Cracked #287
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCracked #287 (January 1994) is a snapshot of the humor magazine at a culturally engaged high point during its Globe Communications era, when the title was cannily chasing the early-1990s pop-culture wave by lampooning MTV-era phenomena like Beavis and Butt-head alongside TV-violence discourse — a subject very much in the national conversation at the time. As one of 134 issues Globe published between 1985 and 2000 before the title was absorbed by American Media, it represents the magazine's attempt to stay relevant to a new generation of readers who had grown up with cable television rather than movie theaters. The issue also demonstrates the editorial formula that kept Cracked alive as Mad's most durable competitor: topical multi-parody packages anchored by the dependable cover and interior artwork of John Severin. While it carries no single landmark first appearance, it is a representative document of where American print parody humor stood at the mid-decade inflection point.
ComicBooks.com Value
This exact issue on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
By January 1994, Cracked was operating under Globe Communications, the tabloid publisher that had acquired the title from Robert C. Sproul's Major Publications in 1985 and continued publishing it under the Major Magazines imprint. The editorial team in this period included editor Lou Silverstone, a veteran who had come over from Mad, and was beginning to absorb talent displaced by the collapse of the National Lampoon, including Andy Simmons. The magazine's long-running visual backbone was John Severin, whose cover for #287 continued a decades-long tradition of his being the face of the book on newsstands; interior advertising art for this issue was handled by Walter Brogan, another Cracked regular.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published January 1994 by Globe Communications Corp. (under the Major Magazines imprint), as part of the run of issues (#213–365) Globe produced between 1985 and 2000.
- Cover art by John Severin, who served as Cracked's primary cover and interior artist for nearly 40 years and is credited on this issue.
- Interior advertising art confirmed by Walter Brogan, a regular Cracked contributor of the era.
- Issue features a parody of Beavis and Butt-head, placing it squarely within the peak cultural moment of the MTV show's first wave of popularity (the series premiered in 1993).
- Additional identified content includes a 'Salute to TV Violence' feature — a topical riff on the mid-1990s congressional hearings and public debate over television violence — along with Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage and a 'Guide to Canada' piece.
- Fits the standard Cracked formula of the period: multiple TV and pop-culture parodies per issue, with Severin as the anchor artist alongside a rotating stable of contributors.
- No Key Collector, GoCollect, or similar key-issue database lists this issue as a landmark first-appearance issue; it is a standard mid-run entry in the long Globe Communications stretch of the title.
- The Cracked Fan Page on Facebook has documented an advertisement specifically from issue #287, confirming the January 1994 dating and Walter Brogan's interior art contribution.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Cracked Collectors' Edition #104 (1995), Cracked Collectors' Edition #106 (1996), Cracked Collectors' Edition #109 (1997), Cracked Collectors' Edition #110 (1997), Cracked Summer Special #7 (1997), Cracked Summer Special #8 (1998), Cracked Collectors' Edition #117 (1999), Cracked Collectors' Edition #125 (2000)
Key issues in Cracked
Variants (1)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.