Croatian-speaking editors chose the title Feral for its meaning in English. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the editorial office enjoyed the double entendre that it elicited among foreign observers, giving the newspaper title an aura of its editorial independence and unwillingness to be tamed by political pressure. Feral was conceived in 1984 by a trio of young journalists Viktor Ivančić, Predrag Lucić, and Boris Dežulović. The trio named itself by combining letters in their names to form "Viva Ludež", a term for insanity or literally meaning "long live madness". Their works initially appeared in the weekly humour supplement of Nedjeljna Dalmacija in 1988. After a month, Feral was banned after it ran a satirical piece ridiculing then Serbian president Slobodan Milošević's nationalist and anti-establishment protests. The publication then moved to Split's daily newspaper, Slobodna Dalmacija. In 1993, when Miroslav Kutle, a businessman with close ties to the governing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) bought Slobodna Dalmacija, the weekly split off to form its own independent publication. On 1 June 1993, the publication launched its first independent issue with the headline "Ante Pavelić Found Alive", ironically suggesting that his political spirit was alive in Croatian life. Rise in popularity and legal issues Feral received little attention until Yugoslavia broke apart in the early 1990s. The magazine's favorite subject soon became Franjo Tudjman. A winter 1993 issue depicted a photograph of Milošević and Tudjman in bed naked together with a headline that read: "Is this what we fought for?". Once the issue hit the streets, it quickly sold out all 50,000 copies. Meanwhile, Ivančić, the magazine's editor, was conscripted to the Croatian army. "His mobilization was obviously related to that issue," said Boris Dežulović who was deputy editor at the time. "We believe they planned to send him to the front lines in Bosnia, but after all the noise this case has raised, they have left him in the barracks instead." He was eventually released. International media took notice of the cover, and a framed copy was even put up in the New York Times newsroom. Although the magazine was humorous in nature, it started addressing more serious issues as the Yugoslav wars ensued. Feral was among the first Croatian newspapers to openly report on various topics that the state-controlled newspapers would not report on including war crimes perpetrated by Croatian soldiers, the Croatian army's involvement in the war