SATIRE 547
over the character Wolverroach, which they contended bore too close a resemblance to
Wolverine. Sim relented, but his satire remained biting.
Another superhero satire related to a lawsuit appeared 33 years earlier. DC sued
Fawcett Comics over perceived similarities between Superman and Captain Marvel.
Th e suit, fi led in 1941, was ruled in favor of Fawcett in 1949, but a 1951 appeals court
favored DC. Th is provided the framework for another satire-related legal matter. A
satiric story, Superduperman, which ran in Mad #4 (1953) was an apparent satire of
the lawsuit itself, as Superduperman defeats Captain Marbles. DC threatened to sue
publisher EC over this parody prior to its publication. EC’s Harvey Kurtzman and
William Gaines consulted two attorneys, got diff erent opinions, and decided to pub-
lish nonetheless. Five issues later, Mad ran a satire titled Batboy and Rubin. Th is story
was riddled with warning signs like “to lampoon is human, to forgive divine” and “note:
any similarity between this and any other lampoon is strictly a lampoon.” As much as a
parody of Batman and Robin, this story was a satire of the proposed legal action.
Mad itself is a study in parody. Originally conceived as a vehicle for mocking other
comic book work, Mad quickly evolved into a far-reaching venue for commentary on
fi lm, literature, and television. Under Kurtzman’s editorial hand, the work in Mad was
infused with a manic energy and irreverence. Th ere had certainly been humor comics
before Mad, but most had been modeled in the funny animal or Archie mode. Mad
painted with a broader brush, and opened the doors for direct satirical assault. Mad
also revisited the grotesque, using the work of Basil Wolverton for the cover of issue
#11, as well as an interior story called “the Mad Reader.” Th e cover in question was, by
Kurtzman’s admission, a deliberate and rather obvious parody of Life magazine. As the
title ran on, its focus expanded. Issue #22, the Art Issue, had a faux Picasso cover. Th e
fi rst three stories were done with altered photographs, a subversive variation on Italian
fumetti. In the last issue of its 23-issue comic run, Mad took on the McCarthy hearings
directly. Th e story, Gopo Gossum, was a take on Pogo, remarking overtly on the dangers
and inevitability of infusing politics into the funnies.
Th e commercial success of Mad led other comic companies to begin publishing imita-
tions. Meanwhile, PANIC was issued by EC itself in response to the imitations of Mad,
billing itself as “the only authorized Mad imitation.” Issue #1 was banned in Holyoke,
Massachusetts over its depictions of male and female cross-dressing in a Mickey Spillane
parody, and over its interpretation of Clement Clark Moore’s Th e Night Before Christ-
mas. In response to these stories, the New York police raided EC’s offi ces and sought
to arrest whomever was in charge. Lyle Stuart, publisher of Exposé magazine (funded
by EC publisher William Gaines) volunteered to be arrested. In response to the arrest,
radio commentator Walter Winchell (who had previously been attacked in articles pub-
lished by Stuart) called for a ban on all “the magazines Stuart publishes. Th e last four
issues of PANIC ’s 12-issue run were approved by the Comics Code Authority, and car-
ried its seal on their covers, though code approval for this book was not easily obtained.
Art was retouched to eliminate visible cleavage, references to alcohol were removed, and
the gag name “Roughandtough” was inexplicably altered to “gunmen.” Paradoxically, as
