Cracked is a humor magazine, arguably the most successful imitator of the popular MAD Magazine. It was published by Globe Communications beginning in 1958 and is still nominally in existence today, although it has published little new material in years.
The mainstay artist of Cracked was John Severin, who had done some work for early MAD comics. Other regulars included girlie artist Bill Ward, and cartoonist Charles Rodrigues. Cracked gained some attention in 1987 by raiding Don Martin from MAD Magazine's group of regular contributors. Martin had left MAD due to a business dispute, but it was still a coup to obtain the services of MAD's "Maddest Artist." Martin worked for Cracked for about six years. Cracked's concurrent attempt to sign MAD's premiere caricaturist Mort Drucker was unsuccessful. Cracked featured a janitor named Sylvester P. Smythe as its mascot.
Though Cracked's sales lagged far behind MAD's, it was able to survive for over four decades due to low pay rates and overhead, and by being part of a publishing group that could bundle Cracked in with its other magazines, as a package arrangement for distributors. In the late 1990s, Globe Communications was sold to American Media Inc., the same company that publishes the National Enquirer and the Weekly World News. Cracked went along with the deal.
For other notable imitators, see MAD Magazine.
