Customer Reviews

The Pirates and the Mouse: Disney's War Against the Counterculture

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, the bad stuff: too partisan in places, including the all-too-common Sixties survivors' "weren't we just so wonderful?" meanderings, some barely-relvant personal stuff about the author's own life, some over-lawyerly writing in a few places, and an occasional assumption that you know about certain artists or individuals already. That aside, this is a very good book.
Disney took on the collective work of Dan O'Neill and the Air Pirates after they issued parodies of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters. Or, as intellectual property (IP) lawyers say, "properties." Levin's work emphasizes the case, how it came about, how it moved through the courts, and what the disposition was. As a result, the reader gets a good idea of how IP cases work, and what was at stake. He discusses the notion of parody, infringement, and so on, pointing the oddities and contradictions in the statutory and case law. (But, hey, a case citation once in a while, counselor?) The publishers reproduce some of the offending material, letting the reader see what Disney saw. Levin also does not glorify O'Neill or the other Air Pirates, though he clearly supports their side, and says that getting the real story from O'Neill and his crew was not always easy. Finally, if this book causes a few more folks to seek out O'Neill's "Odds Bodkins", it will have done a great service. Like UG comics? Don't miss this. IP lawyer? A must read.

The topic of this book certainly sounded interesting, especially since I was taking a Media Laws course at the time I read it. However, this book was bogged down with too many problems for me to recommend it.

First of all, the book is full of small errors that make it seem like it was hastily thrown together and shoved onto the shelves. The author is listed as "Bob Levin" on the front cover, but as "Bob Levine" on the spine. A citation on the back page quotes an editor as calling the book "The definitive history of this wonderful, mad (and, I believe, signficant) episode in Amercan [sic] popular culture." And one of the illustrations and comics in the book are listed as being from 1971, even though Levin later says (correctly) that they were from the mid 90s.

Aside from these annoying but ultimately forgivable problems, the author just doesn't have a very fluid or gripping writing style. Some of his sentences so grossly overuse punctuation marks that they may discuss three different topics in a single sentence. I will admit that he does a passable job describing copyright laws, but that was just one part of this book. His footnotes also tend to be places for him to get in his two cents rather than truly informative additions. And he ultimately fails to make the characters endearing to the audience, which is frustrating since he admits in the book that each author is trying to sell a story or viewpoint to the reader. It may be more objective to paint the Air Pirates as nothing more than a bunch of stoned twenty-somethings following an even more-stoned thirty-something, but it sure didn't sell to me that we should be rooting for them.

The ending of the book also let me down. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that after discussing a series of lawsuits brought against the Air Pirates, the story ends very abruptly, without describing the final decision in any great detail. This should have been the climax of the narrative, and it just fizzles out.

So while I appreciate Bob Levin pointing out this interesting case that has apparently gotten very little recognition, I wish that he would have discovered it, and then turned it over to a better author.

Ably researched and written by Bob Levin (an experienced essayist for "The Comics Journal"), The Pirates And The Mouse: Disney's War Against The Counterculture is the intrinsically fascinating and little-known story of a group of rogue cartoonists led by Dan O'Neill (the youngest syndicated cartoonist in American newspaper history), who waged a countercultural war of pictures against the Disney Corporation by portraying Disney characters engaging in un-Disney like behavior. In response, Disney executives brought forth a massive lawsuit against these unapproved cartoonists for copyright infringement. The Pirates And The Mouse traces a complex and tangled personal, legal, and cultural saga ranging from O'Neill's bitterness against the censorship that cost him a job, to contemporary corporate politics, issues of intellectual property rights and social commentary, and more. The Pirates And The Mouse is a "must-read" for anyone concerned with such issues as artistic freedom, copyright law, as well as readers seeking to learn more about the oft-unspoken and somewhat darker side of the corporate Disney.

An hilarious blow-by-blow account of Disney's war on independent culture. A look back at the late 60s and early 70s that's all too disturbingly relevant today.

According to Bob Levin, copyright law has become a way by which big corporations screw the public trust. Back in 1971, a group of artists calling themselves the Air Pirates put out an unauthorized Mickey Mouse comic book that was heavily pornographic in nature. The ensuing battle lasted for about a decade until Disney finally won.

This book rates 3 stars out of 5 due to the fact that it is mostly bogged down in all sorts of highly legalistic language and is hard to read by someone who, like this writer, does not have a law school education.

The history outlined in THE PIRATES AND THE MOUSE is essential reading. Unfortunately, Mr. Levin has foreclosed the chances that a *great* history, as opposed to a good one, of the Air Pirates controversy will ever be written.

As a researcher, Mr. Levin is fearless and gratifyingly thorough. As a prose stylist, however, he cakes on the pretension as if imitating--poorly--the academic and cultural-studies historical texts with which both his subject and his approach prompt comparison. He injects himself needlessly (as a participant in the counterculture, as a "wit," as an eloquent commentator, &c.) into the history wherever he can, and rarely uses one adjective or adverb when he can stack three or four atop each other like cords of wood.

I'm perplexed that Groth and Thompson--two critical writers I've admired since I was a teenager, both of whom are enviably well-read in multiple genres--could let THE PIRATES AND THE MOUSE slip through their editorial fingers in this state. It's a beautifully designed book loaded with information and images that can scarcely be found anywhere else, but I can't read even three pages of it at a time without craving another kind of prose: matter-of-fact, eloquent, and focused. This ain't hairsplitting. The greatest archive in the world will reach no one if the text that mediates between archive and public keeps jerking the spotlight back upon itself.

bob levin's writing style aside, this book is an extremely informative expose of the first amendment with regards to copyright infringement and parody. the champion here (or protagonist if you will) is the enlightened dan o' neill. even though the "air pirates" was a collective effort by london, richards, halgren, and flenniken, o'neill was the one who braved this whole mess out with humor, wit, and defiant intellect. the famous phrase "the pen is mightier than the sword" underestimates the relentlessness and ruthlessness of the disney empire against an intellectual threat that put the "disney intellect" to shame; i am again refering to o' neill.
a fine prep in copyright law, the beginings of the underground comics, disney's wrath, and an american champion of free speech: "they should have known he was irish" dan o' neill. you will have more than a few chuckles during your reading....thank you bob levin, dan o' neill, and the rest of the "pirates". you are not forgotten!!!