The Air Pirates were a group of cartoonists who created two issues of an underground comic called Air Pirates Funnies in 1971, leading to a famous lawsuit by Walt Disney Productions . Founded by Dan O'Neill , the group also included Bobby London , Shary Flenniken , Gary Hallgren , and Ted Richards .
29-468: [REDACTED] Look up last gasp in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. (The) Last Gasp may refer to Last Gasp (publisher) , a San Francisco–based book publisher Last Gasp ( Inside No. 9 ) , a TV episode The Last Gasp , a 2007 album by Impaled The Last Gasp (novel) , a 1983 novel by Trevor Hoyle "Last Gasp", a song by Holly Herndon from
58-564: A "secret" artist's organization, The Mouse Liberation Front. An M.L.F. art show was displayed in New York City , Philadelphia and San Diego . With the help of sympathetic Disney employees, O'Neill delivered The M.L.F. Communiqué #2 in person to the Disney studios, where he posed drawing Mickey Mouse at an animation table and allegedly smoked a joint in Walt Disney's office. In 1980, weighing
87-427: A Disney board meeting by the son of a board member. On October 21, 1971, he got his wish as Disney filed a lawsuit against O'Neill, Hallgren, London and Richards (Flenniken had not contributed to the parody stories), alleging, among other things, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. Disney later added Last Gasp publisher Ron Turner 's name to the suit. The Pirates, in turn, claimed that
116-672: A case that dragged on for years. The company's success with Slow Death and It Ain't Me, Babe enabled Last Gasp to expand into distribution, in addition to publishing. The company soon became a major part of the underground comix movement. Sociopolitical themes were explored in Last Gasp series such as Guy Colwell 's Inner City Romance (1972–1979), which portrayed gritty urban tales; Armageddon (1973), which focused on anarcho-capitalism ; and Anarchy Comics (1978), which focused on left-wing politics . In addition to publishing Wimmen's Comix for much of its run, Last Gasp published
145-568: A consequence, the company planned to lay off the bulk of its dozen employees by February 2017. Notable artists published by Last Gasp include Tim Biskup , Robert Crumb , Richard Corben , Ron English , Camille Rose Garcia , Justin Green , Bill Griffith , John Howard, Greg Irons , Shawna Kenney, Spain Rodriguez , Mark Ryden , Dori Seda , Larry Welz , Robert Williams , and S. Clay Wilson . Air Pirates Funnies The original Air Pirates were
174-617: A court order. In 1975, Disney won a $ 200,000 preliminary judgement and another restraining order, which O'Neill defied by continuing to draw Disney parodies. The case dragged on for several years. Finally, in 1978, the Ninth Circuit ruled against the Air Pirates 3-0 for copyright infringement, although they dismissed the trademark infringement claims. In 1979 the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. O'Neill later claimed that his plan in
203-550: A gang of Mickey Mouse antagonists of the 1930s; Dan O'Neill imagined Mickey Mouse to be a symbol of conformist hypocrisy in American culture, and therefore a ripe target for satire. The lead stories in both issues of Air Pirates Funnies (published by Last Gasp in July & August 1971), created by O'Neill, London, and Hallgren, focused on Walt Disney characters, most notably from Floyd Gottfredson 's Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, with
232-563: A highly fictionalized account of their experiences at the Tribe in his story "Why Bobby Seale is Not Black" in the Air Pirates' comic Merton of the Movement .) In 1970 London and Richards attended the Sky River Rock Festival near Portland, Oregon , and met Flenniken and O'Neill at the media booth, where Flenniken was producing a daily Sky River newsletter on a mimeograph machine. Before
261-512: A number of other comix with feminist themes, including It Ain't Me, Babe , Tits & Clits Comix , Twisted Sisters #1, and Good Girls . In 1972, Last Gasp published Justin Green 's seminal autobiographical comic Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary . Beginning in 1972, Last Gasp began publishing ongoing titles moving over from other companies; beginning with Young Lust , and then Rand Holmes ' Harold Hedd . In 1977,
