Air Pirates Funnies #1

Air Pirates Funnies #1

by Bobby London, Gary Hallgren, Hugh Daniel O'Neill

Genres: Comics, Humor

36 pages, Unknown Binding

First published August 1, 1971

Reviews

[Mark]

Okay. Not great, but okay. I understand its place in the history of underground comix, but the Mickey Mouse parody was uninspired, I’ve never been a fan of Dirty Duck, and to be honest, I was expecting a contribution from Shary Flenniken, and was disappointed that she didn’t have anything in this issue.

[John “Hoss”]

Overall I did enjoy this comic. It was something of a yearning for me to find this in order to read it. After watching Dan O’ Neill on Comic Book Confidential I was determined to find this comic. It’s out there online, and you can find it. I’d love to own a copy printed in the hay days of underground comix, but I don’t have that kinda cash. This issue is pretty good and generally funny. Only thing is you’re reading mostly Dirty Duck strips then finally on to the MM/Dis parodies.

[Dominick]

There is some dandy pastiche art here, aping the Disney look perfectly. That said, none of the stories are actually great. Some are mildly amusing, but there's not much heft to them. And outside of the Disney parody, there's not a lot to admire. The Dirty Duck stuff does sort of riff on Krazy Kat, but then, I've never been a big fan of Krazy Kat, so a parody of it doesn't do much for me. Mostly, we just get transgressive stuff about sex and about dope. Historically important, but it doesn't stand up super well as art.

[Harrison Taylor]

I admire the fact that Dan O'Neill and company did this specifically to provoke the overly-litigious Walt Disney Company, but other than the historical context, there's not much to grab onto while reading this. There's much more formally inventive, and perversely creative, works from the heyday of the underground comix scene. Anything by Trina Robbins, R Crumb, or the RAW Group easily overshadow this.

[Juho Pohjalainen]

Add an extra half-star or so if you're picking this up for its historical importance, which really can't be overstated. But as a comic in its own right, there's not that much here.

[Aussiescribbler Aussiescribbler]

Air Pirates Funnies was an underground comic book which lasted only two issues before becoming the subject of an extended lawsuit by the Disney company over copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition. The Air Pirates collective which produced the comic was founded by Dan O'Neill, and also included Shary Flenniken, Bobby London, Gary Hallgren, and Ted Richards. The main story which runs across both issues features Mickey and Minnie Mouse taking drugs and having sex while caught up in a spectacular adventure involving evil villains, aerial combat, zeppelins and a piano-playing King Kong. Apparently O'Neill was so keen to get sued by Disney that he had copies of his comic smuggled into a Disney board meeting by a board member's son. His philosophy was to keep drawing his parodies while losing cases and appealing them until such time as he would either be allowed to continue or thrown in prison. He even recruited some of his fellow artists to form The Mouse Liberation Front. In 1980, Disney agreed to drop all charges as long as the Air Pirates stopped infringing their copyrights. The two issues of Air Pirates Funnies can't be sold or republished.

This issue contains the following stories :

Big Mac "Another Tale of the Apocalypse" by Gary Halligren

A hippy sits and listens to depressing news blasting out of the television and the radio as his toddlers smoke dope and clown around in the background.

"Dirty Duck" by Bobby London

The adventures of a dirty old duck and his weevil butler. After being thrown out of a dirty book store for trying to remove the staples from a magazine Dirty Erazmus Duck tries to seduce Annie Rat by disguising himself as her music teacher, but Annie isn't as gullible as he takes her for, and Weevil tries to turn the situation to his own benefit.

Silly Sympathies by Dan O'Neill

After William Buckley Bug is fired for having sex with the boss's wife he sets off on the road. He falls for sexy June Bug and they are in the middle of a hot love session when along comes Deadwood Dick and lures June Bug away with alcohol. A cricket introduces Willie to another sexy female Lorna Jean. The only problem is that she's a centipede with fifty clitorises and Willie finds his love-making abilities seriously exhausted.

Dopin' Dan and Zeke Wolf by Ted Richards

Dopin' Dan is a dope-head equivalent of army comics like Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey and Zeke Wolf sends up the characters in Disney Three Little Pigs cartoons.

Keyhole Komix presents "As You Like It" by Gary Hallgren

This features Donad Duck as one of a pair of "nameless perverts". They are building a rickety stack of boxes from which to spy on Minnie Mouse in the bath.

Silly Sympathies presents The Mouse by Bobby London, Gary Hallgren, Dan O'Neill and Ted Richards

Mickey is bemoaning the fact that neither Minnie nor Daisy Duck will have sex with him when he is kidnapped and flown to the zeppelin headquarters of the Air Pirates. Minnie too is kidnapped and brought to the zeppelin. The first thing she does is to complain about the fact that Mickey gave her Daisy's VD. Her resentment doesn't last long though and soon the two mice are engaging in some sixty-nine action, just as they get dropped out of the bottom of the zeppelin. It looks like they are now over Skull Island, as Minnie is snatched way to a pterodactyl's nest and Mickey interrupts King Kong's piano practice. To be continued...

Merton of the Movement by Bobby London

A hippy turns into a Howard Hughes style recluse after winning $10,000 in the sweepstakes.

Dirty Duck would turn into a long running strip in National Lampoon and later Playboy, but the real highlight here is the Air Pirates story. It really captures the feel of the vintage adventure comics but with plenty of dirty humour. There is just something irresistible about making Disney characters do dirty things. Just Google Wally Wood's The Disneyland Memorial Orgy.

The legal case about these comics was written up in The Pirates and the Mouse: Disney's War Against the Underground. I don't think I'll seek that out. The Wikipedia summary is enough to wrap my head around.