Tales of the Parodyverse

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An Interested Historian
Wed Jan 04, 2006 at 09:59:35 am EST
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Parody Comics: A Brief History - Part Four
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The Silver Age


Seduction of the Innocent

Following World War II, superheroes had faced a steady decline in their popularity. Their development – and very nature – had been complicated by the rise of horror (such as the titles published by EC) and crime-related comic-books (Comic House was especially proficient in this genre). A moral crusade, lead by Dr. Fredrick Wertham deemed all of the above genres as subversive, in his book, “Seduction of the Innocent” where he famously claimed that Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne were homosexuals. Similar accusations were made against the Lair Legion.

Wertham described the Lair Legion as “a group of male bachelors who share the same conveniences in a confined living space wearing nothing more than extravagant [re: homosexual] rubber and nylon costumes” he defined this as “the ultimate wish fulfilment of the homosexual” and “a plot to change the way children think about their own gender”. He examined the characters of the team more closely, finding “telling signs of subversion” in each of them. Jarvis was “a butler and therefore servile to the rest of the group, can clearly be identified as the submissive role-player in the homosexual dynamic.” On Hatman: “His changing of ‘hats’ is an allusion to his ability to change his sexual preference.” And the Dark Knight was “a classic case of a man who has been driven to violence and homosexuality through the death of his fiancé.”

It would be funny it weren’t so serious.

In 1954, the year after “Seduction of the Innocent’s” publication, the senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency called Frederick Wertham to testify on the corrosive effects of these types of comics on children. Wertham didn’t mix words, stating that Hitler was “a beginner compared to the comic book industry. They get the children much younger."

The Senate Committee believed him and ordered that a standard code must be developed for all comics, eliminating everything potentially damaging or demoralizing to a youth. So was born The Comic Code.


Parody Deals with the Code


Marty Feinberg’s reaction to the code was atypical. “He thought it was the most hysterical thing he’d ever read,” says Babs Bennett. “He hated it and thought it was the most ridiculous thing…The one about not advertising suspicious toiletry products almost made him choke.”

The Code created massive restrictions: Horror and crime comics became almost extinct overnight; westerns had fewer gunfights, and even funny animal comic violence was limited. In addition to genres going under, a number of publishers went out of business as well. Among them were Fiction House, Eastern Color, United Feature, Star Publications, Comic House, Toby Press, and Sterling Comics. EC Comics would lose their entire monthly output and only survived through the success of MAD Magazine.

The effects on Parody’s titles would range from minimal to catastrophic.

Tales of the Hat was a superhero comic, one where its hero, Jim Walker, lived in a stable, loving relationship with his wife Daisy. The title had been virtually immune to Wertham’s probing and suffered minimal changes, though Hatman would not don a female hat for the rest of the decade.

Lair Legion which had already undergone changes prior to Wertham’s diatribe, made minor concessions to the code. Daisy Walker (Hatman’s wife) would make several appearances, Jarvis and Messenger would receive girlfriends, as if to reinforce their heterosexuality, Lisa would be toned down into insipidity and most effecting of all, Dark Knight would leave the team.

Defective Comics would suffer the most. Its emphasis on crime and criminals made the title most vulnerable to the code and these elements would rapidly disappear. Defective became as many other comics did in the mid-50s: weak and colorless with endless variations on a theme. It drove Feinberg to distraction. “It was horrible for him,” Babs Bennett told me. “He would write the comic with the code next to him, and you could hear him scream in frustration when he realised he couldn’t use any of it.” In 1957, Defective would be handed to Ian Watson, who became a full-time writer of comic books that year. Another cleaner would be hired. Ian Watson remembers: “He called me into his office and told me that Defective was mine. That he couldn’t face writing another Dark-Jet or Dark-Boat story and that he wanted to concentrate on the titles he had fun on.”

One of those titles was Acting Comics. Science Fiction had been a genre left almost untouched by the code and here Feinberg poured most of his creative energies, with some of the most outlandish, eccentric and cryptic tales of his career, sowing some of the first seeds of Parody’s ‘Psychedelic Age’. One of the earliest examples is Acting Comics #8, featuring a tale entitled “Raw Meth and the Emetic Sesame Button!” (Discovered in the 70’s to be an elaborate anagram of “Wertham and the Senate Subcommittee”). Raw Meth is the dictator of a small planet which has implemented arbitrary and ridiculous laws, such as the illegality of the color blue, or the compulsory orange jugs people have to display in their windows. Amazing Guy is called to investigate and quickly finds that Raw Meth is an alien, who has bullied his way into office (though Feinberg, aware of the law against showing public officials in a bad light, clarifies time and again that Meth is a dictator, akin to Mussolini or Hitler). Meth has made these random decrees because the laws distract the populace from discovering his true identity. Amazing Guy fights and defeats the dictator, proving that he’s an alien with the use of an Emetic Sesame Button – a pill that the Hero feeds to his captor that makes him “spill”, though emetic in this sense is a vomiting of the truth. Of Acting Comics’ 4 eight-page stories a month, one would usually follow these kinds of guidelines. “I thought he’d gone out of his mind!” Laughs Ian Watson at the recollection of Marty Feinberg’s change in style. “Though there became a real following for that sort of thing…We got more mail over it than anything else.” Nick Cardy, artist for the book, was more enthusiastic. “The stranger it got, the more I loved it. What the hell is an ‘Emetic Sesame Button’ anyway? [Laughs]”


