Crazy #81 - Marvel

Dec. 1981 - "The magazine that dares to be dumb!"

As I've mentioned once or twice before, Crazy was one of those magazines that would have been perfect for me. I was around nine or ten when issues like this came out, and its humor, since it leaned more towards superhero parodies (being produced as it was by Marvel Comics), was right up my alley.

But for some reason, I can never remember seeing hardly any issues of the series at my local newsstands. There was always Mad, most of the time Cracked, but I almost never saw Crazy. Not sure why that was, but I'm sure if I had seen it for sale at the time, I would've picked it up, especially issues with covers like this!

When searching on eBay for an issue of Crazy to read, I couldn't pass up a Marvel book parodying a DC character. Little did I know the spoof, titled Sooperman, Too!, was written by none other than DC stalwart, Paul Kupperberg!:

At only six pages, this story moves at a lightning fast pace. And there are a couple of moments that actually made me laugh out loud, even all these years later.

Marvel had the advantage of putting some of their regular people on Crazy, who turned out spectacular work. A good example of that is "Teen Hulk!" by Jim Owsley and Bob McLeod:

McLeod's work here is just beautiful, with just enough cartooniness to make the humor work.

There's another installment of "Dirk McGirk", the intellectually-challenged (but indefatigable) fifth grader by Mike Carlin. Following that is "If They Were Alive Today", by Dick Codor, who has famous women from history in modern times.

Most of the jokes are silly, of course, but the final page of the strip features some interesting social and political commentary that sort of sneaks up on you:

...I simply love this last panel; with the rich M.D. being driven by in a limo, while Florence Nightengale tends to those with real needs.

There's "Auntie Nuke", by Susan Bissett and Steve Smallwood, who does a nice job on the art:

There's also "Crazy Looks At Trick or Treating", "The Kinetic Kids" by Steve Mellor (which is two pages you flip back and forth and note the changes; sort Crazy's version of the Mad Fold-In), a fumetti feature called "Night of the Living Hand!", and "Great Poems Shortened Into Limericks".

This being Crazy, there's always an appearance by Obnoxio The Clown:

There's a couple more one or two page strips, ending with a "traditional" TV/movie parody; in this case "M*U*S*H In Vietnam" by Murad Gumen(?) and Kent Gamble:

Being a big M*A*S*H fan, I have to admit I didn't laugh too much at the jokes, but man the artwork by Gamble is really nice: well drawn, beautiful to look at, but also funny and featuring superb caricatures.

On the inside back cover, Mike Carlin gets another page to his own with the appropriately-titled "Mike Carlin's Page O'Stuff":

I bought this magazine on eBay for around $1.50, a good deal---there's a lot of solid material in here, and I'm really sorry I didn't discover this when I was ten: I would've loved it.

Savage Sword of Conan #164 - Marvel

Sept. 1989 - "The Slithering God"

Ernie Chan really brings it in this issue, featuring everyone's favorite Cimmerian taking on a really disgusting monster:

The story opens with said disgusting monster breaking up out of the ground of a small village, and grabbing an unsuspecting villager.

The victim's screams are heard throughout the town, even to the people inside a nearby tavern, which include Conan and a guy who has a lot of guts:

I just love the idea of this guy, hurling one insult after the other at Conan, it makes me laugh. Luckily for him, the fight is stopped before it starts by a squirrely-looking thief who is on the run from some local authorities.

Conan of course gets drawn into the fight (it doesn't take much), and ends up in chains along with his thieving pal Trollo:

With the help of a young kid, Conan and Trollo escape, and once again fight the authorities. After getting away from them (but not after spilling some blood), they try and figure out a way out of the city.

But that's when they see this:

...this is another moment that makes me laugh: the creature just sort of slithering by, sort of minding its own business. This is the kind of crazy stuff that takes place in Conan's world.

Figuring its a way to escape the city and the authorities, Conan and Trollo climb down the giant hole the beast climbed into, leading into a series of tunnels. But they discover something they didn't expect: a cult of hooded men about to sacrifice a woman to the creature!:

Just as the girl's about to be pushed off the plank, Conan, ever the gentleman, swings by, cutting one of the beast's limbs off and grabbing the girl.

The hooded men swarm, leaving Conan and the girl trapped:

Conan makes his way through the crowd (with the inadvertent help of the creature, since it grabs some of them itself), and tries to find a way out. The girl, brainwashed, refuses to come along, leading Conan to lightly tap her into unconsciousness. Dames, by Crom!

