On October 27, U.S. Customs sent a letter to Top Shelf Productions notifying them that copies of the anthology Stripburger had been seized, charging that the stories “Richie Bush” by Peter Kuper and “Moj Stub” (translated, “My Pole”) by Bojan Redžić, constituted “clearly piratical copies” of registered and recorded copyrights. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has retained counsel to challenge these seizures.
“Richie Bush,” appearing in Stripburger (Vol. 12) #37, is a four-page parody of Richie Rich, that also satirizes the Bush Administration by superimposing the personalities of the President’s cabinet on the characters from the comic. “My Pole,” appearing in Stripburger (Vol. 3) # 4-5, which was published in 1994, is an eight-page ecology parable in Serbian that makes visual homage to Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and Woodstock in three panels. Customs seized five copies of the issue with the Peanuts reference and fourteen copies of the issue containing “Richie Bush.” The stories were both published in the middle of their respective issues and no graphics from either story appeared on the covers.
You can read the whole story on the CBLDF website. Two 4-page “Richie Bush” comics have already been self-published by Peter Kuper, after appearing originally in World War 3 Illustrated. The cover illustration to the first comic (above) was also a poster for our No RNC Poster Project.