Post-Code Parody Titles


Since the government’s involvement in the comic-book industry, Feinberg had been looking at a round about way to overcome some of the code’s guidelines. In 1958, he met with Vice-President Richard Nixon with an extra-ordinary idea, a government sanctioned comic-book hero. Nixon, seeing the advantages of communicating directly to young people and Mr Epitome would debut in the fall of that year. “Nixon loved Epitome, this no nonsense government agent with superpowers who wouldn’t take shit from anybody,” explained John Buscema, the artist for the book. “I think he secretly saw himself in the character.”

Dominic Clancy is Mr Epitome, an American spy who has undergone extreme radiation treatments to better serve his country, and is eventually blessed with super-strength and speed (other abilities and his dog would not be added until much later). Unlike the reactive encounters that the Lair Legion had with villains (such as Membraine or Blofish’s world domination plots), Epitome deliberately set out to imprison “enemies of the country” and with more leeway than any other comic-book company had at the time, Feinberg made the hero tough, smart and ruthless. While there are some uncharacteristically bombastic moments of patriotism in the book (one can only guess they were added to salve the government), the darker side of heroism is very evident. Epitome is everything a man can be, but is ultimately defined by his job, with no home or family to speak of. His closest relationship is an ongoing battle with the super-villainous agency known as BALD. Buscema found the book initially difficult to work on. “Feinberg stressed that the only people we see are the heroes and villains, there was no room for normal people in the book. When I asked him why, he replied ‘because there’s no room for normal people in Epitome’s life’. Feinberg could be an ass, but he was a great writer.” In later years, during his presidency, Nixon would agree to a recurring role in the book and is said to have even proofed his own dialogue. After Watergate, Nixon would be dropped for several years, though was still said to be an avid fan of the hero.

Parody would also debut another title, an anthology title for trying out new heroes. Tales to Infuriate was eventually to become Parody’s biggest title in the 60’s, but until then, its popularity arose from the spotlighting of some very strange characters indeed…

“I was looking through an encyclopaedia,” explains one of the writers of the book, Ian Watson. “Looking for the most ineffectual animal possible. I’m looking through and I’m just throwing these names out to the artists and Mr Feinberg. ‘Koala Kid?’ I would say, and they’d give me the thumbs down. Goat Boy didn’t receive much enthusiasm and neither did Lemur Lady, so God knows why we went with Pudu Lad [Laughs].”

Other characters that would debut in the first issues of Tales to Infuriate include – Visionary (an early prototype of the character, who shortly would move to Lair Legion), Evil Monkey, Trickshot (who began as a parody of the Green Arrow), Yellow Flashlight, Jack Rabbit and Banjooooo. “It was fun,” explains Murphy Anderson, who helped write some of the stories. “You could go any way every month; I think the readers connected with it somehow.”

Buscema recollects the variety of artists called upon to pencil the book. “Atlas had just gone under [the largest company in the business had faltered badly when their distribution network was broken up by the US government; in two months, they went from producing 75 monthly titles to 8] and left a lot of artists out of work. They were practically begging Marty for work.” A huge range of artists came and went on the anthology title: Bill Everett, Sol Brodsky, Joe Maneely, Carl Burgos, Russ Heath, Syd Shores, Mike Sekowsky, Jerry Robinson, Steve Ditko (taking time out from Charlton), and even Jack Kirby, who remained at Atlas/Marvel until their rejuvenation in the early 60’s.


Onwards and Upwards


The late 50’s in the comic book industry were a time of great professional upheaval for Marty Feinberg, and though many of situations turned to his advantage – the ban on horror comics and the implosion of Atlas created a need for the superhero comics that were left – it was still the time of some of his greatest achievements. Mr Epitome had explored – under Code conditions – the darker side of heroism, Acting Comics and later, Tales to Infuriate had sown the seeds for the future of the company, pencillers considered the best in the business were producing some of their finest work and Parody Comics had never been bigger or more stable as a publishing company. The roster for the company at the end of 1959 would look like this:

Publishers: Albert & Marty Feinberg
Editor-in-Chief: Marty Feinberg
Acting Comics: Marty Feinberg & Nick Cardy
Defective Comics: Ian Watson & Murphy Anderson
Lair Legion: Ian Watson/Marty Feinberg & Frank Giacoia
Mr Epitome: Marty Feinberg & John Buscema
Tales of the Hat: Marty Feinberg & Mart Bailey
Various Artists - Tales to Infuriate!

With Defective Comics’ sales topping around 3 million issues monthly, it had never been a better time to be a Parody Comics employee.



Next: Parody’s Expansion, Personal Tragedies, Marvel: A New Threat? And a hero enters the world of Saturday morning cartoons.



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