210 FELIX THE CAT
book into magazine. Financially troubled, Gaines dismissed Feldstein in 1956. Feldstein’s
sporadic employment after leaving EC included scripting Yellow Claw for Stan Lee
at Atlas Comics, until Kurtzman left EC and Gaines rehired Feldstein to edit MAD.
As opposed to the singular voice MAD enjoyed under Kurtzman, Feldstein’s MAD
employed dozens of new cartoonists and writers. Th e publication achieved million-copy
monthly circulation by the end of 1958. After Gaines sold MAD in 1960 but remained
as publisher, Feldstein negotiated a percentage of gross profi ts for himself.
Under Feldstein, MAD became a nationally recognized lampoon of American
culture, and yet Gaines resisted key changes Feldstein wanted in the magazine (includ-
ing color pages, paid advertising, a television series). After Feldstein’s 1985 retirement
and Gaines’s 1992 death, MAD implemented many of those changes. Feldstein retired
to Deer Haven Ranch in Livingston, Montana, to paint fi ne art, including EC Revisited
paintings sold through Sotheby’s. In 1993, Feldstein was inducted into the Will Eisner
Hall of Fame. In 1999, Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana, awarded him an
honorary Doctorate of Arts.
Selected Bibliography: Geissman, G. Foul Play! Th e Art and Artists of the Notorious
1950s E.C. Comics! New York: Harper Design, 2005; Hajdu, D. Th e Ten-Cent Plague :
Th e Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America. New York: Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2008; Herman, H. Silver Age: Th e Second Generation of Comic Book Artists.
Neshannock, PA: Hermes Press, 2004; Kaplan, A. From Krakow to Krypton: Jews
and Comic Books. Philadelphia: Th e Jewish Publication Society, 2008; Reidelbach, M.
Completely Mad: A History of the Comic Book and Magazine. Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1991; Savage, William W., Jr. Comic Books and America, 1945–1954.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990; Wright, Nicky. Th e Classic Era of
American Comics. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2000.
Travis Langley
FELIX THE CAT. One of the most popular cartoon characters in early cinema, Felix the
Cat made his fi rst appearance on November 9, 1919, in a short fi lm titled Feline Follies
under the name Master Tom. Th e feature, distributed by Paramount Pictures, proved
to be a success and led to a second fi lm, Th e Musical Mews , released a week later. A
third fi lm, titled Th e Adventures of Felix and released only a month later, marked the fi rst
occurrence of the Felix name. Th ese early short fi lms initiated an enormously successful,
nearly decade-long theater run. Th e whimsical Felix’s unique features, from the simplic-
ity of his black and white appearance to his famous, ponderous walk and his detachable,
metamorphosing tail, combined with the fi lms’ topical and witty content, transformed
Felix into a cultural phenomenon both in the United States and overseas. Felix mer-
chandise was ubiquitous, the cat was used to advertise a host of products, and he even
inspired several hit songs.
Patrick Sullivan, a cartoonist and businessman from Australia, was credited dur-
ing his lifetime as Felix’s creator. In recent decades, however, Otto Messmer’s role in
