Cracked #245
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCracked #245 (July 1989) is the 'Toons' themed issue that arrived at the crest of the late-1980s animation boom, riding the cultural wave kicked off by Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the resurgent interest in cartoon characters as subjects for mainstream satire. It stands as a snapshot of Cracked under Globe Communications at its most culturally plugged-in, with John Severin's cover riffing on animated characters alongside parodies of Geraldo Rivera, Star Wars, and Schwarzenegger — a cross-section of pop culture anxieties that defined the magazine's editorial identity in its final years of genuine market relevance. The issue also falls at the very end of Daniel Clowes's four-year freelance tenure at Cracked, a run that — conducted largely under the pseudonym 'Stosh Gillespie' — predates his launch of Eightball and represents one of the most unusual early-career chapters of any major alternative cartoonist. Finally, TMNTPedia identifies #245 as the first Cracked issue to feature the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (cover cameo only), placing it at the earliest edge of Cracked's long engagement with that franchise.
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Major Publications sold the Cracked assets to Globe Communications in 1985, and Globe continued publishing the title out of New York under editor Michael DelleFemine — who wrote under the pseudonym 'Mort Todd' and used the pen name 'Eel O'Brian' for story credits. DelleFemine had recruited an unusually ambitious stable of contributors for a humor digest of this kind, including Daniel Clowes (working as 'Stosh Gillespie'), Peter Bagge, and Rick Altergott — fellow alumni of the Pratt Institute art scene — alongside veterans like John Severin and Don Martin. The 'Stosh Gillespie' pseudonym itself has a documented backstory: after Globe's new publisher rejected Clowes's work by name, Clowes resubmitted the identical material under the invented name and was immediately accepted, a story Clowes recounted in a Comics Journal interview. By the July 1989 cover date of #245, this remarkable editorial window was closing — Clowes launched Eightball that same year, and the alternative-comics contributors began moving on.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Cover art and interior art by John Severin, the magazine's longtime anchor artist, with a 'We Take a Shot on Toons' cover theme capitalizing on the late-1980s animation craze.
- Interior art roster includes Don Martin, Walter Brogan, Bill Wray, Henry Boltinoff, Pat Boyette, and Don Orehek.
- Parody targets in the issue include Platoon, Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins, Dennis the Menace, Star Wars, comic strips, Geraldo Rivera's tabloid TV specials, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- The back cover featured Sylvester P. Smythe — Cracked's mascot janitor — in a Guns N' Roses spoof.
- TMNTPedia identifies #245 as the first Cracked issue to feature the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, albeit as a cover cameo only, predating the magazine's later full-length TMNT parody stories.
- July 1989 is documented by Clowes scholars as the cover date of Daniel Clowes's final non-reprint Cracked publication, capping a run that began in 1985 and was conducted primarily under the pseudonym 'Stosh Gillespie' — months before Clowes launched Eightball.
- Globe Communications, Cracked's publisher at the time, had acquired the title from Major Publications founder Robert Sproul in 1985 and would itself be sold to American Media Inc. in late 1999.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Cracked Collectors' Edition #83 (1990), Cracked Party Pack #4 (1990), Super Cracked #4 (1990), Cracked Monster Party #9 (1990), Cracked Collectors' Edition #84 (1990), Super Cracked #5 (1991), Cracked Collectors' Edition #89 (1992), Cracked Collectors' Edition #91 (1992), Cracked Collectors' Edition #94 (1993), Cracked Collectors' Edition #95 (1993), Cracked Summer Special #3 (1993), Cracked Collectors' Edition #101 (1995), Cracked Summer Special #5 (1995), Cracked Collectors' Edition #107 (1996), Cracked Collectors' Edition #125 (2000), Cracked #349 (2000)
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