Crazy (magazine)
Encyclopedia
Crazy Magazine was an illustrated satire
and humor magazine
, and was published by Marvel Comics
from 1973 to 1983 for a total of 94 regular issues (and two "Super Specials", Summer 1975, 1980). It was preceded by a standard-size comic book titled Crazy, which lasted three issues.
edited the first 10 issues from 1973–1975 and the first "Super Special", and created the magazine's first mascot. a short, bug-eyed mascot with a large black hat and draped in a black cape, called Irving Nebbish. The nebbish was replaced with the belligerent Obnoxio the Clown
, who made his first appearance in issue #63 (June 1980), the first regular issue edited by Larry Hama
, who also edited issue #61 (April 1980).
Many of the features involved recurring characters such as "The Kinetic Kids" (where when you flipped the two pages they were on back and forth an illusion of motion was created), The Teen Hulk (a teenager who becomes a Hulk
-like character played for laughs), Retread Funnies (classic Marvel Comics
stories presented with new dialogue) amongst others.
The magazine's last issue was #94 (April 1983) by Marv Wolfman.
In 1982 a Dutch version of Crazy was published by Juniorpress
. The only editor, translator and contributor of the four issues was Ger Apeldoorn.
artists and writers contributed to the effort in the early years. These included Stan Lee
, Will Eisner
, Vaughn Bodé
, Frank Kelly Freas
, Harvey Kurtzman
, Mike Carlin, editor Marv Wolfman
and executive editor Roy Thomas
. Mainstream writers like Harlan Ellison
and Art Buchwald
also contributed.
Steve Gerber
, who served as editor from issues #11-14 and wanted it to be distinctive from the archteypal Mad
, said that the goal was to present work that implied the creators were themselves insane. Gerber's own contributions were often prose stories with a handful of illustrations, such as the "Just Plain Folks" series of bizarre biographies. The last issue of his run as editor included a darkly comic short story he wrote in college, "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!", about high-school kids who make a suicide pact. Lee Marrs
supplied a few pictures. In addition to drawn art, Crazy experimented with fumetti
.
Paul Lamont edited issue #15 (Jan. 1976) and Paul Laikin edited #16-60 and #62 (May 1980).
episode "Separate Vocations
". Principal Skinner
shows Bart Simpson
some of the confiscated contraband in a storeroom at Springfield Elementary School: "Complete collections of Mad
, Cracked, and even the occasional issue of Crazy!"
A previous magazine Crazy, Man, Crazy ran for two issues in Dec, 1955 published by Humor Magazines, Inc. (Copyright by Charlton Comics Group) and June, 1955 published by Humor Magazines, Inc. (Copyright by Humor Magazines, Inc.) According to Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
it was (Formerly From Here to Insanity) and (Becomes This Magazine is...?) both of which were comic book format. Interestingly the Dec, 1955 indica page features a picture of Elmer Zilch often found in Ballyhoo (magazine)
but credited to someone named McManus McGargle. Marvel also had a short-lived comic book series titled Crazy!, consisting of reprints from Not Brand Ecch, prior to launching the magazine version Crazy.
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
and humor magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
, and was published by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
from 1973 to 1983 for a total of 94 regular issues (and two "Super Specials", Summer 1975, 1980). It was preceded by a standard-size comic book titled Crazy, which lasted three issues.
Background
Marv WolfmanMarv Wolfman
Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.-1960s:...
edited the first 10 issues from 1973–1975 and the first "Super Special", and created the magazine's first mascot. a short, bug-eyed mascot with a large black hat and draped in a black cape, called Irving Nebbish. The nebbish was replaced with the belligerent Obnoxio the Clown
Obnoxio the Clown
Obnoxio the Clown was the mascot of the Marvel Comics humor magazine Crazy.- Character :Obnoxio was portrayed as a slovenly, vulgar, cigar-puffing middle-aged man in a torn and dirty clown suit, with a dyspeptic and cynical attitude.- Comic book :...
, who made his first appearance in issue #63 (June 1980), the first regular issue edited by Larry Hama
Larry Hama
Larry Hama is an American comic book writer, artist, actor and musician who has worked in the fields of entertainment and publishing since the 1960s....
, who also edited issue #61 (April 1980).
Many of the features involved recurring characters such as "The Kinetic Kids" (where when you flipped the two pages they were on back and forth an illusion of motion was created), The Teen Hulk (a teenager who becomes a Hulk
Hulk (comics)
The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....
-like character played for laughs), Retread Funnies (classic Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
stories presented with new dialogue) amongst others.
The magazine's last issue was #94 (April 1983) by Marv Wolfman.
