Starchie

[paul secor]

Thanks, Joel. Brought back memories from my mid-teen years. Then again, not all of those memories are good ones.

[fasstrack]

Because Kurtzman's Mad was so popular, there were a lot of imitators.

Anyone remember Cracked? (Or was it Sick. I'll go with Cracked). I never read it, but even to my 12-year-old sensibilites it seemed an obvious rip-off. Anyone read it then?

[AllenLowe]

I remember it well - good artwork, bad writing -

[7/4]

Anyone remember Cracked? (Or was it Sick. I'll go with Cracked). I never read it, but even to my 12-year-old sensibilites it seemed an obvious rip-off. Anyone read it then?

Yeah, I remember it - I thought it was a bad rip off too.

dB

[Jazzmoose]

Yes, it must have been something to encounter in it's heyday of the early-to-mid-50's, back when satire/parody of earlier pop-culture wasn't so omnipresent. In fact, parody of just about everything seems to be the default mode in present-day pop culture.

Mad is still widely imitated...

Speaking of Kurtzman, anyone else familiar with his other great work of the 50's, the editing of Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat for EC? He even did the art for some of the stories and had a hand in scripting a lot of them. Some of the best "war comics" of all time.

Oh, yeah. I had scattered copies of all the EC titles, and then later picked up the EC Library sets. Amazing stuff all around. As someone who was a big fan of comics for most of my life, I always wonder what comics in this country would have been like if it hadn't been for Kefauver, Wertham, etc. Anyone who knows his U.S. comics history knows it isn't just conservatives who fuck things up; liberals are just as adept at it.

[Jazzmoose]

I remember it well - good artwork, bad writing -

I agree. It basically was a second rate suckathon, but had enough John Severin art to keep me an occasional reader...

[TedR]

In the 50's some of the Mad imitators were Whack, Unsane, Bughouse, Crazy, Eh!, and Nuts.* They sound like poor ripoffs too. (*from Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine)

[fasstrack]

In the 50's some of the Mad imitators were Whack, Unsane, Bughouse, Crazy, Eh!, and Nuts.* They sound like poor ripoffs too. (*from Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine)

Good titles, though. You never know. There's probably funny stuff if you look.

Imitation is good if it doesn't stay there. It's sort of a neccesary step----like copying mom across the table to learn to eat. (I feel sorry for you if she eats with her hands, though ....) I mean how many guys copied Bird? Not all sucked. (Whole other discussion). Sincerest form and all that...............

Edited March 16, 2009 by fasstrack

[BruceH]

Because Kurtzman's Mad was so popular, there were a lot of imitators.

Anyone remember Cracked? (Or was it Sick. I'll go with Cracked). I never read it, but even to my 12-year-old sensibilites it seemed an obvious rip-off. Anyone read it then?

I remember it. It always looked like a painfully obvious and inferior rip-off of Mad, so I never bothered to read the thing, but I used to see it at the local Rexall drugstore sometimes.

[ejp626]

In the 50's some of the Mad imitators were Whack, Unsane, Bughouse, Crazy, Eh!, and Nuts.* They sound like poor ripoffs too. (*from Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine)

I wonder if there were two Crazy Magazines, as there was definitely one in the late 1970s that ended in 1983. This was largely notable as it was edited for a while by Steve Gerber, the guy that came up with Howard the Duck (not the movie version). I'm positive I had one of the issues with Howard in it (might even be worth something now but it must have been tossed out). It isn't clear that these early origin stories got collected in the HtD Omnibus from last year.