Cracked Turtles

CRACKED Magazine was founded in 1958 as a foil to the more popular MAD Magazine. Though it lasted in various forms until 2007, CRACKED was always the little brother to MAD. I know I was a MAD reader, but that was because our local library carried MAD Magazine and when me and my older brother would have to wait there for our sister to pick us up after school, MAD was required reading. That is until one day, my brother's friend Pat brought this issue of CRACKED to school and I was mesmerized by this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles parody cover. 

Pat let me borrow the issue and I was surprised to see how closely it resembled MAD Magazine. I always believed CRACKED was more of a MAD spinoff than a rival publication. Anyway, I was looking for the Turtles stuff and this issue did not disappoint!

This "Good News/Bad News" skit is actually kind of funny and the artwork is really well done. Haven't read this in years and it still is cool to see.

The next Ninja Turtles bit is about Housewives Against Turtles Everywhere. I remember the Turtles being seen as too violent for kids, but by today's standards that 80's cartoon is very tame. I remember loving the image of this freakish zombie Turtle and wishing I could draw like that. This is the last page inside this issue of CRACKED that contains any Ninja Turtle content. I wish there was more! 

The rest of the book was filled with more MAD like satire. I thought this send up on Cellular Phones was pretty funny and very dated. I will have to say the issue did end with some coolness as we were left with this...

CRACKED Cut-Up for a can of Mutant Turtle Soup! I really wanted to cut this out, but this was Pat's magazine so that was off the table. I guess now that I have my own copy, I can scan and finally make this grade school dream come true! Did you read CRACKED as a kid?