Angola Bound

Today I depart for Angola to begin a 1-year term as an associate missionary with SIM Canada, as I've occasionally mentioned on this blog. My departure has been delayed due to COVID, but now it's finally come together!

This blog will continue to update over the next year. There will still be some blogging about comics, film & radio, but likely a lot of posts about what I'm doing in Angola. If that's not to your liking, you can always filter this blog by clicking on the tags. On the other hand, if you only want to see posts about Angola, click the 'Angola' tag!

A Cracked Look at Cracked

Cracked magazine was a satirical publication which was published 1958-2004. It was very much an imitator of Mad, but proved to be the most successful of all the imitators, enduring far past the initial 'Mad fad.'

I didn't pay much attention to Cracked when it was being published but recently I've been indexing many of the issues for the Grand Comics Database. The most interesting thing I discovered about Cracked was that it originated under the guidance of Sol Brodsky. Cracked was born in the wake of Marvel Comics' late 50s implosion, which put a lot of Marvel staffers like Brodsky out of work. Although Brodsky only edited the first few issues of the magazine (Marvel rehired him), those early issues are full of unusual creators who were more commonly seen in 1950s Marvel comics: Joe Maneely, Bill Everett, Carl Burgos, Jack Davis. There was genuine talent behind the launch of the magazine.

Above all else, the magazine had John Severin. Severin was with Cracked from 1958-2000. He drew more covers than anyone else and for much of the 70s he was the title's go-to person for satirical stories. As the magazine delved more into satirizing film and television programs in the 70s, Severin's ability to caricature famous faces was invaluable to the magazine. Severin's art was far and away the best thing in the magazine. Up until the late 80s, he and Bill Ward were probably the two artists most associated with the magazine. In time other notables stayed for long durations like Vic Martin, Don Orehek and Mike Ricigliano.

Cracked's parodies came in two flavours: "barely trying" and "trying too hard." In the former, many of their satirical stories maintained the actual name of the product they were mocking. Properties like Mork and Mindy and The Simpsons appeared under their own names. Surely Cracked would have been sued out of existence if anyone had been paying attention. In the latter, they would alter so many words in the property's original title that it only vaguely suggested what they were satirizing. For instance, 'Third Rock from the Sun' became 'Tired Crock Far from Fun.'

From around 1985-1990, Cracked had an interesting renaissance spearheaded by their new editor Mort Todd. Todd was perhaps the magazine's best editor - he continued to employ many of the Cracked veterans and would give them special recognition (Cracked's writers were usually unidentified prior to Todd). He also hired unusual creators for Cracked such as Peter Bagge, Daniel Clowes, Milton Knight and Steve Ditko! It was also under his reign that Don Martin was hired away from Mad magazine. I have no idea how that was accomplished since Cracked apparently paid quite a bit less than Mad; Martin's Cracked work looked identical to his Mad work and I'm sure it helped the magazine's profile.

But after Todd left the magazine just seemed to be marking time. There was a sense in Mad and the other imitators of the 1950s that - even though surely the vast majority of their readers were little kids - that they were attempting to write for a sophisticated audience. By the 1990s Cracked was pretty much done with 'sophistication.' The magazine seemed to narrow its focus on its junior high readers with plenty of fart and booger jokes. The magazine switched owners and became the property of the people publishing Weekly World News, which seemed to accelerate its demise. Severin quit when they tried to slash his salary. Many of the rank of file artists who had been at Cracked for a decade or more left, replaced mainly by nobodies. Barry Dutter, best-known as the man who was so obsessed with She-Hulk that even John Byrne thought he needed to chill, took over most of the magazine's writing.

But in the end it wasn't the lowbrow humour, the exit of all the talented creators or even Dutter who drove Cracked out of business. In 2001, the offices of American Media - Cracked's owners - were hit by an anthrax attack. The magazine never really recovered from that and petered to a slow end.

Yet in an outcome so original that no satirical writer could have conceived of it, Cracked left the comics business to become a popular humour website and is today arguably much better respected than the dwindling Mad!