The creature, now on a rampage since its a little hungry, lets it rip, as does Ernie Chan:

(click to embiggen)

As the creature tears up the town, Conan escapes on horseback. Later, the girl comes to, thanking Conan for rescuing her. Even better, he managed to grab some gold from the monster's lair. Conan and the girl hop back on their horse, and head south.


A very fun story by Chuck Dixon, with a great, oogly monster. Ernie Chan really did a fine job here; the monster is just so ridiculous and ugly its a perfect Conan foe.

In addition to this story, there's a Conan pin-up by Dave Simons, and a back-up story titled "Uprising!":

A fairly gory story, its not bad, but nothing to write home about.

The issue wraps up with another Conan pin-up. With all this (not to mention the spiffy Earl Norem cover), you've got one fine issue of Savage Sword of Conan!

National Lampoon Vol.1 #30 - National Lampoon Inc.

Sept. 1972 - The Boredom Issue!

The issues of NatLamp I'm most interested in are of course the ones with the really cool comic book material, but those are also the most expensive ones to find for a decent price.

This particular issue only has a little bit of that type of material, but pretty much any issue of National Lampoon under the art direction of Michael Gross is worth looking at--the unusual cover alone bears his, uh, stamp.

Among the articles is a piece on actor George Sanders, who had killed himself just a few months earlier:

There are a couple of articles revolving around the "Boredom" theme, the main one being a four-page section featuring the stamps seen on the cover, and what you can can get by redeeming them:

...this thing is a clip art dream!

There's a silly piece called "Tony Hendra's World of Meat", featuring hunks of dead animal flesh sitting in for various famous people and objects through history.

The comic insert--printed on newsprint instead of the magazine's normally glossy stock--is drawn by Ralph Reese, and is all about President Nixon's infamous brother Donald:

There's a "Foto Funnies" page featuring some nudity (always nice), some cartoons by Gahan Wilson, a brutal piece about Johnny Carson by Michael O'Donoghue (not realizing of course that it would be Carson who would be the catalyst for the creation of Saturday Night Live, the thing O'Donoghue is arguably most famous for).

There's another piece called "Bland Hotel", featuring some really nice, vintage-y artwork:

It was articles like this that I think best exemplified the work of NatLamp Art Director Michael Gross. It was Gross' job to give the magazine a crisp, professional look, knowing the right kind of work to use for specific pieces. For this article, the illustrations really make the thing.

There's another article on "Our White Cultural Heritage", "Nuts" by Gahan Wilson, and some other comic strip material by some other NatLamp regulars.


Not a bad issue, but I don't think its one of the Lampoon's finest. I'm still determined to find some others that feature more comic book-centric material--I guess I just have to keep looking...

Marvel Preview #10 - Marvel

Winter 1977 - An all-new adventure with The Mighty Thor!

Only a small handful of Marvel's superhero stars were deemed marketable as b/w magazine headliners--they tried (briefly) with Spider-Man, but there was also The Punisher, the Hulk of course, and Howard The Duck, all to different levels of success.

But the vast majority of Marvel's other big stars--Captain America, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Daredevil, etc.--never got the chance to appear in the b/w line. But a curious addition to the former list is the Mighty Thor.

Yes, Thor got the chance to star in his own b/w "try-out" issue of Marvel Preview; featuring an all-new story; one that was clearly designed and aimed at a slightly older audience.

The inside cover features a nifty pin-up by Jim Starlin, and then the main story--simply called "Thor the Mighty"--kicks off by Len Wein, Jim Starlin, and Tony DeZuniga:

Thor's good-natured drunken brawling is interrupted when he is called before his father, Odin. When he sees his brother Loki is there, too--they are both charged by their father to retrieve the Crystal of Blood, a dangerous gemstone that, in the wrong hands, could bring about total non-existence!

Thor and Loki head out, and make their way to the castle home of the dark sorceress Shamballa. During dinner, Shamballa lays it on thick to the Thunder God. Afterward, she shows up in Thor's room and makes her feelings clear:

While still relatively chaste (by, say, Conan's standards), this scene is way more explicit than anything you ever saw Thor do in his regular color comic--which leads me to think this story was written specifically for this magazine format, not a repurposed one originally meant for the color line.

