Crazy Magazine #63
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeCrazy Magazine #63 marks the debut of Obnoxio the Clown, the cigar-puffing, slovenly anti-mascot who would define the magazine's final chapter and go on to star in his own one-shot pitting him against the X-Men. The issue also represents a deliberate editorial pivot: incoming editor Larry Hama replaced the mild-mannered Irving Nebbish with a character who had, as Hama put it, an actual voice and a proactive personality — a sharper, more abrasive identity designed to compete in a crowded humor-magazine landscape. Beyond the mascot swap, the issue captures a snapshot of peak-Bronze Age pop-culture satire, skewering Apocalypse Now, The Blob, The Midnight Special, Benson, The Micronauts toy line, and the classic monster-movie pantheon all within a single 52-page black-and-white package.
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Larry Hama took over as editor of Crazy Magazine with issue #61 (April 1980) and returned for what became his regular tenure starting with #63, which went on sale April 8, 1980 (cover-dated June 1980). The issue was assembled under the art direction of Marvel veteran Marie Severin and associate-edited by a young Christopher Priest, then credited as Jim Owsley. By 1979–1980 Crazy was struggling commercially, and Hama's solution was to retire the retiring Nebbish mascot and introduce Obnoxio — a character he created immediately after taking the editorial chair — as the magazine's new, louder face. The back-cover 'Macronauts' illustration, scripted by Hama himself and drawn by Michael Golden, gives the issue an additional creative pedigree.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First appearance of Obnoxio the Clown (created by Larry Hama), the cigar-chomping, deliberately obnoxious clown who replaced Irving Nebbish as Crazy Magazine's mascot — confirmed by the Grand Comics Database, Wikipedia, and multiple secondary sources.
- Obnoxio's debut segment, the 'Obnoxio the Clown Funpage,' was scripted by Virgil Diamond and drawn by Alan Kupperberg, the same artist who would later write, draw, color, and letter Obnoxio's solo one-shot (Obnoxio the Clown vs. the X-Men, 1983).
- Issue edited by Larry Hama, with Marie Severin as art director and Christopher Priest (credited as Jim Owsley) as associate editor — one of the earliest credited editorial roles for Priest.
- The Howard the Duck story 'What's Reality?' was scripted by Roger Stern and drawn by Vicente Alcázar; it features Howard lecturing an audience on the ephemeral nature of reality alongside Beverly Switzler and Lee Switzler.
- The Teen Hulk installment (Chester Weems) was drawn by Marie Severin; Chester escapes abductors only to be humiliated at Melanie's beach party — continuing the running humor strip about a hapless teenager with Hulk-like transformations played entirely for laughs.
- The issue's 'Old Movie Monsters: Where Are They Today?' feature accounts for the appearances of Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Godzilla, King Kong, Mothra, and Rodan — a comic roundup of classic horror and kaiju icons reimagined in mundane modern-day scenarios.
- The 'Pillage People' story parodies The Midnight Special television program; the KISS members (Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss) appear among the celebrity-roster content, with the parody also targeting Cheap Trick and The Knack.
- The back-cover 'Macronauts' illustration — a parody of the Micronauts toy line — was scripted by Larry Hama and drawn by Michael Golden, making it a notable pairing of two creators who would soon define G.I. Joe at Marvel.
- Material from this issue was later collected in the 2020 Crazy trade paperback (248 pages), which reprinted superhero-related features from a selection of issues including #63.
Cast · 18 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Crazy Magazine #88 (1982), Crazy Magazine #91 (1982), Micronauts: The Original Marvel Years Omnibus #1 (2024)
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