VACUUM PACK VACUUM PACK
Membership: Unidentified vacuum cleaners (the leader of the pack, was the only notable one)
Purpose: Sucking up and terrorizing everything in sight
Aliases: Vac Pack
Affiliations: None known
Enemies: Howard the Duck, Beverly Switzler, Joe (of Joe's Diner)
pretty much anyone they encountered
Base of Operations: "Odd Dimension";
last seen in the vicinity of Joe's Diner
First Appearance: Crazy Magazine#77 (August, 1981)
Powers/Abilities: The Vacuum Pack were vacuum cleaners with arms and legs.
They rode motorcycles, but they
usually got off of the vacuum cleaners in order to steal (suction up)
anything that was not tacked down.
The leader, at least, could generate sufficient suction to tear a fur coat off of a person from a few feet away.
They could suction up large solid objects, from dishes to even a semi-humanoid anatidine being.
Apparently either unable or unwilling to stop suctioning, they continued until they would explode.
Although they rode motorcycles, they were still dependent on the plugs being connected to outlets.
Unplugging them incapacitated them.
History:
See comments
(Crazy#77) - A pleasant afternoon at Joe's Diner for Howard and Beverly was interrupted by
the Vacuum Pack, who drove through the front door/window.
Joe immediately recognized them, and described their threat to Howard and Bev.
When the leader suctioned the fur coat off of Bev and told her "Tuff turbos, toots!", Howard had had enough.
Bev urged Howard to stop these
vacuum cleaners before they destroyed the whole place, but Howard was
already working on it. As he started tossing things at the vacuum
cleaners, he advised Bev to keep tossing dishes, pie-plates and
anything their way.
Before he could explain his
reasoning, however, Howard got too close, and he was suctioned up by
the leader of the pack.
Determined to save Howard, Beverly
followed his plan and continued to throw everything she could find into
the leader.
She appreciated as the leader continued to get fatter and fatter until he exploded.
(Crazy#77 (fb) - BTS) - Joe pulled the plugs on the rest of the Vacuum Pack, and they collapsed, falling off their cycles, inert.
(Crazy#77 - BTS) - As the dazed Howard sat atop the pile of debris that had erupted from the leader of the pack, Bev told Howard that she had blown the leader to smithereens.
...and, most importantly, that she had saved him.
Howard thanked her but asked what about the rest of the gang.
(Crazy#77) - After Howard saw that the rest of the Vacuum Pack had fallen off their cycles and were lying there as if they were dead.
Joe then revealed that he had pulled their plugs, which was the only way to stop these things.
He further exclaimed that the Vacuum Pack "bite the dust!"
Comments: Created by Steve Skeates, Pat Broderick and Alan Kupperberg.
The Vacuum Pack was described in-story by Joe as a "motorcycle hoovers."
Hoover is the name of one of the best known vacuum cleaner companies.
It is unrevealed whether the Vacuum Pack were native to the Odd dimension or whether they were transported there from Earth-616 in the past, present or future, or some other alternate reality or alien dimension.
Were they robots created by some being or beings, or were they a race of beings who developed under unrevealed circumstances, or perhaps something weird and unusual that we've never even heard of?
We don't know anything else about
the Vacuum Pack beyond what was covered in the three pages of this
issue...whattaya want for nothing?
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Vacuum Pack has no known connections to
  .The leader of the (Vacuum) pack was notable for having an iron cross on his chest and a helmet in the style of World War I era Germany. (Crazy#77) - A pleasant afternoon at Joe's Diner for Howard and Beverly was interrupted by
the Vacuum Pack, who drove through the front door/window. When the leader suctioned the fur coat off of Bev and told her "Tuff turbos, toots!", Howard had had enough. Bev urged Howard to stop these vacuum cleaners
before they destroyed the whole place, but Howard was already working
on it. As he started tossing things at the vacuum cleaners, he advised
Bev to keep tossing dishes, pie-plates and anything their way. Before he could explain his reasoning, however, Howard got too close, and he was suctioned up by the leader of the pack. |
 .
Determined to save Howard, Beverly followed his plan and continued to
throw everything she could find into the leader. She appreciated as the leader continued to get fatter and fatter until he exploded. --Crazy Magazine#77 Note:
I don't see any reason to believe that the threat of the Vacuum Pack is
over. Get the leader a new vacuum bag, and plug them all back in...and
it's game on, bro!
|
images: (without ads)
Crazy Magazine#77, Howard the Duck story, pg. 1, panel 1 (main image);
panel 2 (leader suctioning cash register);
panel 3 (leader suctioning fur coat);
pg. 2, panel 1 (rampage);
panel 3 (suction up Howard);
panel 5-7 (Bev filling leader);
pg. 3, panel 1 (leader exploding);
panel 3 (incapacitated);
panel 5 (Joe and cords)
Appearances:
Crazy Magazine#77 (August, 1981) - by Steve Skeates (writer), Pat
Broderick (pencils) & Alan Kupperberg (artists), Jim Owsley (managing editor), Larry Hama (editor)
First posted: 08/10/2025
Last updated: 08/10/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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