Crazy #7, 2 of 2

Here's the rest of one of Atlas Comics' humor comics, Crazy #7 from 1954. Probably written by Stan Lee.

Drawn by Howard Post

Russ Heath

Joe Maneely

Crazy #5, 2 of 2

I'm back after a week-long sabbatical and plan to continue where I left off. Here's the rest of this issue continued from two weeks ago. It was published by Atlas Comics in April 1954. First I run out of sex cartoons, then I leave for a week. Hopefully this isn't chasing people away.

Here's a Wolf Man story most likely written by Stan Lee (like almost everything from the company at the time) and drawn by the recently deceased Dick Ayers.

Drawn by Howard Post.

Drawn by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito, and unlike most of the stories from the company now known as Marvel from that time, probably written by them as well.

Snafu, 2 of 4

Last week when I posted the first few pages from this issue of Atlas' Snafu, I ended with the cliffhanger where there was a promise of a nude photo on the next page. Here it is, fellas...

Such was the level of humor in this magazine from this, the second issue of Snafu from January 1956. It was all written by an undoubtedly overworked Stan Lee. The majority of art, like this, was drawn by an also probably overworked Joe Maneely.

The parodies of gag cartoons were also a feature in a feature in Riot. Here we see imitations of William Steig, George Price, Virgil Partch, and Syd Hoff.

And Saul Steinberg,Sam Cobean,Charles Addams, Peter Arno, and Otto Soglow.

Howard Post did this article but is not credited in the contents page. Here he caricatures Guy Lombardo, Spike Jones, Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, and Louis Armstrong.

And Woody Herman, Armstrong again, and Dave Brubeck.

A lot of things that take up two pagers with the teaser “Turn the page to see this” followed by the punchline.

WILD #5- 3 of 3

RIOT #3, 1 of 3

Here's one of the many imitations of the MAD comic book. I've printed a couple stories from RIOT before, so here's an issue in its entirety from August 1954(minus the ads and text). Marvel Comics (or Atlas or Timely), when it was part of the Magazine Management company and before they discovered their own niche, would ride the coattails of whatever the most successful titles were at the time and try to flood the newsstands with several knock-offs of it. In this the titles were CRAZY, WILD, and RIOT. What was the difference? Damned if I know. CRAZY had stories that were meant to be funny, RIOT did specific parodies of current popular culture, and WILD did specific parodies of literary works. Except when they didn't. Maybe that wasn't the case.

Movie studios each had their own gimmick to compete with television for audiences. Fox had Cinemascope, with the screen wider than that previously unseen. This parody of “How To Marry a Millionaire” also parodies the widescreen format. Here's the style Dan DeCarlo used later in perfecting the Archie house style.





There was a time when Liberace was believed to be not only a heterosexual, but the epitome of heterosexuality.