ROCKHEAD

ROCKY (1976)
dir: John Avildsen

MAD #194, October 1977
w:Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is an average fighter in his south Philadelphia neighborhood, as he calls himself, a “ham and eggs” fighter. Winning some fights, losing some. His best friend is Pauly (Burt Young) and he has his eye on Pauly's sister Adrian (Talia Shire). Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is the national heavyweight champion Rocky boxes. Mickey (Burgess Meredith) runs the local gym where Rocky practices and initially has no faith in him.

Rocky lives alone in his small apatment with his tutles and goldfish. Every day he goes to the pet store and tries to flirt with Adrian, the shy and homely clerk there, who doesn't respond.

In his day job, he collects for a loan shark and gets in hot water for being too easy on clients. At the gym he finds he has his locker taken from him. Meanwhile, Apollo's challenger had to pull out of his big match because of an injury, and he's figured it would be good for publicity for the upcoming Bicentennial that he give a local unknown fighter somewhere a shot at the championship.

Apollo decides on Rocky, “The Italian Stallion”. Pauly wants Rocky to get him a job with the loanshark and agrees to fix Rocky up with his sister on Thanksgiving at the house they live in. She's too shy too meet with him and locks herself in her room. Pauly gets angry and throws the Thanksgiving turkey out the window. Adrian finally gives in and Rocky takes her to an ice rink, which is closed, but agrees to open a few minutes for them.

Rocky takes Adrian up to his apartment and they officially begin dating. He meets with Apollo Creed's management and agrees to the fight. Mickey becomes his trainer, puts him on a strict schedule requiring him to get up early in the day and eat raw eggs.

Part of his training is using raw meat at Pauly's store for a punching bag, which gets him on the local news. He has to withdraw from sex to be a mean fighter. Pauly is too much of a hothead for Adrian to live with and she moves in with Rocky. On the day of the fight, Apollo shows up in patriotic garb.

”I coulda been a contender” comes from Marlon Brando's monologue in On the Waterfront. Peter Finch posthumously beat Sylvester Stallone in Best Actor category in Network in 1976, though Rocky won the Oscar for Best Picture

It's a split decision Rocky and Apollo as both have gone the distance and have there have been no knockouts, Apollo is declared the winner, though, for winning the most rounds. Adrian runs into the ring and they profess their love for each other, it assumed they get married. Do they? There were four sequels so surely we'll find out what happened in one of them.

Muhammad Ali as the heavyweight champion in the U.S. was known in Germany as well.

ROCKEY
Cracked #143. August 1977 a: John Severin

Rocky doesn't make much boxing since he has so many fees deducted for use of the equipment.

John Severin always put a sign from Krimson in the background in his parodies. Probably his son's band.

Mr. Jergens was Apollo's agent.

Twice it says “God Bless Anita Bryant” in the background. Probably serious, since she was a known homophobe activist often used in these parodies and Severin was always sneaking right-wing messages into the background.

Around this time, there was a big King Kong blockbuster and Cracked was always trying to put him in every issue just like they would with The Fonz.

IF ROCKEY APPEARED IN OTHER MOVIES AND TV SPOTS
Cracked #145, October 1977
a: Bill Ward (John Severin)

The Mary Tyler Moore Show with Lou Grant (Ed Asner), Murray Slaughter (Gavin McLeod), and Ted Baxter (Ted Knight)

Cracked artists often signed the names of other Cracked artists to their work, making it look like they knew each other. “God bless John Wayne” was definitely meant to be taken seriously.

Wild Kingdom with Marlin Perkins.

In Jaws, Sheriff Brody (Roy Scheider), marine biologist Matt (Richard Dreyfuss), and hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) teamed up to kill the shark that was menacing the town.

Welcome Back, Kotter with Arnold Horshack (Ron Pallilo), Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Freddy Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and Principal Woodman (John Sylvester White)

ROOKY
Crazy #31, November 1977
w: Sara Arthur
a: Kent Gamble

Kent Gamble often swiped caricatures from Mort Drucker, but I can't find where the Jackie Gleason caricature is taken from. Maybe he came up with it on his own. The Rocky one is from one of Dustin Hoffman in a parody of The Graduate, though. (????)

And Burgess Meredith is LBJ. Swiping caricatures—I'm hard on people who do it, but I'd probably do the same thing if I were just starting out or wasn't paid much. But using people who look nothing like each other—I don't get.

SLOCKY
Sick #115, June 1977
w: Joe Gill
a: Dave Manak