Crazy (magazine)
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Crazy was a humor magazine, an imitator of the popular MAD Magazine. It was published by Marvel Comics from 1973 to 1983 for a total of 94 regular issues (not counting various specials).
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 even contributed to the book.
In its early days, Crazy had a dark edge to its parodies. For example, in its ongoing parodies of TV commercials, the character based on Mr. Whipple gunned down the housewives who squeezed the "Charming." But the early Crazy also had a more innocent side too, such as its ongoing history of the world, but with moose instead of people.
Crazy not only did Mad Magazine-like articles but experimented with fumetti (comic strips with photos instead of drawings) similar to what was seen in Harvey Kurtzman's Help! of the 1960s.
Crazy originally featured a short, bug-eyed mascot with a large black hat and draped in a black cape, who was called Irving Nebbish.
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.
For other notable Mad imitators, see MAD Magazine.
