CRAZY #29

Another issue of Crazy which, although possibly unfunny as many have suggested, is a time capsule into how the world was , in this case, September 1977.

After the deceptively realistic cover of the cast of Welcome Back, Kotter from Bob Larkin comes the interior content. There's actually not a parody of the show on the inside and this was probably used to cash in on the show's popularity: The upper right corner of the letters page always had their mascot carrying a sign with a slogan. Funny how this one mentions imitators as the magazine was the most imitative of all the Mad competitors. Parody of the sitcom One Day at a Time from Kent Gamble. I planned to post this a few weeks ago, but I swear, there's no Magic Whistle curse that kills off celebrities. I was hesitant about posting this, which would never fly today, but in the 70s I guess they were considered a “safe stereotype”. I decided to post it for journalistic purposes, though I doubt the creators put this on their resumé. Alan Kupperberg Sam Viviano. Tony Tallarico Parody of The Gong Show drawn by David Wenzel

CRAZY #20

More from Crazy commemorating the Bicentennial, this time it's October 1976.

Cover by new artist Bob Larkin. Parody of Space:1999 by Len Herman and Ernie Colón David Kelly was probably a pen name of Paul Laikin, who wrote much of the issue himself. Art by Murad Gumen. The late Bill DuBay Caricatures by Kent Gamble. I'm not sure who the radio guy is supposed to be. He mentions this piece in the interview he did for If You're Cracked You're Happy:

”Well, a few weeks later I got a script in the mail from Paul. It was just a one-page thing with singers on it like Elton John, Frank Sinatra, a few singers. Anyway, I did that one page, he liked it, and a few weeks later I got a TV satire of Barney Miller. That was my first one.” They did lots of articles about how dangerous New York and other cities supposedly were, like this article drawn by Jack Sparling. Always trying to fit in the “Make Mine Marvel” attitude, they added this and used a stock drawing by Marie Severin. Ad campaign they had then for Timex watches, showing how damage to the watches would not stop them from running. Alan Kupperberg. Veteran comics artist ”Darlin'” Dick Ayers I don't know what's supposed to be on the bottom either. In case you were wondering, or care, the actual translations would be »Cтоп! Обед!» and “Devo dire a mio padre o vero?” This was the back cover. The other side was the stats that would be on the back of real baseball cards, and you could cut them up and pretend they were cards.

Crazy #53, 3 of 4

CRAZY not only copied MAD, but also copied CRACKED, like in this imitation of CRACKED's SHUT-UPS.