…well, it was all in the name of ‘satire’, so I guess that doesn’t really make it so scandalous.
MAD magazine, a satirical black-and-white publication that debuted as a full-color comic book in 1952, had reached an all-time high with a circulation of 2,132,655 in 1974. Marvel comics being saavy enought to recognize a good thing when they saw it, decided to release their own satirical black-and-white publication called Crazy Magazine in 1973.
Crazy magazine ran from 1973 to 1983 and went through several iterations that depended heavily on the editoral direction.
Marv WolfmanandSteve Gerber were the first two subsequent editors and, with the intent of producing a publication with a different “feel” to it, allowed the magazine to feature work by Harlan Ellison,Basil Wolverton,Neal Adams, and Don McGregor (among others). Early sales of the magazine were poor (this was attributed to Wolfman’s and Gerber’s “too-sopohisticated” approach), and Paul Laikin took over as editor in issue #16.
AfterLaikin became editor, the magazine became profitable again, but mainly because he reduced the payment rate for contributed material so low that no regular Marvel artists or writers had any interest in working for the magazine. The quality of the work suffered and this is most likely the point in time when Crazy Magazine was considered to be another MAD/Cracked Magazineclone.
Crazy stayed very close to the popular black-and-white humor magazine format and this included TV and movie parodies, observational humor on pop culture, features with “Crazy” in the title (ex: “A CRAZY look at…”, “The CRAZY guide to…”, etc), fake magazine parodies, fake full-color inserts, and they even had an Sylvester P Smythe/Alfred E Neuman-esque mascot named Irving Nebbish (he’s in the phone booth on the cover of issue #50). If you compared the interior contents and visual layout of CRAZYandMAD, you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish which was which.
Marvel comics decided to give the 'original dream’ another shot and replaced LaikinwithLarry Hama. Along with Hama came an increased budget (meant to offer higher pay rates to contributors) with the intention of bringing high-quality talent. The idea was to move away from 'juvenile’ material and to no longer be seen as a MAD magazineduplicate.Hama also planned on introducing regular features and even ushered in a frightening new mascot - Obnoxio the Clown (see cover of issue #81 above) - to replace Nebbish.
Crazy magazine’s last issue was issue #94 published in 1983.
You can view digital copies of Crazy Magazine on the Internet Archive.
AfterGreen Arrow was evicted from the series,Green Lantern v2 began to get a whole lot better. Green Arrow already had a long residency as a feature in World Finest v1 since 1977 - so don’t feel too sorry for him. Denny O'Neil, who had been writing Green Lantern since it’s DC Explosion revival in 1976 (GreenLantern v2 #90), wrote another six issues after Green Arrow had been booted out of the series and then left DC to work for Marvel comics in 1980. In his last six issues of Green Lantern,O'Neil managed to return Hal Jordan to his roots - Carol Ferris was re-instated as a potential love interest, Thomas Kalmaku (AKA Pieface) was back to being his sidekick, and Hal Jordan was once again a test pilot for Ferris Airlines. Another element O'Neil brought back was Hal Jordan’s arch-nemesis Sinestro - most of O'Neil’s final six issues involved a running plot of Hal Jordan battling Sinestro (with a dash of classic Green Lantern villains Hector Hammond and Star Sapphire thrown in for good measure). Whether it was a good time for O'Neil to cut and run from DC was up for debate as he had previously killed off Batwoman (Kathy Kane) in the pages ofDetective Comics that very same summer.
Green Lantern v2 issues #130 to #132 had guest writers. Bob Rozakis wrote issue #130, Mike W Barr wrote #131 and Paul Kupperberg wrote issue #132. What’s noteworthy about these issues is that we’re starting to see more of Green Lantern’s classical villains appear (Sonar and Evil Star). Another interesting development was occurring: now that Green Lantern wasn’t tethered to Green Arrow, there was more room to explore the Green Lantern mythos, and that included the Green Lantern Corps. The Green Lantern Corps played a prominent role in a few of O'Neil’s post-Green Arrow issues, but more importantly, the Green Lantern Corps received a back-up feature in Green Lantern v2 #130. Written by Bob Toomey and drawn by Alex Saviuk, the Green Lantern Corps stories were some previously completed but unpublished work that finally had a chance to be printed. Fans loved the concept and demanded more Green Lantern Corps stories. [more about that later]
Green Lantern v2 #132 saw a price jump from forty to fifty cents - this involved an extra eight pages of story and this is when Adam Strange became a back-up feature. Written by Jack C Harris and illustrated by Rodin L Rodriguez, the Adam Strange back-ups would run until Green Lantern v2 #147 (but not before switching creative teams to Laurie Sutton as writer and Carmine Infantino as artist). There would be another price increase to 60 cents by issue #144, for an extra 2 pages of story in 1981.
