Crazy Magazine
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Crazy Magazine was a humor magazine. It was published by Marvel Comics from 1973 to 1983 for a total of 94 regular issues (not counting various specials). It was preceded by a standard-size comic book titled Crazy, which lasted only three issues.
Many comic book 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 #8-14 and wanted it to be distinctive from the archteypal Mad, said[citation needed] 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.
Crazy originally featured a short, bug-eyed mascot with a large black hat and draped in a black cape, who was called Irving Nebbish. Marv Wolfman created the character.
Later in Crazy's run, he was replaced with the belligerent Obnoxio the Clown. Many of the features involved reoccurring 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. What it did not have was Marvel's traditional comic artists and writers, and so eventually became marginalized by the Marvel fanbase.
Its last issue, #94, featured the banner "So long, chumps!"
The publication was referenced in The Simpsons episode "Separate Vocations". Principal Skinner shows Bart some of the confiscated contraband in a storeroom at Springfield Elementary: "Complete collections of Mad, Cracked, and even the occasional Crazy!"
In 1982 a Dutch version of Crazy was published by Juniorpress. The only editor, translator and contributor of the four issues was Ger Apeldoorn.
A previous 'Crazy' magazine existed running concurrently with Mad in the 1950s. Published by Charlton and running for at least 4 years (Copies are notoriously difficult to find) the magazine attempted to offer an alternative humour to that of Mad, and was often more akin to Ballyhoo magazine.
For other notable Mad imitators, see MAD Magazine.
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