‘Crazy: The Magazine That Dared To Be Dumb’ (review)

Written by Mark Arnold and Mark Slade
Introduction by Bob McLeod
Published by BearManor Media

Crazy: The Magazine That Dared to be Dumb (with an Introduction by Bob McLeod), is the latest in Mark Arnold’s series of books on the histories of great humor magazines, this one co-written with Mark Slade. The prolific Arnold previously did two volumes each on MAD and Cracked and has DC’s Plop comic book waiting in the wings!

This current one is only a single volume but it’s a tremendously detailed, nearly 600-page book!

In fact, even though I was never really much of a fan of Marvel’s Crazy, and despite one major issue with this new book (which I’ll get to in a bit), I really think this might be my favorite of the humor history books to date. Sometimes reading about something can end up being more interesting than reading the something itself!

Crazy had a good run, with 94 numbered issues between 1983 and 1993, as well as a few special editions.

During that decade, though, it was, for all intents and purposes, several different magazines, depending on who was running it at the time. In the beginning, there was Marv Wolfman’s version, which set the standard of the mag both parodying and aping other humor mags and at the same time trying to be something different.

The first issue famously had some repurposed contributions from Harlan Ellison, Basil Wolverton, Vaughn Bode, and even a clever new cover by longtime MAD cover artist Kelly Freas! Parodies from the likes of Neal Adams and Mike Ploog filled those early issues.

It wasn’t too long, though, before Marv moved on, leaving the mag in the capable hands of Steve Gerber, creator of Howard the Duck, and certainly one of Marvel’s cleverest—and darkest—writers of that period. Gerber wasn’t there that long, though, before Paul Laikin, a veteran of Cracked and numerous other satire mags settled in for several years.

Finally, Larry Hama took over Crazy for its last few years and remade it almost entirely, into many fans’ favorite version.

All of this is covered in some depth by the two Marks in the book, with nearly issue-by-issue coverage noting highlights and then interspersing bios of all the major players, interviews with both living and dead creators, and informative, article-style pieces on various aspects of the mag’s history.

Among others given their overdue due here are Paul Kupperberg, his now-late brother Alan Kupperberg (a close Facebook friend of mine), Mike Carlin, Lee Marrs, Tony Tallarico, Murad Gumen, Dave Manak, Mary Skrenes, Walter Brogan, Kent Gamble, and Don Orehek.

My only real problem with Crazy: The Magazine That Dared to be Dumb is that it could have used a thorough edit.

As it is, the text is littered with poorly written and sometimes confusing sentences, as well as incorrect punctuation leading to sentence fragments. The book’s biggest sin, though, is its repetitiveness.

An interview with Larry Hama, for example, is immediately followed by a chapter on Hama that not only covers the exact same ground but literally incorporates the exact same quotes! This happens at least one other time in the book, too.

Still, while all that’s annoying, the bottom line with a book about this is if it made me want to give the mag another try all these years later, and it did just that. When all was said and done, I found myself particularly wanting to check out the final, Hama era of Crazy.

Along with covering every possible angle and aspect of Crazy (complete with a massive index in the back matter), the authors also do a very good job of placing Marvel’s Bronze Age satire mag squarely in context, doing light coverage of the company’s earlier and later humor mags and comics, as well as of some of the many rival mags of the day.

Overall, in spite of its major flaw, Crazy: The Magazine That Dared to be Dumb, is a fun and interesting book, covering a subject that was well worth revisiting.

Booksteve recommends.