Thor's romance is interrupted when he hears his brother call out for help--he's being attacked by a horde of meddlesome demons! Thor, of course, beats them away with Mjolnir. Later, they head back out, and find their prescribed destination:

Inside the chamber, the find a pile of skeletons and giant statues "watching" over them. Thor smashes through the only other door in the place, leading to the statues to come alive!

A battle ensues, and after a few pages they all spot the Crystal of Blood, perched at the edge of a small river flowing deep inside a cave. As they approach it, they are all startled by a giant sea creature!

After chomping on a few guys, Thor gets in the creature's face and begins to pound away:

This is another moment that makes me think this was aimed at a (slightly) older readership--check the spurts of blood hitting Thor's arm as he pounds the creature with Mjolnir. That's something else you never saw in the regular Thor comic.

Thor defeats the creature, and then of course Loki tries to double-cross his brother and try to control the crystal. That doesn't work, leading to the cave collapsing, burying the crystal in the rubble. Thor helps save his brother, even though Loki is a total dick.

Thor and Loki head home, and apologize to Odin for failing. Odin realizes its probably better the crystal is lost forever--no one, but no one, should have control of such awesome power.

All in all, a really fun story, full of adventure, and with just a couple of extra elements that make it feel a little different than your typical Thor adventure. The story moves at a good clip, and the art by Starlin and DeZuniga (not a great combo, to my eye) is decent if unspectacular.

But that's not all! This issue also features a second story, starring that other Asgardian ass-kicker, Hercules!:

In this story, Hercules gets to do what he does best--fight a Griffin, fight Medusa, brag about his strength, ending with him picking up a topless wench with one hand a flagon of mead in the other, heading off for a fun night.

There's another Thor pin-up by Rudy Nebres, ending what is a really solid package. I would've loved to have seen more b/w mags starring Thor if they all could've been this good.

Uncensored #2 - Plaza Digest

Jan. 1956 - "Lowdown On What's Behind The Headlines"

I like occasionally branching out and looking at other kinds of magazines here on the blog. I've covered a couple of what are called "Men's Magazines", so today we're going to take our first foray into the classic "gossip rag."

The most famous of these was Confidential, which caused a huge uproar when it debuted in 1952. It named names, spilled shocking secrets, etc. And even though the magazine got sued all the time, it was so popular it caused dozens of knock-offs, like this mag, Uncensored.

I picked up an issue of Uncensored cheap, and it did not disappoint. First off, I just love the cover--the whole b/w photos-plus-big-blocks-of-color-look just really appeals to the graphic designer in me.

But that bold, in-your-face look extends to the inside. Check out the very first article, about Rex "Dr. Doolittle" Harrison:

The spot color, the layout, the addition of the cartoony figures with the phone cord twirling through the text--I mean, that's just beautiful.

Each article in the magazine runs about 2-3 pages, and basically follows the same formula: "Did you hear (fill in name of celebrity) is doing (fill in name of salacious activity)?"

There's one on Gwen Verdon, "Hollywood's Happy Ingrates", Liz Taylor (I'm surprised she didn't have a gossip mag devoted to her exclusively, she provided so much gossip material), a weird article about another looming Pearl Harbor(?), and then this:

Considering that Rudolph Valentino died about a quarter century earlier, I don't think is the most juicy piece of gossip Uncensored ever ran.

There's a piece called "What's Gotten Into TV's Mary Sinclair?" (ho, ho!), one called "The Tantrum That Marked Lanza Lousy" (not a Dick Tracy villain, its the magazine's nickname for singer Mario Lanza), "Why Maureen O'Hara Can't Handle Love!", and then something called "Cafe Society's 'Hush-Hush' Game":

It took me a couple of minutes to realize I think that's two guys, which would've been pretty shocking for 1952. The article doesn't make much mention of it, oddly enough.

There's a piece called "Tab Hunter and The Man Who Made Him"--supposedly about his talent agent, but the way they have the agent's photo looking at a separate photo of a shirtless Tab, I think we all know what they're getting at.

After a piece on Marilyn Monroe, there's this startling expose:

The article features all sorts of crazy add-ons that supposedly make cars safer, like a sand spray, an automatic tire alarm, and something called a "seatbelt."