290-468: A relationship that turned into a short-lived marriage. Each of the cartoonists shared a common interest in the styles of past masters of the comic strip, and – unrelated to their assault on Disney – in creating their stories for Air Pirates projects each set out to imitate the style of an old-time cartoonist: After the Pirates were established, Willy Murphy , Larry Todd and Gary King started hanging around
319-418: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Last Gasp (publisher) Last Gasp is a San Francisco –based book publisher with a lowbrow art and counterculture focus. Owned and operated by Ron Turner , for most of its existence Last Gasp was a publisher, distributor , and wholesaler of underground comix and books of all types. Last Gasp
SECTION 10
#1733116108968348-565: The Seattle Liberation Front 's brief-lived underground newspaper, Sabot . London went back to San Francisco with O'Neil and started working with him, contributing a "basement" strip to Odd Bodkins . In early 1971 O'Neill invited Flenniken, Richards, and Hallgren to San Francisco to form the Air Pirates collective. The Air Pirates lived together in a warehouse on Harrison Street in San Francisco, where London and Flenniken began
377-578: The Air Pirates Defense Fund, O'Neill and other underground cartoonists sold original artwork – predominantly of Disney characters – at comic book conventions . During the legal proceedings and in violation of the temporary restraining order, the Air Pirates published some of the material intended for the third issue of Air Pirates Funnies in the comic The Tortoise and the Hare (Last Gasp, 1971), of which nearly 10,000 issues were soon confiscated under
406-593: The Disney characters engaging in adult behaviors such as sex and drug consumption. O'Neill insisted that the group dilute the parody by changing the names of the characters, so his adventurous mouse character was called "Mickey". Ted Richards took on the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs , opening up a second wave of parody attacking Disney's appropriation of European (and American) folklore. In doing so, they infringed Disney's copyrights by using characters
435-548: The Disney lawsuit was to lose, appeal, lose again, continue drawing his parodies, and eventually to force the courts to either allow him to continue or send him to jail. O'Neill's four-page Mickey Mouse story Communiqué #1 from the M.L.F. (Mouse Liberation Front) appeared in the magazine CoEvolution Quarterly #21 in 1979. Disney asked the court to hold O'Neill in contempt of court and have him prosecuted criminally, along with Stewart Brand , publisher of CoEvolution Quarterly . By mid-1979, O'Neill recruited diverse artists for
464-423: The Movement . (Turner insists that he only served as an advisor to the Air Pirates collective, despite them crediting his company as "publisher.") Considered to be an "enabler" of the Air Pirates infamous Walt Disney parodies, Turner's name was added to Disney's lawsuit against the collective. Turner quickly settled with Disney, but Air Pirates Dan O'Neill , Bobby London , and Ted Richards continued fighting, in
493-515: The album Proto Synonym for dying gasp feature in telecommunications Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Last Gasp . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Last_Gasp&oldid=1230466389 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
522-448: The collective and contributing to their projects, missing the original Air Pirates Funnies but appearing in later Air Pirates comics. Accurately telling the story of Disney's lawsuit against the Air Pirates is difficult, due to the conflicting memories of the litigants; however, it is fair to say that all through the lawsuit, O'Neill was defiant. He was so eager to be sued by Disney that he had copies of Air Pirates Funnies smuggled into
551-464: The company continues to publish art and photography books, graphic novels , fiction, and poetry, producing 10–15 new titles per year. Last Gasp Eco Funnies was founded in Berkeley, California , in 1970 by San Francisco State University graduate student Ronald E. Turner , with the help of Gary Arlington , to publish the ecologically-themed comics title Slow Death Funnies (in conjunction with