20 Great Years of Radio, Part 20: 1957

1. The Stan Freberg Show (CBS): Just as radio seemed to be getting out comedy, along came Freberg! Freberg was the last great radio comedian. I love this short-lived show which is chock full of sketches, my favourite being his werewolf satire.
2. X Minus One (NBC): Another good year for radio's best sci-fi series which included unusual episodes like the disquieting Drop Dead, the heartfelt Saucer of Loneliness and disturbing Caretaker.
3. The CBS Radio Workshop (CBS): This year saw another elaborate sci-fi two-parter with The Space Merchants and a great surreal episode called Nightmare. There's also a fun adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's Never Bet the Devil Your Head.
4. Suspense (CBS): Another good year of Suspense, the best being Shooting Star and Flesh Peddler.
5. Sleep No More (NBC): Another good year of Nelson Ohmstead's program, the best being the horror story A Suspicious Gift. He also read the original version of Three Skeleton Key. Other good stories are To Build a Fire and Woman in Gray.
6. You Bet Your Life (NBC): This fun radio game show continued to be good fun under Groucho Marx's guidance.
7. Bob and Ray (CBS): Another good bunch of comedy programs by this duo.
8. Gunsmoke (CBS): More from the best western on radio.
9. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (CBS): Another fine year for this, which was practically the only radio detective show left on the air.
10. The Great Gildersleeve (NBC): This long-running sitcom came to its end this year. I was never much of a fan of this series, but it could be charming at times.

...And that's the end of my list. 1957 was the last year of old-time radio where I felt I could assemble a top 10 list. The number of shows was quite small by 1958. By splitting up these 20 years into 20 top ten lists, I hope I've identified some shows you might have otherwise passed over. If so, enjoy!

20 Great Years of Radio, Part 19: 1956

1. X Minus One (NBC): This show produced many fine sci-fi tales this year, from the funny satirical program Skulking Permit to the oddball Junkyard. I'm also very fond of Bad Medince, The Lifeboat Mutiny and Pictures Don't Lie.
2. The CBS Radio Workshop (CBS): CBS' willingness to invest in a new version of Workshop this late in radio is a real treat as the series does its best to show how versatile radio can be. The two-part adaptation of Brave New World which opens the show is an obvious stand-out, but episodes like Ray Bradbury's Season of Disbelief, Stan Freberg's Analysis of Satire and the true crime I Was the Duke are all great radio!
3. Suspense (CBS): This year William N. Robson took over the program as producers. The number of commercials is annoyingly large but Robson brought back big-name performers and had some strong scripts. William Conrad gave it his best in The Waxwork and some other good episodes are Two Platinum Capsules, Game Hunt and The Prophecy of Bertha Abbott.
4. Bob and Ray (Mutual): Another good year for this fun, semi-improv comedy duo.
5. Sleep No More (NBC): This program is very low budget with little more than just Nelson Ohmstead reading stories over the radio. But Ohmstead was an amazing dramatic reader and he had a knack for finding unusual prose stories that virtually no one else was championing. His best episode is The Storm but I also loved Mr. Mergenthwirker's Loblies and The Man in the Black Hat.
6. Our Miss Brooks (CBS): The final year for this fun sitcom.
7. You Bet Your Life (NBC): Another good year for Groucho Marx's game show.
8. Gunsmoke (CBS): This year the series had some good episodes like The Photographer. I'm also fond of The New Hotel - or rather, the very funny rehearsal version!
9. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (CBS): Another good year for this series which was mostly still being done in serial format.
10. Fort Laramie (CBS): This was another western series from the creator of Gunsmoke and starring Raymond Burr. It was nowhere near as good as Gunsmoke but still a good radio drama.

20 Great Years of Radio, Part 18: 1955

1. X Minus One (NBC): Basically a revival of Dimension X with many recycled scripts, this was a huge shot in the arm for radio drama in the later 50's. All of the great episodes this year had been heard before on Dimension X but there were new stories coming!
2. Suspense (CBS): Antony Ellis took over this series as it produced some good scripts such as Ray Bradbury's Kaleidoscope, Zero Hour and The Whole Town's Sleeping.
3. The Jack Benny Program (CBS): This was the final year for Jack Benny on the radio (although the Best of Benny rebroadcast many earlier episodes). He carried on via television but it was a testament to his loyalty to radio that he remained on the air long after many other comedy shows had ended.
4. The Whistler (CBS): This was the final year for The Whistler. Although most of its episodes were stories which had been told before, it went to the end very consistent and strong, a quality radio crime program.
5. Lux Radio Theater (NBC): This was the final year for Lux, which had a great adaptation of The War of the Worlds in this year.
6. Our Miss Brooks (CBS): Another good year for this sitcom.
7. You Bet Your Life (NBC): This quiz show hosted by Groucho Marx brought some new content to radio. The real reason to listen wasn't the game show, of course, but Groucho's funny one-liners as he interviewed contestants.
8. Gunsmoke (CBS): Another great year for radio's best western series.
9. Dragnet (NBC): And this was the end of Dragnet, which would carry on in its television version.
10. Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar (CBS): This detective program was at this time a serial program with Bob Bailey as the hero. This was its best incarnation.