In 1982 a Dutch version of Crazy was published by Juniorpress
Juniorpress
Juniorpress is a Dutch publisher well known for publishing translations into Dutch of U.S.-comics. It published Marvel, Image and DC/Cliffhanger comics under its own name, but used Baldakijn Boeken for the publication of DC-superhero comics such as Batman, Superman and the New Teen...
. The only editor, translator and contributor of the four issues was Ger Apeldoorn.
Contributors
Many comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artists and writers contributed to the effort in the early years. These included Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
, Will Eisner
Will Eisner
William Erwin "Will" Eisner was an American comics writer, artist and entrepreneur. He is considered one of the most important contributors to the development of the medium and is known for the cartooning studio he founded; for his highly influential series The Spirit; for his use of comics as an...
, Vaughn Bodé
Vaughn Bodé
Vaughn Bodē was an artist involved in underground comics, graphic design and graffiti. He is perhaps best known for his comic strip character Cheech Wizard and artwork depicting voluptuous women. His works are noted for their psychedelic look and feel...
, Frank Kelly Freas
Frank Kelly Freas
Frank Kelly Freas , called the "Dean of Science Fiction Artists", was a science fiction and fantasy artist with a career spanning more than 50 years.-Early life, education, and personal life:...
, Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
, Mike Carlin, editor Marv Wolfman
Marv Wolfman
Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.-1960s:...
and executive editor Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
. Mainstream writers like Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
and Art Buchwald
Art Buchwald
Arthur Buchwald was an American humorist best known for his long-running column in The Washington Post, which in turn was carried as a syndicated column in many other newspapers. His column focused on political satire and commentary...
also contributed.
Steve Gerber
Steve Gerber
Stephen Ross "Steve" Gerber was an American comic book writer best known as co-creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck....
, who served as editor from issues #11-14 and wanted it to be distinctive from the archteypal Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
, said that the goal was to present work that implied the creators were themselves insane. Gerber's own contributions were often prose stories with a handful of illustrations, such as the "Just Plain Folks" series of bizarre biographies. The last issue of his run as editor included a darkly comic short story he wrote in college, "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!", about high-school kids who make a suicide pact. Lee Marrs
Lee Marrs
Lee Marrs is an American comic book writer, animator, and one of the first women underground comix creators. She is best known for her comic book series, The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp, which lasted from 1973 to 1978.-Underground comics:Marrs was a frequent contributor to...
supplied a few pictures. In addition to drawn art, Crazy experimented with fumetti
Fumetti
Fumetti is an Italian word which refers to all comics. In English, the term refers specifically to photonovels or photographic comics, a genre of comics illustrated with photographs rather than drawings. Italians call these fotoromanzi...
.
Paul Lamont edited issue #15 (Jan. 1976) and Paul Laikin edited #16-60 and #62 (May 1980).
Cultural references
The publication was referenced in The SimpsonsThe Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "Separate Vocations
Separate Vocations
"Separate Vocations" is the eighteenth episode of The Simpsons third season. It originally aired on Fox in the United States on February 27, 1992. In the episode, the Springfield Elementary School makes the students take career aptitude tests...
". Principal Skinner
Seymour Skinner
Principal W. Seymour Skinner is a fictional character in the American animated sitcom The Simpsons. He is voiced by Harry Shearer. Born in Capitol City, he is the principal of Springfield Elementary School...
shows Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
some of the confiscated contraband in a storeroom at Springfield Elementary School: "Complete collections of Mad
Mad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
, Cracked, and even the occasional issue of Crazy!"
A previous magazine Crazy, Man, Crazy ran for two issues in Dec, 1955 published by Humor Magazines, Inc. (Copyright by Charlton Comics Group) and June, 1955 published by Humor Magazines, Inc. (Copyright by Humor Magazines, Inc.) According to Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide
The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide is an annually published comic book price guide widely considered the primary authority on the subject of American comic book grading and pricing in the hobby/industry....
it was (Formerly From Here to Insanity) and (Becomes This Magazine is...?) both of which were comic book format. Interestingly the Dec, 1955 indica page features a picture of Elmer Zilch often found in Ballyhoo (magazine)
Ballyhoo (magazine)
Ballyhoo was a humor magazine published by Dell, created by George T. Delacorte Jr., and edited by Norman Anthony , from 1931 until 1939, with a couple of attempts to resuscitate the magazine after the war between 1948 and 1954.In common with other magazines of the era it featured a central...
but credited to someone named McManus McGargle. Marvel also had a short-lived comic book series titled Crazy!, consisting of reprints from Not Brand Ecch, prior to launching the magazine version Crazy.