Sunday Morning Funnies time once again, and still dropping Odd bits from Len Wein after we lost him two weeks ago. So this time, let's go to Crazy #1...
Okay... That's not at all confusing. Just a little Crazy. Len's parody is in the 1973 black & white Crazy #1. But let's take the long way there, starting with 1953's Crazy #1-
The first tale in this Crazy features the only "Lace Cadet" i've ever encountered-
19 years later, we get another Crazy #1-
Oddly enough, the indicia in this issue gives copyright notice of reprints from the 1953 series, but the material seems to be all parodies of 1960s Marvel Titles. One might think they were reprinting from Not Brand Echh instead. The lead story from this version of Crazy #1 starred, as all the stories in this issue did, the ignoble Forbush Man!
A year later, they decided that really didn't work out any better than NBE, so they tried once more with the black & white magazine style of the other mental illnesses (Mad, Cracked, Sick, etc.,.)
Wait.... what..? That can't be...
GODHELL!!! That's a Kelly Freas painted cover to kick off the new title! How did this come about? In whose name do we burn offering for this?
Um... excuse me.
I may have mentioned previously that Frank Kelly Freas, like Jack Kirby, was one of the Masters who inspired me to follow the path of the artist. (Artdo? YiShuJiaDao seems a bit unweildy... (and the combined brushwork on those 4 characters is overly busy and inelegant, too))
Y'know... I think i might be old man rambling again. And, speaking of old people - how many remember one of the first of the big Irwin Allen disaster movies that created the genre - The Poseidon Adventure?
I actually had the movie poster for this up on my wall, along with Planet Of The Apes and others. Back in them old days, you could just go to the theatre and ask the manager for the poster after the movie run was over. They were just going to throw it away, and you might get lobby cards and other promos, too. Develop a relationship with them, and you could even wind up with life-size lobby stand-ups.
I really don't think that happens much now. Not without cash changing hands.
Okay - rambling again...
Here's Len Wein's parody adaptation of the movie, with art by Ross Andru & Vic Martin, from our Crazy #1 number 3:
Bonus Oddity! Here's a satirical(?) view of the future from Harlan Ellison, with illustration from Basil Wolverton! They really weren't skimping on the talent for this first issue, were they?
And, simply because it took me this long to remember where this was and dig it out to prep for the VOO, and - what the heck - because Tony Isabella worked on this issue of Crazy, also, here's my favorite view of Len Wein as editor, from Giant-Size Chiller #3...
...and at the end of the book:
Another Oddly Enough remark - this issue reprinted the first story that Marvel published by Len Wein. (The Moving Finger Writes, from Tower Of Shadows #3 (1970))
Well, that was a long post.
And i'm all out of potatoes. Left them all in a barrel in Skyrim and they disappeared on me.
Here's a bear. They don't eat potatoes.
fun with bears by Frank Frazetta
