watched a New York Times opinion video, 'If You're Not Scared About Fascism in the US, You Should Be', made by Jason Stanley, Japhet Weeks and Adam Westbrook. In response, he sent a letter to the New York Times editor, adding a comic strip about a conversation he had with a German immigrant who had lived through World War II and its aftermath and gave him a cautionary warning about the rise of fascism. The Times ran Mack's comic on 18 October and called it their "first comic strip to the editor".
Topical comic from 28 July 2025.
Janet & Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss
In late 1999, Mack's partner for 18 years, Janet Brode, died from breast cancer. He covered her final days in his comic 'Dispatches', serialized in The New York Times, right up during the early months of 2000. While some readers were moved, others wrote letters of complaint since they couldn't handle such a heavy-handed topic in a Sunday comic. Mack decided to cope with his loss and memories of the entire emotional ordeal in a graphic novel, 'Janet & Me: An Illustrated Story of Love and Loss' (Simon & Schuster, 1999). Her personal diary helped him give extra insight in how she dealt with her terminal disease. Mack not only focused on their account of the cancer diagnosis, her mastectomy and the trials and tribulations, but also included accounts from friends and caregivers. The graphic novel not only chronicles their romance and their struggle against cancer until her death, but also on the caretaking they received, their conversations with doctors and insurance companies. 'Janet & Me' received praise from feminist Gloria Steinem and writer Joyce Brabner (also known as Harvey Pekar's wife).
'The Story of the Jews'.
The Story of the Jews: a 4,000-Year Adventure
Despite growing up in a Jewish family, Stan Mack's parents weren't religious, so he knew very little about Jewish culture. One time, when he visited Israel and stood on top of Mount Zion, he realized that this specific location was where his ancestors started, some many centuries ago and really wanted to find out more. As it happened, he was approached by a publisher later who suggested making a book about "a Jewish topic", so Mack took this opportunity to create an ambitious graphic novel, 'The Story of the Jews: a 4,000-Year Adventure' (2008), which chronicled the entire history of the Jewish people in one book. The doorstop not only addressed well-known historical characters like Abraham and Moses, but also lesser-known figures, including influential Jewish women. Several key events, like the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem and persecutions of Jews in the late 15th century and during the Holocaust were covered, but Mack also went deeper into sociological events and the origins of specific Jewish traditions. He took a critical eye of divisions within Judaism, but always with a sense of humor. 'The Story of the Jews' received praise from Matt Groening: "Funny and original and it won't take 4,000 years to read."
'Revolting Rebels'.
(Taxes, the Tea Party and Those) Revolting Rebels
As Mack drew his graphic reports in comic strip format, his topics gradually became less frivolous and more heavy-handed, requiring more dialogue and longer narratives. Interviewed by Michael Dooley (3 July 2012), he confessed: "Eventually they threatened to become book-length, and I had to admire the readers who hung in as I crammed more and more words into the same small space. I looked for a bigger apartment to house bigger stories. (...) I decided to chronicle the American Revolution as a way of sorting out the rights and obligations of citizens and their leaders." The end result was 'Taxes, the Tea Party, and Those Revolting Rebels: A History in Comics of the American Revolution' (NBM, 2012), reprinted in 2023 as 'Revolting Rebels: A History of Comics of the American Revolution'.
On his blog, Mack also explained his main motivation to create this graphic novel: "Conservatives (...) proclaim that if we go back to the time of the Founding Fathers and adhere to the Constitution, life would be simpler and better for everyone. They want us to believe that while the Founders disagreed, they were like an a cappella singing group, hitting different notes, but basically in harmony. There was at least as much discord then as now. The different sides held diametrically opposing views of what was good for his country. They were suspicious, calculating, devious, bull-headed and hostile towards each other."
'Max & The Black Bots'.
Max & The Black Bots
In 2017, Mack attended a cyber conference where Alan W. Silberberg, owner of the cyber security firm Digijaks, held a lecture. When Silberberg joked that the times were ripe for a cyber superhero comic strip, Mack contacted him to actually make one. Using his professional advice, the end result was 'Max & The Black Bots' (2017), posted on the website Mediapost. In the serial, cyber detective Max finds himself caught inside the Internet, where he uncovers various hacking schemes. Annie, a tech expert, has to help him back into the real world. Mack made this comic because he saw cyber crime as one of the major challenges of the Internet Age.
'Cat Scans' (2020).
Web comics and other 21st century comics
Stan Mack has remained active as a comic artist well into his eighties and nineties, even embracing the webcomic format. He has commented on current political events in the USA, but also drawn more typical slice-of-life comics, like 'Cat Scans', launched on 28 December 2019, about the cat Baxter, who enjoys toying around with his human owners. In 2020, during the global COVID-19 pandemic when almost the entire world went into lockdown, Mack started a regular one-panel cartoon series, 'These Days', published in The Independent. Each episode featured quotes from people he had conversations with by phone, through video calls or from overhearing small talk on those rare occasions that he went outside to do his shopping.
