Cracked #239
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCracked #239 (October 1988) is a snapshot of the magazine at arguably its most creatively ambitious stretch under editor Mort Todd, who had energized Globe Communications' newly acquired humor title with underground-adjacent talent and bolder pop-culture satire. The issue's lead parody of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice — released the same year — shows the magazine's ability to respond quickly to genuine cultural phenomena rather than just recycling safe targets. It also captures a remarkable moment of convergence: legendary cover artist John Severin sharing pages with underground cartoonist Peter Bagge (scripting) and a roster that included Don Martin, fresh from his celebrated defection from Mad, making the issue a rare meeting point of the old humor-magazine establishment and the 1980s alternative-comics generation.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
When Globe Communications acquired Major Publications in 1985, it inherited Cracked along with the rest of the company's assets and continued the run from issue #213 onward. Mort Todd (born Michael Delle-Femine) took the editor-in-chief chair at just 23, and by 1987 had pulled off one of the decade's more talked-about talent moves in humor publishing: signing Don Martin after Martin's 32-year run at Mad. By the time #239 appeared in October 1988, the editorial team — Todd as EIC, Michael Delle-Femine credited as editor on the masthead — had assembled a genuinely eclectic art bench, mixing veterans like Severin and Martin with underground voices like Bagge, Dan Clowes (billed as 'Stosh Gillespie'), and Bill Wray. That hybrid energy defines the issue's production identity.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published October 1988 by Globe Communications Corp., edited by Michael Delle-Femine (Mort Todd's legal name appears on the masthead as editor), under editor-in-chief Mort Todd.
- Cover art by John Severin — a 'We Squeeze Beetle Juice' Beetlejuice parody scene — continuing Severin's decades-long run as the magazine's primary cover artist.
- Interior art credits include John Severin, Don Martin, Vic Martin, Walter Brogan, Don Orehek, Pat Boyette, Bill Wray, and Peter Bagge (scripts).
- Content parodies Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988), the TV series Married with Children, ABC newsmagazine 20/20, The Wonder Years, Robin Hood, and boxer Mike Tyson, as well as a 'Monster Olympics' feature.
- Don Martin — who had joined Cracked in issue #234 (March 1988) after his 32-year career at Mad — contributed interior art, making #239 one of his earlier appearances in the run at his new home.
- Peter Bagge, later celebrated for the alternative comic Hate, contributed scripts — an example of editor Mort Todd's practice of publishing some of the earliest mainstream work by underground/alternative cartoonists.
- The issue is digitally preserved and freely accessible via the Internet Archive (identifier: cracked239), ensuring ongoing scholarly and collector access.
- Cracked #239 falls within the Globe Communications era of the title (issues #213–365, 1985–2004), the longest single-publisher stretch in the magazine's history.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Cracked Collectors' Edition #80 (1989), Cracked Collectors' Edition #81 (1990), Cracked Monster Party #9 (1990), Cracked Collectors' Edition #89 (1992), Cracked Monster Party #15 (1992), Cracked Blockbuster #6 (1992), Cracked Collectors' Edition #94 (1993), Cracked Collectors' Edition #105 (1996), Cracked Monster Party #31 (1996), Cracked Monster Party #32 (1996), Cracked Summer Special #6 (1996), Super Cracked #11 (1996), Cracked Collectors' Edition #115 (1998), Super Cracked #16 (1999)
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