Following that is an article featuring a combo of words I never thought I'd see put all in a row:

There's an expose on "Sandra Rambeau, The Showgirl Who Made Jokers of Kings", an article called "How To Raise Circulation with Sex" (they mean magazine circulation; get your minds out of the gutter!), a piece on Socrates Onassis, one on Toots Shor, and then this beauty:

...not a Universal "B" sci-fi film; rather its about a tough time in Coward's life before he hit it big.

The rest of the magazine is devoted to the conclusion of all the articles, interspersed with lots of ads for various products--girdles, dance books, encyclopedias, etc. Nothing terribly exciting, except for this one which caught my eye:

...what is there to say, really?

All in all, some pretty fun stuff--the articles are goofy, full of double-entendres, and the whole layout of the magazine is pretty attractive. And when you consider all this stuff had to be done by hand, you have to have an appreciation for all the work that went into an issue of Uncensored.

Marvel Super Special #26 - Marvel

1983 - James Bond is back!

I've always been a fan of James Bond, so a comic book starring 007 always interested me. But for some reason, Bond has never seemed to quite work as a comic book, in terms of sales at least--there have been numerous one-shots or mini-series, but there's been any ongoing Bond comic book.

I had never seen this Marvel adaptation of Octopussy, so I had no hesitation picking this up when I saw it on eBay. The cover doesn't reveal much about its contents, since its just stuff from the movie's press kit.

Once you get a look inside, though, you see that this issue doesn't look or feel like any typical Marvel comic book. The adaptation is by Steve Moore and Paul Neary, and the unusual coloring is uncredited. Here are some pages from the book:

The adaptation runs 48 pages, capturing most of the film's big moments. Why everyone is colored bright gold is a mystery.

If you closely at the indicia, you see that this whole book was licensed by Marvel from Eon Productions Ltd., but does not say where this material came from other than that. I looked the book up on the GCD, but could find no further information. I'm sure this book was run somewhere in England, but I'll be damned if I can find out where.

This Marvel Super Special does feature some material exclusive to this edition--a 14-page text feature about the Bond films, including some stills from Octopussy and some nice shots of the actors, including this beautiful one of Maud Adams:

The Marvel Super Special series ended in 1986, but there was no accompanying adaptation of the next Bond film in the series, A View To A Kill. Seeing as how that film turned out (at least how I remember it), maybe that was for the best.

King Kong Official Movie Magazine - Titan Magazines

2005 - King Kong, The Eighth Wonder of the World!

Even though these movie magazines hardly ever feature any comic book content, I'm still fascinated by them and can't help but feature some of them here on the blog.

In the age of the internet, with magazines dropping like flies, "official movie souvenir magazines" seem like such an antiquated, old-school idea that I'm charmed they're still around.

So here we are, the official movie magazine for Peter Jackson's mammoth King Kong remake. I didn't buy this at the time; rather I picked it up on eBay for a buck or two a little while ago.

Being a fan of the original, and even the 1976 remake, I was hoping this publication would provide a rich history of the character. But unfortunately this concentrates solely on the remake. It does open with promise, featuring a really cool, moody pre-production painting:

...as much as I liked the movie (and I did like it, a lot!), I wish there had been something this cool-looking in the movie!

Anyway, this magazine features the usual PR-centric features, including profiles of the stars, some of the crew, and of course Peter Jackson:

(As a side note: carrying Naomi Watts around all day is a job I'd volunteer for!)

There's interviews with Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, and a nice little section on the effects people. Thankfully, they weren't all guys sitting in front of their computers:

There's also an interview with Andy "Gollum" Serkis, who did the same job for Jackson in the LOTR movies that he did here. In that part of the magazine, there's this priceless still from the shooting of the movie:

...you know, seeing that gives me new respect for any actor that can make an F/X-heavy movie and actually find a way to concentrate. I know I wouldn't be able to look at Serkis in that ridiculous get up and not burst out laughing.

This magazine is a dreaded "flip book", in that halfway through it flips over and features a second front cover:

I said "dreaded" because I hate the concept of the flip book beyond reason. I mean, what's the point? To me, it just ruins the whole flow of the magazine. But let's get back to Kong!

So, overall, I was a tad disappointed in this: I would have looooved to have seen a whole "History of Kong" magazine, and who knows maybe they did one like that, too. They could've made a little room for that kind of material here (did we really need an interview with the kid who played the Cabin Boy?), but they decided to keep this one remake-only.

Hmm...I wonder if there's an "official souvenir magazine" for the 1976 version?