580-523: The company created without permission. On October 21, 1971, Disney filed a lawsuit against O'Neill, Hallgren, London and Richards (Flenniken had not contributed to the parody stories). The nucleus of the Air Pirates collective began to form in late 1969-early 1970, when London met Richards at the office of the Berkeley Tribe , an underground newspaper where both were staff cartoonists. (London later drew
609-417: The company picked up Joyce Farmer and Lyn Chevely 's Tits & Clits Comix , publishing that series until 1987. Last Gasp published the final three issues of San Francisco Comic Book in 1980–1983, and the latter half of Zap Comix ' run from 1982 to 2005. Last Gasp also published Weirdo from 1981 to 1993, and Cherry Poptart from 1982 to 1992. In the early 1980s Last Gasp published some of
SECTION 20
#1733116108968638-542: The festival was over the four of them produced a four-page tabloid comic, Sky River Funnies , mostly drawn by London. O'Neill also met Seattle-based cartoonist Gary Hallgren at the festival. Meanwhile, O'Neill, who was producing the strip Odd Bodkins for the San Francisco Chronicle , but was fearful of losing his copyright over it, decided on an odd tactic to regain control of his strip: he would engage in copyright infringement, which he reasoned would force
667-402: The first Earth Day ). Last Gasp followed Slow Death Funnies with the all-female anthology It Ain't Me, Babe , spearheaded by Trina Robbins . Last Gasp incorporated on September 11, 1971. In the time period 1971–1973, Last Gasp published Air Pirates Funnies #1–2 and a number of other Air Pirates -related titles, including The Tortoise and the Hare , Dopin' Dan #1–3, and Merton of
696-604: The first books about the West Coast punk rock scene, including a number of titles by Peter Belsito. Last Gasp moved its headquarters from Berkeley to San Francisco in c. 1975. Starting in 1975, Ron Turner began hosting the annual "Burritos, Beer & Cheer" holiday party at the Last Gasp offices, which was also a fundraiser for the Martin de Porres House of Hospitality , a free soup kitchen located in San Francisco. Last Gasp hosted "Burritos, Beer & Cheer" for more than 30 years. In
725-524: The newspaper to surrender the strip's copyright back to him for fear of being sued. O'Neill worked 28 Walt Disney characters, including Mickey Mouse and Pluto , into the strip. In late November 1970, the Chronicle fired O'Neill for the final time and discontinued the strip. After the Sky River Rock Festival, Flenniken, Richards, and Hallgren returned to Seattle, where Flenniken created graphics for
754-527: The parody was fair use . The initial decision by Judge Albert Charles Wollenberg in the U.S. District Court , delivered on July 7, 1972, went against the Air Pirates, and O'Neill's lawyers appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit . O'Neill suggested the other Pirates settle, and leave him to defend the case alone. Hallgren and Turner settled with Disney, but London and Richards decided to continue fighting. To raise money for
783-510: The period 2004–2010, Last Gasp published English-language compilations of popular manga titles, including Fumiyo Kouno 's Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms ; Junko Mizuno 's Pure Trance ; and Keiji Nakazawa 's Barefoot Gen . In early December 2016, Last Gasp announced it was ending its comics distribution business to focus solely on book publishing. (As one of the last independent distributors, they handled comics distribution from more than 100 small comics publishers.) As
812-422: The unrecoverable $ 190,000 in damages and $ 2,000,000 in legal fees against O'Neill's continuing disregard for the court's decisions, Disney settled the case, dropping the contempt charges and promising not to enforce the judgment as long as the Pirates no longer infringed Disney's copyrights. New York Law School professor Edward Samuels said of O'Neill after the judgment, "I was flabbergasted. He told me he had won
841-554: Was established in 1970. Although the company came onto the scene a bit later than some of the other underground publishers, Last Gasp continued publishing comics far longer than most of its competitors. In addition to publishing notable original titles like Slow Death , Wimmen's Comix , Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary , and Weirdo , it also picked up the publishing reins of important titles—such as Zap Comix and Young Lust —from rivals who had gone out of business. Although Last Gasp no longer publishes "floppy" comics;
#967032