Tales of the Parodyverse

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An Interested Historian
Sat Dec 31, 2005 at 02:43:32 pm EST
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Parody Comics: A Brief History - Part Three
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The Golden Age – Part Three



In 1946, Marty Feinberg, a former comedian on the Jewish vaudeville circuit, and his brother Albert, a bank manager, had raised enough capital to self-publish their own comic book, Acting Comics, starring Amazing Guy. When the hero proved to be a smash hit with the public – though the success of the book would ultimately prove to be a factor in its downfall – the Feinberg brothers released Defective Comics the following year, with Tales of the Hat shortly afterward, both of which were financially successful. Lair Legion was added to Parody’s monthly output in the winter of 1949, solidifying the publisher’s reputation as something new and daring the world of comic books.

The reality of producing monthly comic books were altogether different however, as since its inception, Parody Comics had been run from a tenement in downtown New York. “There were 8 other businesses operating in that building,” explains Ian Watson – who at the age of sixteen began his career at Parody as a cleaner. “We had the privilege of the top floor, but when it was windy, pencillers hated it. Most of our windows were smashed or couldn’t close so loose pages would fly about the room; I think we lost a cover for Defective Comics once, I remember seeing it get sucked right out of the building.”

The “Warehouse” as it was affectionately referred to, would be the home of Parody Comics until their expansion in the early 1960’s.


Additions and Alterations


By the spring of 1950, the three titles that Parody published monthly had stalled, as superhero comics in the early years of the decade were anathema to the reading public. Romance, crime and especially western titles all flourished: Fawcett’s “Hopalong Cassidy” series sold eight million copies monthly and other publishers were quickly following suit: Jack Schiff at DC would release “Western Comics” in January 1948, publish “Dale Evans” in September, and in November turn the superhero title “All American Comics” into “All American Western”.

Marty Feinberg, noticing the slump in his readership, shifted the focus of Tales of the Hat to include more western elements, with Jim Walker and his wife Daisy moving to a small town in Texas, then – in typical Parody Comics style – mercilessly lampooning the entire western genre. Babs Bennett, the company’s secretary, comments on Feinberg’s attitude during that period. “Marty loved superheroes, and hated westerns. I remember one day he said ‘Desert and horses and Indians and people love that stuff? Give me cement and taxi cabs and hot dogs any day.’ Though I think he did some of his funniest stuff at that time. He hated westerns, but loved making fun of them.” The various titles of Tales of the Hat stories will give the reader an idea of their content. Issue #24 features stories entitled: “The Cow Boys”, “The Known Ranger”, “When Good Cows Go Bad”, and the somewhat risqué “The Woman has a Heart of Gold (she keeps it wrapped in lace)”. Alex Toth would leave the series and the comic book industry in 1954 when he was drafted into the army. Bob Oksner (just breaking into the comic book industry after his newspaper strip, “Miss Cairo Jones” had failed) would spend a year on the title before moving to National where he would pencil some of the company’s most outlandish titles, such as “The Adventures of Jerry Lewis” and “Angel & the Ape”. Mart Bailey, the newspaper strip artist of the gritty “Tony Trent” would take over for the rest of the decade.

Defective Comics, which had always maintained a strong emphasis on the crime genre, began to focus not just on the Dark Knight, but on the police officers and criminals with whom the hero interacted with. Lieutenant Doyle, Burch’s contact within the police force, would become a regular with the series until the Dark Knight’s makeover in the 60’s. The artist for the book, Murphy Anderson, comments on the Dark Knight in the 50’s. “I’m a quick artist, so pencilling was the fun part, but when I had to ink…all those damn shadows! [Laughs] I used to plead with Marty to have the Dark Knight go to the Bahamas!”

Lair Legion would add characters to its line-up. Ian Watson comments on the creation of Messenger, “We’d had a small but recurring role of the mansion’s postman who would deliver the mail and chat with Jarvis before Jarvis had to whisk away to some emergency. Marty and I were thinking up ideas for new characters when I mentioned this postman guy. It was easy after that.” The Golden Age Messenger, Ben Bradshaw would make his first full appearance as a superhero in Lair Legion #16, with a tale entitled “The Mailicious Masterplan of Membraine”. Ben Bradshaw arrives at the postal depot to discover his friends have been taken captive by the master villain, Membraine. Under duress, Bradshaw has to deliver a mail bomb to the Lair Legion’s mansion but when he arrives, it is clear that the postman can’t do it and he confesses all to a concerned Jarvis. Teaming up with the butler, they storm the postal depot and with the cunning employment of the mail bomb, defeat Membraine. Jarvis instantly declares Bradshaw a hero, and naming the startled youngster a “Messenger.” The Messenger would become a full-time member shortly afterward and feature in a number of Lair Legion back-up stories.

