SATIRE 549
In addition to Shelton’s work, just about all work from the early underground
and adult comics movement can be construed as a work of satire. Th e most signifi -
cant works in this arena are Jaxon’s God Nose, Foolbert Sturgeon’s (Frank Stack)
New Adventures of Jesus, Dan O’Neill’s Odd Bodkins, and Crumb’s early work in Zap!
Comics. Crumb’s work summed up the mantra of the undergrounds: violate taboos.
Underground comics (often referred to as “comix”) blithely ignored the Comics Code,
as did Kurtzman’s post-Mad eff orts, the hot rod magazines, the Tijuana Bibles (dying
out at this point), and the principal imitators of Mad, Cracked and Sick. However, the
undergrounds, like the bibles, also thumbed their noses at conventional business mod-
els by not going through conventional magazine distribution channels.
In addition to the violation of societal taboos (primarily race, religion, violence,
alcohol use, drug use, sex and sexuality), undergrounds excelled at the most potent
satire, that which ridicules its own audience. Ostensibly about revolutionary concepts
associated with the 1960s protest movements and hippies, sexual activity and drug
use, many comix also pointed out the foibles of the counterculture they claimed to
embrace and represent. Crumb’s Mr. Natural can easily be seen as an archetype of the
guru fi gure, but never does anything but exploit his pupils, much like Vaughn Bode’s
Cheech Wizard. Th e Freak Brothers were usually a vehicle for commentary on the
asininity, stupidity, and treachery of both the so-called “establishment” and the fl edgling
counterculture.
Dan O’Neill’s Mickey Mouse Meets the Air Pirates was the subject of a lawsuit by
Disney, who claimed its characters were used illegally and that the image of the charac-
ters was denigrated by their portrayal engaging in drug use and sex acts. Th e suit was
exacerbated by the specifi c use of the names of the Disney characters in the stories.
O’Neill’s response was that the character of Mickey was so widely visible in the public
eye as to be deemed fair use. Details remain obscure, but it appears that, after eight
years and three court victories, forcing O’Neill to incur legal fees that crippled him
fi nancially, Disney dropped its contempt charges and waived the $190,000 in damages
and over $2 million in legal fees, on the sole condition that the Air Pirates, also the col-
lective name given O’Neill and his fellow cartoonists on the two books, never violate
Disney’s copyright again. O’Neill is rumored to have celebrated by smoking a joint in
Disney’s offi ce.
Th e National Lampoon, a rabidly irreverent if sophomoric humor magazine that ran
from 1970 to 1988, succeeded the underground. Th e Lampoon’s Comics section was a
haven for underground cartoonists. Additionally, the magazine employed mainstream
comics artists for comic book satires that served a dual function as social and political
commentary. A prime example, Barry Smith’s art on Sean Kelly’s Norman the Barbarian,
a parody of the Conan comic Smith was drawing at the time, appeared in the May 1972
issue. Th e story used Norman Mailer as the Conan fi gure, and staged him fi ghting a
hydra with the heads of Mailer’s “enemies,” including Dick Cavett.
Bobby London, also an Air Pirate, was an artist whose strip Dirty Duck appeared in
both comix and the Lampoon, and is currently running in Playboy. Dirty Duck’s st yl e