Marv Wolfman became the regular writer for Green Lantern v2 at issue #133. DC comics acquired the talented Mr. Wolfman after he had just left Marvel comics due to a dispute with Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter. Building on the momentum of O'Neil’s ‘back-to-basics’ approach for Hal Jordan, the first thing Wolfman did when he started writing Green Lantern was to shine up all of Hal Jordan’s relationships that had gotten a little vague over the last 20 years. He aimed to bring Hal and Carol Ferris back together, get all the characters set up, give Hal some new friends and create a new support cast as a launching pad for more stories. Wolfman also continued with the hit parade of classic Green Lantern villain appearances: Dr Polaris, Goldface, and Black Hand all appeared during Wolfman’s run. Interesting to note that Wolfman tried to make Goldface THE arch-foe of Hal Jordan. He wanted a foe whose super-powers were less important than the threat of his very existence. Wolfman also brought back an old one-time Green Lantern foe, The Tattooed Man, only to have him killed off*. This was possibly one of the first times a Green Lantern foe had been killed off - fans were a little annoyed by that little stunt. Wolfman explained that the Tattooed Man was killed off because his powers weren’t unique. Wolfman introduces the Omega Men (and the Vegan Star System) in Green Lantern v2 #141 (this would spin-off into it’s own series).
Long-time readers will most likely remember Wolfman as the writer who 'humanized’ Hal Jordan. Wolfman believed that what made a series work were the characters - if they are interesting and if their problems are engrossing. He believed that a blend of good stories, good characters and situations, coupled with interesting action sequences was the key to a successful series. Wolfman and his editors (Jack C Harris,Len Wein,Cary BurkettandDave Manak) decided to infuse a stronger personality in Hal Jordan (more so than done in the past). Wolfman really tried to get to the 'root’ of Hal Jordan. Another interesting plot element that Wolfman likes to explore is the masked crime fighter versus the legal system angle (as seen in Green Lantern v2 #145 - #146) - Wolfman would further explore this idea in his 1983Vigilanteseries.
As you are also probably well aware, Marv Wolfman was the mastermind behind the Crisis On Infinite Earths event - a grand gesture intended to make DC’s continuity way less confusing. You begin to recognize that Wolfman was making a concentrated effort to establish a DC-wide continuity in his Green Lantern v2run:
1. Re-introduction of older characters to a modern audience. These include Space Ranger from Green Lantern v2 #136 - #137, and Bruce Gordon/Eclipso from Green Lantern v2 #136 - #138.Wolfman is a stickler for cohesion, and demonstrating that characters from the old DC anthologies were still an active part of DC continuity is a major part of crafting a sense that everything is tied together and occupying the same universe.
2. Integrating characters from another title into the storyline. The Gordanians make an appearance and the H.I.V.E. are mentioned. Both sets of characters are from the New Teen Titans series that Wolfman was also writing at the same time. Most fans don’t realize this, but Wolfman was writing New Teen Titans,Action ComicsandAdventure Comics while he was writing Green Lantern v2. Integrating characters from another series as a way to create cohesion within the DC universe.
3. Answers the age-old question: if Hal Jordan was facing a global threat, where were all the other heroes? During Green Lantern’s battle with Eclipso, Wolfman made a point to show the rest of the Justice League’s efforts in combating the threat. Trying to keep the idea that although all of these characters occupy different comic book titles, they all occupy the same planet.
