Gilbert and Sullivan Ida" showed signs of flagging, Carte realised that, for the first time in the partnership's history, no new opera would be ready when the old one closed. On 22 March 1884, he gave Gilbert and Sullivan contractual notice that a new opera would be required in six months' time. In the meantime, when "Ida" closed, Carte produced a revival of "The Sorcerer". The most successful of the Savoy Operas was "The Mikado" (1885), which made fun of English bureaucracy, thinly disguised by a Japanese setting. Gilbert initially proposed a story for a new opera about a magic lozenge that would
Cultural influence of Gilbert and Sullivan in the comic book superhero series "The Question", by Denny O'Neil and Denys Cowan. He dons a Japanese mask and kills malefactors in appropriate ways – letting "the punishment fit the crime". A humorous illustrated booklet, "A Parody on Iolanthe", was written and published by D. Dalziel in 1883 and concerns the Chicago & Alton Railway. There are many children's books retelling the stories of the operas, or stories about the history of the famous partnership, including two by Gilbert himself. There are also children's biographies or fictionalisations about the lives of the two men or the relationship between the