Cracked #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCracked #9 (May 1959) represents the series in the thick of its formative run — just over a year after the debut issue launched Major Publications' direct challenge to Mad magazine's dominance of the humor-magazine field. By this ninth issue the editorial formula pioneered under founding editor Sol Brodsky was fully in place: color Severin cover, black-and-white interior parodies of television and pop culture, and the recurring mascot Sylvester P. Smythe guiding readers through the gags. The early run of which #9 is a part proved that Cracked was the most durable of all the Mad imitators, ultimately surviving in print all the way to 2007.
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Major Publications was founded in 1958 by Robert C. Sproul, whose business model centered on imitating successful publishing formats across genres. Cracked launched in March 1958 with Sol Brodsky — better known as a journeyman artist and production manager at Marvel Comics — as its first editor. By issue #9, the magazine had settled into a bimonthly release cadence, with John Severin already established as its primary cover and interior artist, a relationship that would define the magazine for nearly four decades.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published May 1959 by Major Publications (also credited as Major Magazines), making it the ninth issue of the series that launched in March 1958.
- Cover art by John Severin — Severin had been providing covers since issue #2 and was already the defining visual voice of the publication.
- Interior art credits include John Severin, Bill McCartney (pen name of Bill Ward), Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, Richard Doxee, Dick Richards, Angelo Torres, Gray Morrow, and Stan Quinnley.
- Angelo Torres's presence in the early Cracked roster is notable: he was an EC Comics alumnus who would later become one of Mad magazine's most celebrated TV-parody artists.
- Gray Morrow, another artist with EC-era roots, appears in the contributor roster alongside veteran Golden Age talents Carl Burgos and Bill Everett.
- The issue features the recurring mascot Sylvester P. Smythe — Cracked's answer to Mad's Alfred E. Neuman — depicted in the early lankier style that preceded John Severin's standardized version, which took hold around 1961.
- Cracked's cover price at this point in the run was 25 cents, consistent with the comic-book-format humor magazine standard of the era.
- No dedicated key-issue database entry (Key Collector, GoCollect) was located for this specific issue, indicating it is catalogued as part of the early run rather than singled out for a specific debut or landmark story.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Cracked #37 (1964), Giant Cracked #1 (1965), Cracked #43 (1965), Cracked #54 (1966), King-Sized Cracked #1 (1967), Biggest Greatest Cracked #4 (1968), King-Sized Cracked #3 (1969), Cracked #78 (1969), Biggest Greatest Cracked #7 (1971), Super Cracked #4 (1971), Cracked Shut-Ups #2 (1972), Half-Cracked #3377 (1974), Giant Cracked #16 (1978), Cracked Collectors' Edition #[27] (1978), Giant Cracked #19 (1979), Cracked Collectors' Edition #41 (1981), Cracked #219 (1986), Biggest Greatest Cracked #21 (1986), Cracked Digest #1 (1986), Cracked #355 (2001), Cracked #356 (2001), Biggest Greatest Cracked #2, Biggest Greatest Cracked #3
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