548 SATIRE
PANIC wound down, Mad became the sole survivor of the EC line by bypassing the
code entirely and shifting to a magazine format, which it maintains to this day.
In the tradition of Mad, PANIC, and the Bibles, satiric comics continued to appear
sporadically, albeit watered down by code limitations. Archie Comics’ Madhouse was
one of the better of the bunch, but still more driven by a sense of forced “wackiness”
than by any real satiric zeal. However, satire magazines endured. After a falling out
with Gaines over the editorial focus of Mad, Kurtzman left and started the short-lived
Trump, published by Hugh Hefner. Th e 1957 Trump ran only two issues, and employed
former Mad Comics staff ers Al Jaff ee, Wally Wood, and Jack Davis, along with a young
Mel Brooks and Max Shulman.
Following Trump, Kurtzman, though completely broke, started another humor
magazine, Humbug. Once again recruiting Mad alumni, Kurtzman added writer
Larry Seigel, whose literary parodies echoed the presumed sophistication of the Play-
boy motif. In its 11 issues, Humbug managed to meld lowbrow schoolboy laughs with
sophisticated literary wit. However, Humbug and Trump both fell prey to a trap inher-
ent in satire; the work was topical, to the point of losing its edge if taken out of its time
and context.
Kurtzman’s following endeavor had some of the same problems, but overcame
them with blatant audaciousness that transcended topicality. Help! Magazine, run-
ning 26 issues, recruited top writers, including Ernie Kovacs, Jerry Lewis, Mort Sahl,
Dave Garroway, Jonathan Winters, Tom Poston, Hugh Downs, and Jackie Gleason, at
meager rates. With editorial assists from a young Gloria Steinem and Terry Gilliam,
Kurtzman produced some brilliant satire in Help! However, he neglected the comic
form greatly in this endeavor, using few artists (including comrades from the Mad
stable) and heavily favoring fumetti. Help! Magazine was, however, a vehicle for aspir-
ing artists, who were paid $5 per appearance. Several luminaries of the comic world
started in Help!, including Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton, whose fi rst Wonder
Warthog strips appear there.
Shelton’s work, a scathing strip about a giant, super-powered, motorcycle-riding
warthog, was a bridge between Kurtzman’s work and car, biker, and drag racing car-
toon magazines. Th ese magazines, Hot Rod Cartoons, Drag Cartoons, Cycle Cartoons,
CARToons, and the short-lived Big Daddy Roth and Wonder Warthog magazines, were
brash and defi ant. While their energy cannot be denied, they were aimed at a very
select audience and mindset. Yet, like the best satire, they made those in authority
quite nervous. Th ey represented a repudiation of sanctioned cultural norms in favor
of an anarchic reverie, albeit a reverie limited to drag racing and motorcycles, and their
attendant way of life.
Shelton’s crowning satiric achievement, the 50-page Wonder Warthog and the Nurds
of November, appeared in 1980. Many of the events in this story have come to pass in
the eyes of some, but were seen as ludicrous at the time: the corruption of a presidential
election, corporate rule of the United States, pre-emptive war, wholesale fi nancial ruin,
and large-scale social apathy.
