EC Comics, best known for their horror stories, such as Tales from the Crypt, also gave birth to Mad Magazine. In 1953 in Mad Magazine issue 4, Harvey Kurtzman and Wally Wood created Superduperman, a parody of Superman and Captain Marvel that was an instant success and helped propel the magazine to decades of success.
Here's the 8-page story:
From
Wikipedia: Until
Mad #4, the magazine had not been one of EC's top-selling
titles, but "Superduperman" revolutionized their format and led to sales
success. In his book
Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels: A History of Graphic Narratives, Robert Petersen observes, "In April 1953,
Mad #4 included a parody of
Superman,
'Superduperman,' which originated a new formula that would
significantly raise the popularity of the new magazine. Instead of
broadly lampooning a genre of comics, 'Superduperman' levelled its
sights on a specific and recognizable comic character."
National, the owners of Superman's copyright, threatened to file a
lawsuit over the parody. EC and National shared the same lawyer, who
advised Gaines to quit publishing parodies. While Gaines was weighing
this advice, Kurtzman located a legal precedent that backed his and
Mad's
right to publish. Gaines hired the author of that precedent to write a
brief substantiating EC's position, but the companies' shared lawyer
disagreed, siding with National over EC. Gaines consulted a third
lawyer, who advised Gaines to simply ignore the threat and continue
publishing parodies. National never filed suit, and this legal cover establishing the basis for Kurtzman's new editorial direction became the bedrock of
Mad's humor.
Most likely, Image/Extreme/Maximum would have used this parody protection should DC have sued them over all the Superman similarities in Supreme. Of course, DC had other ideas in mind, but I'll get to that much later.
The important part is the significance Superduperman had on a young Alan Moore:
"I remember being so knocked out by the 'Superduperman' story that I
immediately began thinking – I was 11, remember, so this would have been
purely a comics strip for my own fun – but I thought maybe I could do a
parody story about Marvelman. This thing is fair game to my 11-year-old
mind. I wanted to do a super-hero parody story that was as funny as 'Superduperman,' but I thought it would be better if I did it about an
English superhero."
That was the genesis for Marvelman/Miracleman. Eventually, it would lead to Watchmen, too: "We wanted to take Superduperman 180 degrees – dramatic, instead of comedic."
The idea of using his own imagination to create stories, even for
characters that were already being published. It was a magical idea!
Shared lawyer? That seems like an incredible conflict of interests. I'm glad EC continued publishing parodies. Any IP that's worth publishing is worth poking fun at.
ReplyDeleteRight? Good thing Gaines decided to get another opinion (the "oh, just ignore it" opinion). It's funny because now parody protection is taught in law and journalism schools regularly as one of the "fair uses." No one would even think twice about it today.
DeleteSince this was one of the influences in Alan Moore's MIRACLEMAN and WATCHMEN, both in the 1980s, it just goes to show you: Inspiration can come from anywhere, even at the most unlikeliest of sources.
ReplyDeleteExactly. And also, inspiration doesn't lead you to copy what you're inspired by but to use it to shoot you off in a different direction.
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