Another addition to the team would the first woman to feature prominently in a Parody title. Ian Watson again explains, “Well, we had a postman and a butler, so naturally, we got a lawyer.” Monikered “the first lady of the Lair” by fans, Lisa Waltz was an interesting choice of character for the 1950’s. “I was an over-sexed teenager, so I created my fantasy woman; she’s basically a cross between Lana Turner and Jane Russell.” Lisa Waltz would appear in a handful of Lair Legion tales before getting her own spotlight in Lair Legion #20. Entitled “The Butler Did It?” the plot revolved around Jarvis being falsely accused of murder. Lisa Waltz is hired to defend the butler but quickly realises that the judge, jury and prosecution lawyers are acting “not entirely human…its as if someone, or something has control of them!” The lawyer is of course right, and we find out soon that they’re all robots, controlled by the Lynchpin of Crime in a secret room behind the stand. Lisa, employing her judicial talents, is able to exploit a loophole in their programming by repeatedly calling upon emotions they don’t have to shut them down, but the Lynchpin has another plan “Jarvis! I was your judge and jury. Now, I am your executioner!” The robots attack, though the Lair Legion triumph at the end, with Lisa’s judicious use of a whip (which is never explained), with Hatman commenting wryly at the end “Don’t you see Jarvis? Justice has been served after all!”

Sales on all three titles would maintain steady progress until the superhero boom of the late 50’s and Parody’s subsequent expansion.


Hollywood Calls

Since the mid 1930’s, Republic Pictures had made its name in movie serials with the likes of “Spy Smasher” (1942) and “The Lone Ranger” (1938) and had also produced other serials based on comic characters – “The Adventures of Captain Marvel” (1941), “Captain America” (1944) starring Dick Purcell or the newspaper comic detective, “Dick Tracy” (1937) starring Ralph Byrd. By the early 1950’s however, with the advent of television and the decline of the movie-going audience, production of serials had stalled and Republic were looking for a new title to increase revenue. With most other comic companies’ characters licensed through other studios, Republic turned to Parody Comics’ biggest attraction, The Dark Knight.

William Witney, in-house director for Republic Pictures described his first meeting with Marty Feinberg in his autobiography, In a Door, Into a Fight, Out a Door, Into a Chase. “Marty was over the moon when we asked him. He told us he was a big fan of Spy Smasher and that he thought that the Dark Knight would be perfect for the serial, he even offered his services as screenwriter for free.” Babs Bennett agrees “Oh Marty just loved the whole thing, he loved the whole ‘mystique’ of movies – we went almost every day.”

Marty set about writing a commissioned 12 thirty-minute episodes for the serial. Officially titled “The Dark Knight Strikes!” the serial is a virtual retread of the first few issues of Defective Comics, with the crime reporter Greg Burch getting too close to a story about the fabled ‘Crime Clown’ of Gothametropolis York (changed from its original Parodiopolis) and the subsequent murder of his fiancé, Diane. At the end of the first episode, he fully reveals himself as “the scourge of the underworld and the fire of my hate shall burn the criminals from their holes until they stand under the harsh light of justice…I am The Dark Knight!”

William Witney describes Republic’s reaction to the scripts. “They went nuts. They kept saying ‘it’s too violent, the only female character dies and for the rest of the serial, the hero wants to kill the Crime Clown.’ I liked it, but I knew we couldn’t get away with half of the stuff he’d written.” The executives in charge of Republic Pictures at the time were Nat Levine and Trem Carr, who both agreed that the property was to be rewritten or scrapped.

“Marty tried his absolute best to accommodate these Hollywood guys,” remembered Babs Bennett. “In the end, he just wanted it finished, so he compromised on almost everything.” Burch’s fiancé would not die, but be kidnapped by the Crime Clown in exchange for the reporter’s silence on his investigation to the Gothametropolis York underworld (apparently the thought of killing Burch never occurred to them), but Burch defies them, donning the Dark Knight outfit to disguise himself as he takes on his fiancé’s kidnappers.

