3. Air Pirates Funnies #1 and #2 Not So Funny To Disney
The seventies saw a revolution in comic books, although it was mostly constrained to the underground. Artists like Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman were experimenting with new ways to take the form, and countless other hippy types were drawing stories about sex, race, and psychedelics. Perhaps the most infamous out of said hippy types were the Air Pirates collective, who not only made comics about sex and drugs, but decided it'd be fun to have Mickey Mouse indulging in them. You know who thought it was less fun? Disney. In a landmark case, Disney took the Air Pirates to court over the contents of Air Pirates Funnies #1 and #2 which featured, amongst other things, Pluto as the king of the underworld and Mickey Mouse begging Minnie to sleep with him. Pirates figurehead Dan O'Neill actually smuggled a copy of issue one into a Disney board meeting, hoping for some controversy. The House of Mouse filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition against, with the pirates arguing their parodies fell under fair use rules. Obviously the huge international film company beat the hippies. Despite a restraining order that was supposed to prevent him from doing so, O'Neill kept drawing Disney parodies, which were each immediately confiscated, as were the two issues of Air Pirates Funnies. The group had to pay thousands in damages and the comics remain banned to this day.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
