A few words about this series of pictures. First: Crazy Magazine. For no understandable reason, Marvel and most likely Stan himself, wanted to have their own Mad Magazine. Not the greatest stretch to do so—but we already had one.
Second: Larry Hama with his able Number One, Chris (James) Priest (Owsley—sorry, buddy, it’s hard to get ‘Jim’ out of my mind but I’ll try should we meet) conceived, wrote and put together an amazing run of pretty funny stuff and for a long time (Larry did not create Crazy, he just carried the hot-foot torch very well). Larry is hard to sum up easily. Multi-faceted just starts. And Larry’s story is done better elsewhere.
Chris is one of those quietly smart “kids” – well, we were all much younger when we all worked together—and if you really want to get a taste of his humor… Okay, here’s a secret: When the Marvel offices were less strict or “corporate” we all just did each other’s work whenever needed. Chris often worked late on the typesetting computer. Y’see, someone had to create the “indicia” for each magazine (and comic). What the hell is that, you may fairly ask? It’s an important bit of legal publication info that needs to back up something weird about Second Class Mailing Permits. Chris would stay late and hole up with the typesetter to crank out any and all type needed for Crazy. Check out any random issue—there’s a lot of it.
But the indicia! Gather up any of the Hama-era Crazys and check out some of the later run (#64 to 90, I think, maybe #61 too; a bit confusing). Those indicias were hand-crafted by Chris and are a quiet riot, such a dry humor they rustle.
Pictures! Yes, on rare occasion, Larry would cross my palm with silver and I would take pictures of this and that.
Enter Aloyisious Milgrom. Unless you spend some time around Al, you might only think of him as a world class inker and sometime penciler. If you could spend some time with him you could tell he is a top notch raconteur. Here below, is a new angle on that: ham bone. Scene stealer. A bit broader than Larry Storch. Luckily for Larry, Al was literally in the next office and he still had his wedding suit in a dry cleaner bag.
The rubber-faced young woman is Joey Epstein – an obvious wiz with make-up! I was ushered in at the last second never meeting her without what little old age make-up she had on. After a brief appraisal of the dozen lines of eye-liner she applied to (try to) turn herself into a withered crone, I started dealing with my camera rig. (Where did this utterly enchanting person come from? Well, Larry didn’t work on Broadway and have close friends in the special effects industry for nothing… )
Larry directed this entire thing. I just tripped the shutter! And tried not to laugh.
The Crazy gag page? The “story?” Who cares! The story is all here. I do not know for sure but it seems like someone had recently invested in the stock market. Couldn’t say who…
This may well have been Al’s office—I can assure you there is a teetering pile of artwork and drift wood to either side of the camera. Point of interest: That giant crane outside the windows of Marvel’s Editorial Offices on the 6th Floor of 575 Madison Ave was putting up the high steel of the all new IBM Building just across the street. I love this record of it!
Also of note is the psychological aspect of Al’s performance. Like a lawyer or doctor, there’s a lot of acting needed in the comic editor field. You not only have to speak the language, but you need to communicate with subliminal gestures. Usually of threat and reward. Just zoom in on Al’s face and imagine he’s convincing an art team to work faster…