4.Wolfman addresses problems about Green Lantern v2 not meshing with prior DC history (case in point: Green Lantern v2 #136-#137 contradicts 1978’s Showcase #100).Wolfman explains that someday soon they will straighten all of that out (pre-lude to Crisis on Infinite Earths?).
5.Wolfman later incorporates some pre-existing Guardians of OA history into Crisis on Infinite Earths. The scene where a rogue Guardian (Krona) tries to view the creation of the universe thus unleashing the anti-monitor already existed prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths being written - Wolfman just retconned it slightly without altering anything major to meet the story’s needs. The Guardians of OA would come to play a major part in post-Crisis DC continuity (see: Millennium event)
The last issue of Wolfman’sGreen Lantern v2 run was issue #151 - after which he plotted issues #152 and #153 (while Gary CohnandDan Mishkin scripted) and became co-editor with Ernie Colon shortly thereafter. Wolfman dropped the series because he was too busy with the Teen Titans,Action Comicsandthe new horror/adventure series that he was planning.Wolfman left the series sending Hal Jordan in a new sci-fi direction (banished from earth by the Guardians of OA), his view was to get Hal off of Earth - Wolfman reasoned that Hal should be the Green Lantern of his entire space sector, not just the planet Earth. Green Lantern v2 #155 was the last issue pencilled by Joe Staton(Keith Pollard took over pencilling chores afterwards) - Staton would return as regular Green Lantern penciller two years later.
What was Wolfman’s impact on Green Lantern during his two year run? Green Lantern’s sales were very good when Wolfman took over, but dipped quite badly after the Space Ranger story arc. Sales of the series started climbing again after the introduction of the Omega Men. Sales for Green Lantern v2 were really high as of issue #147, so Wolfman left the series in pretty good health when Mike W Barr took over as regular writer.
WhileWolfman’s excellent writing, characterization and new direction for the series during this time period is definitely worth noting, I’d say the biggest development during this two year period was the Green Lantern Corps taking a more prominent role in the Green Lantern mythos. The Green Lantern Corps appeared in Green Lantern v2 #127(whileO'Neil was writing) and there seemed to be a pretty good response from the fans, so the Corps started to get a little bit more exposure in the series.
In 1981, a 3 issue mini-series written by Len WeinandMike W Barr was published titled Tales of the Green Lantern Corps that mainly focused on the Corps as a single unit (this included Hal Jordan). Various Green Lantern stories in the past had featured alien Green Lanterns in one-off team-up stories, but suddenly it was made aware that the Green Lantern Corps consisted of a diverse race of aliens with it’s own culture. The critical and sales impact of the Tales of Green Lantern Corps mini-series had a notable impact on Green Lantern v2 - lead stories began to have more alien Green Lantern Corps members and, as a result, more Green Lantern Corps members (Ch'P, Salaak, Arisia, Galius Zed, etc…) were introduced in the pages of Green Lantern v2. The Green Lantern Corps were so popular with the readers that the Adam Strange back-up feature was removed (#148) in favor of more Green Lantern Corps back-up features appearing instead. Paul Kupperberg (who was fresh on his stint from DC’s Ghosts) was writing said back-up tales and Don Newtonand/orCarmine Infantino was illustrating. Incedentaly, Kupperberg/Infantino also worked together on 1982’s New Adventures of Supergirlseries.
*In possibly THE most obscure spin-off ever, the Tattooed Man received his own Vertigo mini-series in 1993: Skin Graft: The Adventures of a Tattooed Man written by Jerry Prosser and illustrated by Warren Pleece.
When one looks back on the 1980s comic book industry as a whole, the more observant reviewer will probably draw parallels between DC’s Teen TitansandMarvel’s X-Men - mainly for the fact that they were both ‘team’ books and hot properties for their respective companies*. Knowing a good thing when they saw it, Marvel created several spin-off 'X-books’ (i.e. X-Factor,Excalibur,New Mutants) throughout the decade. DC also had the same idea and the 80s saw various Teen Titans spin-offs such as 1982’s Tales of the New Teen Titans, 1984’s Baxter edition (set 1 year in the future from the current Tales of the Teen Titans series), and 1986’s Teen Titans Spotlight On…series.
