Author Topic: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS  (Read 3927 times)

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Offline ToadallyDude

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Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« on: September 21, 2012, 06:03:35 PM »
Forgive me for my new-found naivety as I'm making up for lost time & catching up on old news, but I happened to run across something on one of the Wacky websites talking about how the 11th series was actually supposed to be the "Wacky Magazine Stickers" series.  I vaguely remember seeing the box rough back when I was still in it, and we always knew there was something funny about the 11th.  But in the website, it lists all the magazines, including the 13th & 14th titles, and unpublished, then states there must have been 5 more missing titles (which could have come from the series of unpublished "roughs" that have been around for a while.

Actually, though, I've always thought that "Famous Monsters" was definitely part of the magazine set... and the BOOKS.  There was no mention of the books, though.  Gums, Clodfather... these would have fit in nicely with a magazine set, right?  They seem to have the same gag style.  So, I just wondered what everyone else thought about that.  Those 3 titles would bring it almost to the needed amount.

I'm glad they didn't go the route of doing magazines in the end.  It seems like it might have been a nail in Wacky's coffin at the time.  Crazy Covers were already out there (and awful), and kids didn't really want to READ that much text on a sticker.  We were reading MAD magazine to satisfy our more verbose sense of humor.  Wackys were all about the art and the one-liners. 

The coolest thing about that article, though, was the post of "Tomb".  First time I ever saw that rough.  Wish they'd painted that one.  We'd all have been fighting over it, I'm sure.

Offline jaylynch

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Re: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2012, 12:50:42 PM »
Around the time in the '70s that the idea to do a series of Wacky magazine covers came up,   I made a dummy of a 16 page magazine.  The idea was to have a dozen or so of these mini-comic sized magazines packaged with gum.  So that every 4 months or so there would be a dozen new magazines that would come out in each new series of what was to be called WACKY MAGAZINE.   There would be a Basil Wolverton fold-out in the middle.  Several of the articles would be categorized smaller reprints of Wacky Packages...  Like a piece called Silly Soda would have an intro, like MAD does and on that 2-page spread would be reprinted a  bunch of previously printed soft drink parodies.  Then the material from other old Topps humor series, like that Believe it or Not parody thing Wally Wood did,  or the Funny Valentines Jack Davis did, or People Posters or Travel Posters would be recycled to provide the articles in each issue.   The thing never came off because it would mean that a kid would only have to buy a few dozen packs to get each series of these 16-page WACKY MAGAZINES.  But I did do a full color dummy of one issue.  I saved a black and white photo copy of it, but I lost that in a fire in l980.  Somewhere in Topps' archives the original color dummy of the mag survives, though... although I haven't seen it in 40 years or so.  There were a lot of Topps humor series that never came out, and the idea of a mini-magazine would have been a good way to recycle some of that unpublished stuff.

Offline Jean Nutty

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Re: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2012, 02:58:54 PM »
Around the time in the '70s that the idea to do a series of Wacky magazine covers came up,   I made a dummy of a 16 page magazine.  The idea was to have a dozen or so of these mini-comic sized magazines packaged with gum.  So that every 4 months or so there would be a dozen new magazines that would come out in each new series of what was to be called WACKY MAGAZINE.   There would be a Basil Wolverton fold-out in the middle.  Several of the articles would be categorized smaller reprints of Wacky Packages...  Like a piece called Silly Soda would have an intro, like MAD does and on that 2-page spread would be reprinted a  bunch of previously printed soft drink parodies.  Then the material from other old Topps humor series, like that Believe it or Not parody thing Wally Wood did,  or the Funny Valentines Jack Davis did, or People Posters or Travel Posters would be recycled to provide the articles in each issue.   The thing never came off because it would mean that a kid would only have to buy a few dozen packs to get each series of these 16-page WACKY MAGAZINES.  But I did do a full color dummy of one issue.  I saved a black and white photo copy of it, but I lost that in a fire in l980.  Somewhere in Topps' archives the original color dummy of the mag survives, though... although I haven't seen it in 40 years or so.  There were a lot of Topps humor series that never came out, and the idea of a mini-magazine would have been a good way to recycle some of that unpublished stuff.

Interesting stories Jay! How'd the fire start? Did your lava lamp have a short?     :tongue5:

Offline jaylynch

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Re: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2012, 11:54:05 PM »
I  always live in the cheapest apartment I can.  That place had really bad electric wiring.