20 Great Years of Radio, Part 17: 1954

1. Escape (CBS): This was the final year for this great program and featured tough episodes like Judgement Day at Crippled Deer, an adaptation of The Birds and the psychological drama The Dark Wall.
2. Suspense (CBS): Auto-Lite ended their sponsorship of Suspense this year. A few great episodes snuck in like Murder by Jury, Weekend Special: Death and The Shelter.
3. The Jack Benny Program (CBS): This year saw many cast members depart as Bob Crosby left and Mary Livingstone was mostly-gone. Still, it was the best comedy of its time. This year's Christmas shopping episode had Jack buying paint for Don Wilson.
4. The Whistler (CBS): Another good year for this mystery series.
5. Lux Radio Theater (CBS/NBC): Lux actually switched networks this year, despite being a long-time hit at CBS. Their production of The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of the series' best productions. There were also great adaptations of The Blue Gardenia and Detective Story.
6. The Phil Harris/Alice Faye Show (NBC): This great sitcom was also winding down at this time.
7. Our Miss Brooks (CBS): This sitcom, on the other hand, had several more years ago and was as strong as ever!
8. The Shadow (Mutual): This was the end of the Shadow; there are only two surviving episodes from this year: Death in the Deep and The Vengeance of Angel Nolan. The show's quality was pretty consistent during its post-war years; it was easily the best adventure hero series on radio.
9. Gunsmoke (CBS): Another great year for this, the best of all radio westerns.
10. Dragnet (NBC): Another good year of the best procedural series.

20 Great Years of Radio, Part 16: 1953

1. Escape (CBS): This was an amazing year for Escape with many strong original scripts like the nightmarish I Saw Myself Running, the terrifying cabin fever story A Study in Wax and the spy drama Classified Secret. But there was so much more, from Stephen Crane's Open Boat to an adaptation of The Voyages of Sinbad! Escape had a pretty loose theme yet somehow it felt consistently great despite the differences in content.
2. Suspense (CBS): This period is not my favourite of Suspense as I feel producer Elliott Lewis was trying too hard to prove himself. Still, some episodes in the classic Suspense format broke through like Pigeon in a Cage, the story of a man caught in an elevator. And Jack Benny made another good appearance with the funny sci-fi story Plan X.
3. The Jack Benny Program (CBS): Benny had a pretty funny year with a funny parody of Road to Bali with Bob Hope. This year's Christmas shopping episode had Jack buying dates for Don Wilson.
4. The Whistler (CBS): Anther good year for this venerable mystery program.
5. The Hall of Fantasy (Mutual): This series has a reputation for being a horror program with many dark endings in which the protagonists fail. By this time the other horror shows were all off the air and The Hall of Fantasy pushed the supernatural a bit stronger than its predecessors had. Some good episodes include The Dance of the Devil Dolls, The Night the Fog Came and The Marquise of Death.
6. Lux Radio Theater (CBS): By this time Lux was beginning to wind down but there were still good film adaptations here and there such as The Bishop's Wife. There were also more episodes which weren't based on films, such as The Birds, a decade before Hitchcock's film!
7. Our Miss Brooks (CBS): This was another fun year for this light-hearted sitcom.
8. Gunsmoke (CBS): This year had one of my favourite episodes, The Round-Up, in which Marshall Dillon makes a tragic mistake. The program willingness to have the hero fail makes it much more interesting than any other western program.
9. The Six-Shooter (NBC): Speaking of other western programs, here's James Stewart's western show. This was a very well-written and well-performed show that would have gone a long way if only it had started a few years earlier, before advertisers moved their money into television.
10. Dragnet (NBC): And this was a good year for Dragnet with one of their best Christmas epides, The Big Little Jesus.