Giant Cracked #45

Cover is new by Bill Wray. There are 3 pages of new material. The rest of the contents are reprints.

Comment by Tom Smith:

What you are looking at is the prototype edition for the 30 Years of Cracked Collector's Edition which came out in early 1988. The Collector's Edition was an expanded reprint of this Giant Cracked (more pages and thus, some additional articles). If you don't own either one I'll explain what it is. This is a literal chronological history of Cracked magazine, with important and prominent articles reprinted mostly in order, starting from 1958. It's an essential collection for any Cracked fan. I'd recommend the Collector's Edition first, since it is the definitive Cracked history, up to the point it was published, and features additional commentary by Mort Todd.

If Mort Todd and Mark Arnold reprint any more of Mort's classic anthologies, I would suggest this one for the softcover treatment next.

I actually feel this (especially in the Collector's Edition 30 Years of Cracked version) was probably the best Cracked special edition ever printed.

Great cover on both versions too!

Comment by Mark Arnold:

We have considered reprinting this one. One of the good things about this was it was one of the few times Cracked delved back into its history. When I started reading Cracked in 1975 and discovered that Cracked stretched back to 1958, I was always wondering what the earlier stuff was like. Cracked annuals at the time tended to reprint stuff from the previous year or two and rarely delved even into the 1960s. I suppose it had something to do with the material being dated, but I wouldn't have cared. Of course now I have all the issues, so the point is moot, and hopefully Mort Todd can bring back more stuff from the first decade of Cracked... and later stuff.