Offline ToadallyDude

  • Posts: 514
Re: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2012, 02:05:54 PM »
Around the time in the '70s that the idea to do a series of Wacky magazine covers came up,   I made a dummy of a 16 page magazine.  The idea was to have a dozen or so of these mini-comic sized magazines packaged with gum.  So that every 4 months or so there would be a dozen new magazines that would come out in each new series of what was to be called WACKY MAGAZINE.   There would be a Basil Wolverton fold-out in the middle.  Several of the articles would be categorized smaller reprints of Wacky Packages...  Like a piece called Silly Soda would have an intro, like MAD does and on that 2-page spread would be reprinted a  bunch of previously printed soft drink parodies.  Then the material from other old Topps humor series, like that Believe it or Not parody thing Wally Wood did,  or the Funny Valentines Jack Davis did, or People Posters or Travel Posters would be recycled to provide the articles in each issue.   The thing never came off because it would mean that a kid would only have to buy a few dozen packs to get each series of these 16-page WACKY MAGAZINES.  But I did do a full color dummy of one issue.  I saved a black and white photo copy of it, but I lost that in a fire in l980.  Somewhere in Topps' archives the original color dummy of the mag survives, though... although I haven't seen it in 40 years or so.  There were a lot of Topps humor series that never came out, and the idea of a mini-magazine would have been a good way to recycle some of that unpublished stuff.

Jay... that's cool.  I never realized the magazine set was actually going to be 16pg. booklets rather than just stickers.  So, then, you're saying that the Wacky magazine titles, like "Playbug", "Jerk-in-Jail", "Crocked", etc., were going to be the 'covers' for these?  How BIG were they?  MAD-sized, little brochures, or the same size as Wacky stickers?  From the look of the prototype box, it looked like they were going to be sticker-sized.  That would have been wild!  Tiny little Mad-magazines!  I have a feeling they would have caught on, but we were collecting the stickers in such a frenzy by then that it might have distracted us.  I remember every time I spent even one extra nickle on some other pack besides Wackys (usually because the ice-cream man ran out of Wacky on the street behind us), I was disappointed.  Topps stuff had much more class & quality than Fleer & other parody or monster issues IMO.  Thanks for the info on this, Jay.  You're a wealth of Wacky history!

Offline jaylynch

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Re: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2012, 03:59:19 PM »
No.  They would all be titled WACKY MAGAZINE.  There would be #1 , 2, 3, and so on. The size would be 4 1/4 X 5 1/2" or something like that...depending on the width of the web presses that they printed the posters on.  Like a tiny version of MAD magazine, as it was in those days, except the insides would be in color, and consist of mostly recycled stuff from old series that never came out as well as occasional articles that would reprint old Wacky packs.    Back then, the main audience was kids.  So when an old series was out of print and replaced by a new series, it was harder for 'em to find the old stuff.     The covers that ran in the Wacky Packs series were originally intended to be a series of just magazine covers called WACKY MAGAZINES.  When that didn't come out, the idea for the other version that would be called WACKY MAGAZINE (a whole different concept) was considered.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2012, 04:02:05 PM by jaylynch »

Offline ToadallyDude

  • Posts: 514
Re: Missing MAGAZINES could have been the BOOKS
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2012, 04:18:28 PM »
No.  They would all be titled WACKY MAGAZINE.  There would be #1 , 2, 3, and so on. The size would be 4 1/4 X 5 1/2" or something like that...depending on the width of the web presses that they printed the posters on.  Like a tiny version of MAD magazine, as it was in those days, except the insides would be in color, and consist of mostly recycled stuff from old series that never came out as well as occasional articles that would reprint old Wacky packs.    Back then, the main audience was kids.  So when an old series was out of print and replaced by a new series, it was harder for 'em to find the old stuff.     The covers that ran in the Wacky Packs series were originally intended to be a series of just magazine covers called WACKY MAGAZINES.  When that didn't come out, the idea for the other version that would be called WACKY MAGAZINE (a whole different concept) was considered.


It's funny thinking back to the 70s.  I remember my old friend Chris and I (who I collected both Wackys and MAD with) came up with our own gags and started drawing a mock up for our own comedy magazine called, "Wacko".  Just another one of those ridiculous notions that kids get when they don't understand how publishing in the real world works, but you guys inspired us anyway!  However, I remember being totally crushed when we saw a REAL magazine called, "Wacko", on the newsstands a few months later.  It was trying to compete with (and parody) "Mad", "Cracked", and "Crazy", all at once.  It only lasted 2 or 3 issues before it disappeared (if I remember correctly).  But it was a reality check for a couple dorky kids. 

Who would have thought 25 years later, the NEW Wacky stickers would be conceptualized and painted by a host of other collectors who were kids at the same time, though.  I wish I'd kept our gag sketches.  They were pretty bad, and probably too racy for back then, too.  Better for GPK or something.  Speaking of which, though, I DID keep a drawing I did when I was about 4 or 5 years old (1970 or so) that was basically the same concept as GPK with the rhyming names and matching sketches of messed-up faces, etc.  For THAT one, I was ahead of my time.

 

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