InMarv Wolfman’s own words, the Teen Titan Spotlight On… series was inevitable as Wolfman had different characters he wanted to explore within the Teen Titans universe and he really couldn’t deviate from the story lines of the regular series to focus attention on any individual characters (at the risk of alienating the rest of the team). In my opinion, Wolfman did something brilliant with this series - as opposed to writing all of the issues himself, he had some of DC’s top talent write the issues (while he still retained creative control) - this allowed writers who were not normally affiliated with the Titans to bring a different perspective to the series. You can probably go ahead and call this an 'anthology’ series, due to the creative teams changing with almost every issue. For anyone who may be concerned - yes, George Perez still contributed covers to the series.
I’m kind of feeling this series was overlooked by the fans due to it being a spin-off and all. This is a shame, since if you are a Teen Titans fan/DC continuity hound like myself, this series is absolute gold. As mentioned, there’s lots of attention given to secondary characters who don’t normally get much characterization, so it’s always nice to see something like that. Due to space constraints, I’m basically going to give an overview of the highlights of this twenty-one issue series.
The series debuted with a two-issue Starfire story in which she tries to battle Apartheid (with a little help from a character who looks strikingly familiar to Nelson Mandela) written by Wolfman himself. The story dealt with real-word issues (concerns of social and political relevance injected into the story line) and Wolfman inserted a few subversive political statements, but the main goal was to raise political awareness about the war in South Africa. The first issue was not submitted to the Comics Code Authority for approval (contained crucial story elements that were in violation of code) and therefore does not have a CCA seal on the cover. These issues received a lot of press, as Apartheid and South Africa were all over the media in 1986. This storyline received mixed reviews from readers, but great attention from the media. Starting a new comic book series with a controversial story line was a very intelligent marketing move, Mr. Wolfman.Wolfman later went on to say that he did not wish for Teen Titans Spotlight On… to become “the relevant comic of our time”, and the series pretty much stayed away from topical issues after that.
A few lesser-known Titans get some attention in this series, namely Jericho (Deathstroke’s son), Aqualad, Wonder Girl, Thunder & Lightning, and Frances Kane/Magenta. Frances Kane/Magenta (who many fans compared to Marvel’sPolaris) became a recurring character in Flash v2 several years later. True story: Frances Kane’s superhero name, 'Magenta’, was pretty much invented on the fly by Barbara Randall,Tony IsabellaandWolfman before the issue went to print. Hawk (of Hawk & Dove) got a two-issue solo story written by Mike Baron that takes place sometime between the death of Don Hall (old Dove) and his introduction to Dawn Granger (new Dove). This series was not immune to the Millennium company event and had two cross-over issues: one teaming Aqualad and Aquaman together (written by Dan Miskinand Gary Cohn), and another spotlighting Harbinger written by Barabara Randall (as a direct tie-in to the New GuardiansseriesSteve Englehart was writing). An Omega Men spotlight issue was included (written by Todd Klein and illustrated by Erik Larsen) which took place after the Omega Men series had been cancelled. What’s the Titans connection? Starfire’s brother is a member of the Omega Men and the Omega Men were created by Wolfman. Fans loved the issue (gave them a sense of closure) and hoped it was a prelude to a new Omega Men series (or at least more stories). 'Nay’ to both.
Not sure if many readers remember, but the Doom Patrol were connected to the Teen Titans mythos (the connection being Changeling, who was the ex-patroller named 'Beast Boy’) and this became extremely prevalent in this anthology series. Aqualand battles ex-patroller Mento in a story by John Ostrander (and illustrated by Eric Larsen), the Brotherhood of Evil (who were originally Doom Patrol villains) get an issue to themselves and a Changelling/Robotman team-up (written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by Dan Jurgens) served as a prelude to Kupperberg’s 1987 Doom Patrol series. Mr 104 (AKA Mr 103) appears for the first time in two decades in the Changeling/Robotman issue, only to be killed off for good later that year. (don’t call it a comeback)
There are three issues that really stand out above all the rest of the great stuff in this series, and I’ll tell you why:
Teen Titans Spotlight On… #13 (1987) was a Cybrog story written by J. Michael Straczynski that pitted him against Two-Face. During the 80s, the Teen Titans typically fought their own gallery of rogues (i.e. Fearsome Five, Deathstroke, H.I.V.E., Trigon’s forces, Blackfire and company, etc) so it was a pretty cool concept to have Cyborg battle a Bat villain. It gave a nice sense of continuity reminding readers the Batman and the Teen Titans all inhabited the same universe, and it was a great story to boot.
