Reception
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.
After the eponymous eight-page story in Mad #4, the character made a cameo appearance in the comic's "Popeye" parody, "Poopeye" (Mad #21). In 1968, Mad and DC Comics became part of the same corporate conglomerate, but this did not prevent the magazine from publishing spoofs of the Superman film series, includingSuperduperman (Mad #208, July 1979), Superduperman II (Mad #226, October 1981), and Stuporman ZZZ (Mad #243, December 1983).
Read more about this topic: Superduperman
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“Aesthetic emotion puts man in a state favorable to the reception of erotic emotion.... Art is the accomplice of love. Take love away and there is no longer art.”
—Rémy De Gourmont (1858–1915)