'Potato Talk'.
Book illustration career
Mack illustrated two children's books by Gail Kredenser: 'The ABC of Bumptious Beasts' (Harlin Quist, 1966) and 'One Dancing Drum: A Counting Book for Children (and Parents) Who Are Tired Of Puppies and Chickens and Horses' (S.G. Phillips, 1971). He also livened up the pages of Ennis Rees' 'Potato Talk' (1969), George Keenen's 'The Preposterous Week' (1971), Paula Scher's 'The Brownstone' (1973) and Arnold Sundgaard's 'Jethro's Difficult Dinosaur' (1977). In 1972, Mack illustrated the story 'A Lot of Hot Water' in the book 'Gordon of Sesame Street Story Book' (Random House, 1972), associated with the children's TV program 'Sesame Street', but not featuring any of Jim Henson's Muppet characters.
With writer Susan Champlin, Mack made a children's adventure book about the American War of Independence, titled 'Road to Revolution' (2009). It was re-released in 2024, retitled as 'The Pickpocket, the Spy and the Lobsterbacks: a Graphic Novel of the American Revolution', About Comics, 2024). They made another children's book about that other watershed moment in US history, namely the US Civil War, 'Fight for Freedom' (2012), later reprinted as 'Our Fight, Our Time: a Graphic Novel of the Civil War', 2024). In the previously mentioned interview for Print magazine, Mack said that his historical graphic novels differed from other books about the same topic: "There's a glut of new graphic books aimed at the education market. Teachers are buying them because they think the students like them. But, he said, most are wordy and boring! I'm sure there are excellent graphic histories out there, too. I'd describe mine as good history with a "street" attitude. And it goes down real easy."
'Heart Break and Roses: Real Life Stories of Troubled Love'.
Mack also wrote and illustrated four children's books of his own, '10 Bears In My Bed: A Goodnight Countdown' (1974) and 'Where's My Cheese?' (1977), both by Pantheon Books, as well as 'Runaway Road' (Dutton, 1980) and 'Belmont the Bat Catcher: And Other Nutty Number Tales' (Scholastic, 1983).
With his partner Janet Bode as co-writer, he published several non-fiction books in which real preteenagers and teens are interviewed about problematic issues like unhealthy "romances" ('Heart Break and Roses: Real Life Stories of Troubled Love', Delacorte Press, 1994), juvenile crimes ('Hard Time: A Real Life Look at Juvenile Crime and Violence', Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, 1996) and dysfunctional parenting ('For Better, For Worse: A Guide to Surviving Divorce for Preteens and Their Families', Simon & Schuster, 2001). Mack adapted several of these preteen and teenager stories into comic strip form. Although their accounts were often raw and haunting, the books have been used in schools where pupils from troubled backgrounds are educated.
Stan Mack's map of Tompkins Square Park in New York City.
Recognition
In 1971, Gail Kredenser and Stan Mack's 'One Dancing Drum' received the New York Times' "Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year" Award. 'Fight for Freedom' (AKA 'Our Fight, Our Time: a Graphic Novel of the Civil War') was named Bank Street's "Best Children's Best Book of the Year". In 2025, 'Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995' was honored with a New York City Book Award.
In 1988, Mack made a pigeon's-eye view of Tompkins Square Park in New York City, capturing the various ethnic, political and social groups in their little corner of the place. In 2018, his humorous map was included in an exhibition of illustrated maps of New York, held in the New York Public Library.
Comic strip with self-portrait (1989).
Legacy and influence
Stan Mack was a pioneer in autobiographical slice-of-life comics, a genre that only became more common from the mid-1970s on, thanks to the rise of alternative comic creators like Robert Crumb, Justin Green, Aline Kominsky, Harvey Pekar and Trina Robbins. All drew more personal comics about real-life anecdotes. In Pekar's case, he even devoted an entire comic book series to them, 'American Splendor'. Nevertheless, Mack's significant contributions have often been overlooked or forgotten. One explanation might be that these alternative comics received more media attention since they were translated all over the globe, and that they were made by frequently interviewed, very opinionated writers and artists. Their heavy-handed subject matter also inspired more articles and essays. While Mack's magazine comics indeed remained a strictly US phenomenon, he too didn't shy away from controversial topics. Some of his slice-of-life comics were even experimental in the sense that there wasn't always a punchline or a direct "point" to the entire conservation he adapted. Since Mack operated in the mainstream press, his audacity to not sugarcoat his "real life" stories is even more admirable. It can even be argued that he probably reached more people on a weekly/monthly basis than these independent comic book creators and effectively paved the way for the social acceptance and popularity of this specific kind of slice-of-life comics.
Stan Mack has been named an influence by Nancy Beiman and Matt Groening. Groening specifically credited Mack as a strong inspiration to his own alternative comic 'Life in Hell'.
Cover illustration for 'Janet & Me'.