Teen Titans Spotlight On… #14 (1987) had Nightwing return to Gotham City to save Batman. This story was written by Micheal Reaves and featured one of Nightwing’s first encounters with Batman post-Crisis in DC. Yes, Nightwing did first appear in Tales of the New Teen Titans #44 (1984), but the 1987 Batman reboot kind of messed up continuity for Batman and affiliated characters, so while I’m not sure if this counts as Nightwing’s first 'official’ encounter with Batman, it seems to be a significant enough story for Nightwing fans to want to collect it. I’m not really 100% how many times Nightwing has met Batman for the first time in the DCU. If any Nightwing historians want to 'school’ me on this matter, I’d be happy to quote you. :)
The last issue of the series, Teen Titans Spotlight On… #21 (1988) was a throwback to the 1960s Teen Titans team (Robin, Aqualad, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash) where they kind of play as a 'mod squad’ to combat organized crime. Written by Mark EvanierandSharman Divono, it wasn’t a retcon, but it was inconsequential enough to be just slid in there and not really have any impact on Teen Titans history. Dan Spiegle illustrated this issue, and if you don’t know who Spiegle is, he’s the artist that illustrated a large variety of Gold Key Comics titles from the 1960s, giving this 1960s Teen Titans story an even more 'authentic’ feel.
Teen Titans Spotlight On… ended suddenly with issue #21. I say 'suddenly’ because there was no real fore-warning that the series was in any sort of trouble in regards to sales. Actually, it was teased in an earlier letter column that Raven would be having her own solo story in issue #22. The reasons given for the sudden cancellation was that Wolfman was too busy with other projects to keep overseeing this series, and the reason he was so busy was because other great Teen Titans projects were in the works (a new Titans team book, a Teen Titans graphic novel called ’Titans of Myth’ by WolfmanandPerez, and a Nightwing solo series). I seem to recall reading something about Perez stating that he no longer wanted to draw monthly issues of anything anymore, and that he would rather only draw Graphic Novels. None of these projects saw completion within the alloted time schedule, btw.
Other than the few negative comments about the Starfire/Apartheid story, fan reaction to this series was incredibly positive. Fans loved the concept and the line-up of writers and artists. There were many requests for Nightwing stories as well as Bat-girl (old Titans West character) stories. Oddly enough, this series generated a lot of hype for a Titans West series that never materialized. I’m thinking it had something to do with Hawk’s two-parter, which gave false hopes to fans that a Titans West revival was in the works.**
Doug Moench wrote a Wonder Girl story that fans felt was a real missed opportunity to explain the whole post-Crisis Wonder Girl/Donna Troy origin which Wolfman had been promising readers for the past 2 years. Could you really blame Moench for not wanting to jump on that grenade? I’m assuming Wonder Girl/Donna Troy’s elusive post-Crisis Wonder Woman connection was going to be revealed in the ’Titans of Myth’ graphic novel WolfmanandPerez were working on.
*In 1982, the New Teen Titans and the Uncanny X-Men even had an inter-company cross-over.
I got super lucky and discovered this set of four massive Universal Monster plushies on eBay for $73 including shipping! They measure 22 inches tall and weigh about 2 pounds each According to their tags, they were sold exclusively at CVS for $24.99 each in 1999. They’re pretty rare to find online these days, although there are still some floating around on eBay.
The 16-inch Mummy and Phantom plushies are actually by Nanco despite looking just like the CVS Stuffins versions. I bought the pair on eBay for $23 (incl. shipping) and I couldn’t find any others like them online. (You can easily find the 9-inch Stuffins online tho )
The details in these plushies are simply amazing. They really went the extra mile with them The only drawback was the fake leather material they used on Dracula and Frankenstein’s shoes. It was peeling badly when I received them, so I created some overshoes out of another fabric to protect them.
