Review by Jamie Coville

This book is about the 10 year long court case between the Disney Corporation and The Air Pirates. For those of you who don't know, the Air Pirates were a group of underground cartoonists who drew comics with Disney characters, but with them behaving in unDisney like ways. As per much of the underground books of this period you could find the Disney characters engaging in sex, drugs and foul language. The Air Pirates went out of their way to ensure that Disney executives saw the book in order to get sued. They wanted to make a 1st Amendment stand against them. And yes, I'm pretty sure they were all on drugs at the time. The book devotes a lot of space to Dan O'Neill, the veteran cartoonist of the bunch who was the ring leader in all of this. In this, it shows his talent but also his habit of making up grandiose untrue stories about himself and the events he was involved in. Poor Bob Levin must have a hell of a time digging up the truth versus O'Neill's version of events. There are also bits devoted to basic Walt Disney and comic history. We also follow the lives of the other Air Pirates and some of the squabbles between them as the case dragged on over the years affecting them both financially and professionally. Also in the book are excerpts of the various infringing comics. One of the most interesting parts of the book is the end examination of whether the Air Pirates were within their 1st amendment rights or not. Disney clearly won the case, but it's argued that if judges weren't so prude and open to raunchy, adult sexual humor (versus the more tame MAD or Weird Al) that they might have won. Another meaty part is the question of how close a drawing is before infringement and if that should matter in the case of parody. This is especially relevant in Disney's case because the drawing of Mickey Mouse has changed quite a bit over the years and Disney is sending attack lawyers against characters with almost no resemblance to theirs like Howard the Duck. The only 3 quibbles I have about the book is two pictures shows Dan O'Neill at Walt Disney Studios in 1979 drawing Mickey Mouse. How on God's green earth did that happen? I don't recall reading O'Neill working for Disney at any point so I'm wondering what is up with the picture. The funniest thing about this book is how much money O'Neill cost Disney in legal fees. After 10 years it was in the millions and Disney was pretty much begging O'Neill to stop at the end. 2nd quibble is some sweeping statements Levin makes about the current comic industry and its readers that were untrue. At one point the editor leaves a note to correct something he says. 3rd quibble is some formatting problems. Pages 184-185 had the bottom few lines were cut off as the text shifted downwards an inch or so. Still, this was a great book and I'll forever be grateful to Levin and Fantagraphics for doing it. Over the years I've done some cursory research into this and I've always been perplexed with the conflicting information out there. Levin gives us the truth of the matter, often from the lawyers involved on both sides of the situation. I give the book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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