Because one taste of Steve Gerber isn’t enough—at least, not for his true fans, of which I suspect there are many of you out there—here’s an additional chunk of my 1975 interview with him which had somehow gotten separated from the first part.

This section is entirely about his plans for Crazy magazine, which he had just taken over as editor. The sound quality on this section isn’t the best, but if you love Steve you’ll be willing to put up with it.

Those of you who do struggle through will hear him discuss how his (then) year and a half of therapy qualified him to edit the humor magazine, why he got the gig in the first place, how he once thought he might go into television until he realized he was too ugly, and more.

And near the end, you’ll also get to hear a few (insulting) words from Don McGregor.

In 1975, I interviewed Steve Gerber, as I’d interviewed so many of Marvel’s writers when I worked there and (among other things) edited FOOM, the company’s fan magazine. I’d decided that rather than have a standard news section on oncoming comics, I’d print edited transcripts of the writers talking about what was around the corner, so readers would get a taste of creator personalities as well.

So here’s Steve talking about Crazy magazine as well as his work on Man-Thing and The Defenders in the only surviving tape from those years. Parts of this interview appeared transcribed in FOOM #9, the March 1975 issue.

And once more I ask myself—Did I really sound like that? I am forced to admit that I did. How did those of you who knew me then ever put up with me?

With all of the love currently being shown online to the high-profile projects Steve Gerber had been involved with—including Howard the Duck, Omega the Unknown, and Man-Thing—I want to make sure that everyone also remembers his absurd work as editor of Crazy magazine.

Crazy was intended by Marvel to be just another MAD clone, and while it did have the standard movie spoofs everyone has come to expect from that sort of knock-off magazine, it also featured Bob Foster’s bizarre “History of Moosekind” series, artwork by Lee Mars, Will Eisner, and Marie Severin, and strange photo features starring unidentified members of the Marvel Bullpen.

And, oh, yes, then there were Steve’s offbeat editorials.

Here’s one of them, titled “Beat the Scuzzies,” from the August 1975 issue of Crazy. It includes Steve’s recommendation for a 1976 presidential candidate, so it’s timely again now.

The inside front cover of the same issue of Crazy spotlights another piece of Steve’s writing, this one a spoof ad featuring one of those undercover Marvel staffers I mentioned.

Me. (more…)