Sick #126, 4 of 4

The final installment of this issue from April 1979. The previous parts are here, here, and here.

Except for the covers, this issue was only TV and movie spoofs, all drawn by the editor Jack Sparling. This was when their publisher Charlton Comics was on its last legs, their pay rate was at its lowest (and it showed), and most of their books were reprints. Rumor has it some contributors were just paid with contributor copies.

Here's their version of Rhoda

And here's their parody of One Day at a Time, which makes no references to the show and could just be a story with any characters.

At this point, they didn't even bother to do a pun on the show title for their parody of Alice.

As a kid, there were always peanut jokes about Jimmy Carter, like pictures of him being drawn as a peanut or serving peanuts in the White House. This was all most people my age knew about him, with political policy beyond our understanding and/or shielded from us. It's only recently that I've known what the peanut association was about.

Sick #126, 3 of 4

Excerpt from Sick. the other two excerpts are here and here.
Parody of The Love Boat drawn by Jack Sparling, who was also the editor. Guest stars chosen not because they were swiped by Mort Drucker, which MAD competitors usually did for spoofs, these seem to be traced from photographs.

Goodbye Girl spoof by Dave Manak

Kojak parody

Sick #126, 2 of 4

I posted the first part of this last week on my blog here.

This was most likely a parody of the late 70s Wonder Woman show, though I'd like to think it's this one.

Poor Arnold Drake. Creator of Doom Patrol reduced to writing things like this. The art is by editor Jack Sparling, also under-achieving.

Possibly the only time a kiddie humor magazine used footnotes.

Parody of Close Encounters of the Third Kind by David Manak.

Sick #126, 1 of 4

My guess is that this issue of Sick was all inventory. Except for the covers, every single article is a movie or TV parody and it carries on with the regular numbering system despite being thicker than other issues.

cover by Jack Sparling, who edited and did most of the material himself. He'd been a comic book and strip artist for years, so he must have desperately needed the money.

The mascot was somebody named Huckleberry Fink, but supposedly they got a cease and desist letter from MAD saying he looked too much like Alfred E. Neuman, so was given a suit of armor to hide his appearance.

Parody of the original Battlestar Galactica

Star Wars parody by Dave Manak.

If, in the late seventies someone were to ask you, “Which will still be here in 40 years, Sick or Star Wars, which would you say?

The Spy Who Loved Me parody