550 SATIRE
was overtly infl uenced by E. C. Segar, as was most of London’s work. As London’s
career evolved, he landed his dream job in 1982, writing and drawing Popeye for King
Features Syndicate. In 1992 he was fi red. No specifi c reason was given. Speculation
abounded that the fi ring was a direct result of his fi nal unprinted storyline, involv-
ing Olive Oyl’s addiction to the Home Shopping Club. She accidentally orders a baby
Bluto. Deciding she does not want the artifi cial and evil child, she and Popeye resolve
to “get rid of it.” A priest takes action to stop them. Ironically, the editor who fi red
London over the abortion satire storyline was Jay Kennedy, editor of the Underground
and New Wave Comix Price Guide. Th e irony was not lost on London.
While few undergrounds endured past 1975, Crumb’s work continued to appear in
a variety of venues, and new creators built on the legacy of the undergrounds. Crumb
started the We i r d o anthology magazine in 1981. In addition to serving as an outlet
for his most outrageous work, the magazine was a vehicle of artistic exploration for
veteran cartoonists like the underground’s Kim Deitch and Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, as
well as new talents including Dori Seda. Dori’s blunt, harsh, and hilarious auto -
biographical strips served to satirize the role of the artist in society, and the foibles of
her own life.
In 1986, along with “Omaha” the Cat Dancer, Bizarre Sex, and Th e Bodyssey,
copies of We i r d o were seized from Friendly Frank’s, a Lansing, Illinois comic book
shop. Th e owner of the store was charged with dealing in obscene materials. Pub-
lisher Denis Kitchen organized a defense fund. Th e case was won on appeal, and
Kitchen used the funds remaining from the defense to organize the Comic Book
Legal Defense Fund.
Th e most challenging case the CBLDF accepted came in 1993, when Mike Diana
was charged with obscenity by Florida District Attorney Stuart Baggish. Th e work in
question, Diana’s comic Boiled Angel 8, depicted a man decapitating a woman for sexual
pleasure (a visual device used by Crumb 25 years earlier). While most of Diana’s work
deals with dismemberment, mutilation, and children in a sexual context, he contended
that the work was satirical in nature. Th e CBLDF lost the case. Diana was sentenced
to an elaborate batch of punishments, including but not limited to having no contact
with minors and attending journalism ethics school at his own expense. However,
Diana moved to New York and is serving out his community service working for the
CBLDF.
Other notable examples of recent comics satire include Charles Burns’s work,
especially the Big Baby stories, which combine horrifi c elements and adolescent sexual
tension in an odd and eff ective satire of 1950s horror fi lms. Devil’s Due Publishing
is publishing a political/barbarian parody along the lines of the Lampoon Conan/
Norman Mailer piece of 36 years prior. Th is time the focus is on President Obama. Th e
title, Barack the Barbarian: Quest for the Treasure of Stimuli, includes villains George the
Dim and Red Sarah. Finally, the recent series Battle Pope, written by Robert Kirkman,
echoes the religious satire of the recurring Lampoon comic feature Son-O-God, drawn
by Neal Adams.