You’ll notice in the last pic, they’re facing forward in front of the coffee table. I must admit…I’ve turned them into TV junkies Fortunately I mostly watch carefully chosen movies, so they’re watching quality stuff I tell ya!
The Modsters are back for NYCC! In addition to the original mini prints, I will also have this 24” x 18” screen print of the whole ghoul gang! Printed by my friends at @_the_headlight_! And a new pin! I dare you to find monsters with better taste in mid century furniture and cocktails! Booth 874! . . . #modstersquad #monsters #midcenturymodern #furniture #design #illustration #poster #screenprint #horror #mod #nycc #frankenstein #dracula #wolfman #creaturefromtheblacklagoon (at New York Comic Con) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2zxvKHFi9v/?utm_medium=tumblr
This fall I was able to take a Character Design course from the wonderful Carlos Grangel! For the class I developed a cast of characters for a comedy driven 2d take on the story of The Wolfman.
I’m excited to share my character designs for this story and hope to continue to develop it in the future!
Back on my bullshit yet again lmao. I drew Griffin in his outfit from the actual movie, he does not like the outfit lmao I also fucked up Wayne a bit by accident his style changes periodically but whatever.
Three panels I’m highlighting from my webcomic Ouramyr.
Short adventures of the creatures and figures of Mythology. Inez journeys out as she researches and records these rumored tales. Companied by her own mythical creature, named “poppy” or so that’s what Inez calls him.
Can you hear it, the calling of the moon It is reaching for me now It’s a primal rage building up in me Cannot stop it to break free - Timeless Miracle “Curse of the Werewolf”
“I came to Northland Asylum looking for either a cure or a cage. What I found, was my true self.” - From the journal of Creighton Chaney (Northland Asylum patient)
Here’s some in progress shots of wolf number 2. I think it’s going to turn out a little better than the first one. That’s good since I’m selling this one at MHC.
It’s Werewolf Wednesday! I’ve been planning this build for years, and I finally buckled down and did it. This has been my dream build for a while, so I’m keeping this one, but I’m bulging another for my Booth at the Midwest Haunters Convention. The jaw moves and the eyes are LEDs. Head and hands are all patterned and carved from EVA foam.
The last leaves fall, the season comes to an end and Creighton Chaney says goodbye to Northland Asylum. They have given me freedom, not just freedom from a cell, but freedom of mind and soul, a freedom of self. But, with tooth and claw, I have watered the asylum grounds with blood. The outside world has taken notice of the things that go on here and I will not be around when the mob arrives. When it burns, I wonder if the asylum’s madness will seep out into the world. A thing like that can never really be snuffed out. No matter how hard you try. I should burn this journal as well. It contains evidence of a weaker man. A man who couldn’t see the wolf for the gift it is. Still, I can’t bring myself to do so. I’ll burry it in the cemetery. Maybe some day it will be found and my story will be told. - Final entry of a leather bound journal discovered at the corner of Cleveland Ave and Northland Plaza Drive, Columbus, OH, Nov, 5 2017
The last leaves fall, the season comes to an end and Creighton Chaney says goodbye to Northland Asylum. They have given me freedom, not just freedom from a cell, but freedom of mind and soul, a freedom of self. But, with tooth and claw, I have watered the asylum grounds with blood. The outside world has taken notice of the things that go on here and I will not be around when the mob arrives. When it burns, I wonder if the asylum’s madness will seep out into the world. A thing like that can never really be snuffed out. No matter how hard you try. I should burn this journal as well. It contains evidence of a weaker man. A man who couldn’t see the wolf for the gift it is. Still, I can’t bring myself to do so. I’ll burry it in the cemetery. Maybe some day it will be found and my story will be told. - Final entry of a leather bound journal discovered at the corner of Cleveland Ave and Northland Plaza Drive, Columbus, OH, Nov, 5 2017
“I wanted a cure. They wanted the secret of my genetic code. They poked and prodded until the wolf started coming out in self defense. Without the influence of the moon. Then it came when I called. There was no more It and me. There was only I. I should have thanked the good doctors before I tore their throats out.” - From the journal of Creighton Chaney, Northland Asylum Groundskeeper and former patient.