“I remember his frustration,” Albert Feinberg, Marty’s brother recalled. “He wanted to do something starring Robert Mitchum and Jimmy Cagney, but it ended up as Saturday morning filler for bored kids. I don’t think he ever watched it.” It would signify Parody’s interest in other medium for 10 years.

“The Dark Knight Strikes” is by no means a bad serial, featuring some spectacular stunt and model work (from the acclaimed Lydecker Brothers) but it constantly pulls its punches: Diane is safely recovered, the Crime Clown is petty, not psychopathic and at the end of the serial, Burch declares that he’ll never don the hood of the Dark Knight again. A line written by Feinberg that indicated there was going to be no sequel.

In 1984, the serial’s rights reverted back to Parody Comics! and was released on VHS. A special edition DVD box-set is planned for next year and will include copies of Marty Feinberg’s original scripts for the serial, including interviews with Ian Watson, Babs Bennett and a commentary by myself.


The End of the Golden Age, The Return of Amazing Guy



“He was always Marty’s favourite,” Ian Watson explains about the character of Amazing Guy. “And since it’d been withdrawn, one of his goals was to bring back the character in some way.”

The key to successful revival of Amazing Guy was the current relationship between National and Parody. Julius Schwartz spoke to me in 2000 about their rivalry. “Oh, we were good friends, but there was never a time we didn’t try to outdo one another…I know Marty tried to get Carmine [Infantino] to go over to Parody plenty of times and we tried the same with Alex [Toth]. But one day, we were all talking about monthly sales, and comparing Defective to Detective, they were both selling well, but we were ahead. He tells us that if we hadn’t taken Amazing Guy away, Parody would be streets ahead. The next day at the office, I asked our attorney’s about the Amazing Guy character and what would need to be done to see him back in print.”

The changes for Amazing Guy would be wholesale. The character would become Tom Irving, all references to Slipt-On and Littlesmallville would be dropped, and the character would become more identified with space than Earth. “The day they told him Amazing Guy could come back, it was like they combined all of his orgasms into one moment,” the ever eloquent Babs Bennett remembered.

In the depressed market for superhero comics however, the debut of Acting Comics would have been postponed had it not been for the passion of Feinberg. Who constantly made assurances to his brother that the market would soon pick up (as it did) and recoup any losses that the title initially made. Both Feinberg’s need not have worried, as Acting Comics proved serendipitous in its release, where it rode the crest of a cultural interest in science-fiction and quickly became Parody’s biggest seller.

Tom Irving is Amazing Guy, the officially licensed ‘Protector of the Universe’ (with trademark). Answerable only to Eggo, the Living Waffle he defends the cosmos against those who would want to harm it. Instead of parodying Superman, Feinberg targeted the whole science-fiction genre. Issues were filled with absurdly designed creatures like ZsaptrfXlrfft the Unpronounceable’s 400 heads or The Great Orator, who had 18 mouths and told different stories with each one. Artist chores would be given to Nick Cardy. “I’d worked exclusively for National since becoming a comic book artist, but I kept running into Mr Feinberg and he told me all about the ‘Parodyverse’ he was creating, he gave me total creative control over the visual side of it, unless he had specific instructions, such as Eggo or that Unpronounceable guy.” And when I asked him how was it to draw 400 heads? “Pretty demanding! Though the trick was always to never get too detailed because then you were going to be stuck for days drawing the damned things.” Murphy Anderson, pulling double duty as penciller and inker on Defective Comics would add to his workload and ink over Cardy to speed up production time.

The newly relaunched Acting Comics starring Tom Irving would debut in the winter of 1955, featuring the acclaimed cover of Amazing Guy halting a massive interstellar explosion with his hands. His speech bubble would clarify the event. “There’ll be no Big Bangs on Amazing Guy’s watch!”

Subsequent issues would follow the same irreverent tone before his introduction to Earth and the Lair Legion in Acting Comics #6, in which Amazing Guy would team up with the Lair Legion to destroy a cabal of space pirates, headed by their charismatic leader, Blackhole Beard.

The return of Amazing Guy, the revitalization of National characters and the implementation of the comic code (some of which shall be explored next time) all signified a changing attitude in comics and it also spelled the end of the Golden Age and the beginning of the Silver one. Though in Parody’s case, Psychedelic Age would be more appropriate.


Next Time: The Silver Age Begins! Frederic Wertham and the Comics Code, Parody’s exponential expansion and everything gets a little strange…



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