Playboy Magazine – Page 2 – Who's Out There?

Dink Siegel’s Swingin’ Roommates

November 29, 2019November 29, 2019gasp656 Comments

« I have the best roommates in the world! It creates a fun sense of family… and that’s really important to me. Things can get so lonely without it. » — Kristen Bell

It’s late November, and, to quote John, the Wolfking of L.A., « All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray ». Outside my window, just about everyone’s dressed for a funeral and there’s a traffic jam in dire shades of monochrome.

How did we come to this? Bah.

I think it first struck me how afraid of bright colour* we’d become, as a society, from years of ads for Bose’s odiously-designed Wave® sound systems, as consistently expensive are they are hideous (so they must sound fantastic!), circa the early 2000s.

BoseWaveAdA — Available in all your favourite colours, neither of which is technically a colour: ***Platinum White*** or ***Graphite Gray***.

BoseWaveSilverAdA — Be still my fluttering heart: in 2009, Bose figured “what the heck, let the paint chips fall where they may!” and introduced a new “colour”: yes baby, ***Titanium Silver***!

Today, I’m going to (gasp!) restore some colour to your lives. This may lead to a sudden jolt, so avert your eyes if necessary.

Strictly speaking, I don’t have a favourite Playboy cartoonist — honestly, how could I, with that sumptuous, half-century-plus embarrassment of multifarious riches? Ah, but I certainly hold Leo ‘Dink’ Siegel (June 30, 1910 — Dec. 28, 2003) in quite lofty regard, thanks to his fantastic sense of design, his bold, delicious colour palette and his fastidious attention to detail (pay and treat your cartoonists well, and see what you get!). Today, I’ll concentrate on Siegel’s ‘roommates’ series; there’s generally a black pussycat hanging about, a fine furry bonus.

Here we go!

DinkFortuneSellerA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Mar. 1966). From what I can discern, Siegel mostly worked in gouache and coloured pencils.

DinkSoonerA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Nov. 1966).

DinkElevatorA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Dec. 1966). One can’t help but wonder whether Mr. Siegel had a sideline in interior design.

DinkModelA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Aug. 1967). I see art students were always fairly *blasés*.

DinkFiremenA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Sept. 1967).

DinkMouthwashA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Jun. 1968).

DinkWorstWayA — From **Playboy Magazine** (date unknown).

DinkDidn't-TomA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Mar. 1970).

DinkDullPartyA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Apr. 1970). I love that the girls seem to have an existence beyond the confines of the jokes: they have jobs, various hobbies and interests and, obviously, active social lives.

DinkWallsA — From **Playboy Magazine** (Aug. 1971).

– RG

*Oh, do check out this pseudo-scientific cluster of twaddle and pop-psych claptrap!

Playboy Cartoons for a Festive Mood

December 22, 2018December 21, 2019redscraper1 Comment

With every passing year, I have more and more trouble getting into the spirit of Christmas (especially since all the snow has now melted). An early present of Rodney Crowell’s Christmas Everywhere helped a bit, but to speed things along some more – and before Christmas Eve takes me by surprise – I’d like to titillate everybody’s taste buds with this spread of Playboy Christmas cartoons.

BuckBrownChristmas — Cartoon by Buck Brown (real name Robert Brown), an African-American cartoonist and painter, creator of the naughty (and adorable!) Granny.

SokolChristmas — Cartoon by Austrian Erich Sokol. A little linguistic tidbit: “sokol” means “hawk” in Russian.

And on the topic of bedding Santa Claus…

DougSneydChristmas — Cartoon by Canadian Doug Sneyd.

DediniChristmas — Eldon Dedini! (We ran an earlier *exposé* about him here.) Who needs naked women when you have the (slightly grabby) three magi?

JackColeChristmas1955 — Cartoon by the ineluctable Jack Cole! Don’t forget to take a peek at my mate’s post, The Unforgettable Jack Cole.

PhilInterlandiChristmasPlayboy — Cartoon by Phil Interlandi.

And, on a slightly morbid note, three cartoons by Gahan Wilson (who paints what he sees!)

GahanWilsonChristmasDrunk

GahanWilsonChristmasSanta

GahanWilsonChristmas

~ ds

Newsflash: check out this post’s sequel, the imaginatively-titled More Playboy Cartoons for a Festive Mood!

Hallowe’en Countdown II, Day 27

October 26, 2018September 10, 2019gasp653 Comments

« It only hurts when I exist »

Another astonishing madman from the Playboy magazine stable, Bernard Kliban (1935-1990) is mainly remembered for his much-merchandised « Cat » cartoons, but he was a true master of a vein of absurdist humour that few mine with such success. It’s high time for a collected œuvre or at the very least a comprehensive anthology. Fantagraphics, are you listening?

KlibanMonsterA — « *Since when do we use the red thread on a green monster?* »

KlibanMonsterWifeA — « *I’m the monster’s wife… can I help you?* »

KlibanStartledA — « *Harry, you startled me!* »

Kliban20YearsA — « *I spend twenty-seven years making monsters and what does it get me? A roomful of monsters!* »

KlibanMonsterLivesA — « *Look, Igor, the monster lives! … and not badly, either!* »

These pieces were gathered in the Playboy’s Kliban collection (1979) and its sequel, Playboy’s New Kliban (1980). Every single one of the man’s books (of which only the Cat books remain in print, I believe) is assuredly worth seeking out, but fair warning: left to his own devices, and away from the Playboy ethos, Kliban goes much farther afield into (extremely inspired) absurdity and abstraction.

-RG

Hallowe’en Countdown II, Day 11

October 11, 2018September 10, 2019gasp65Leave a comment

« It’s astonishing how terrible people can be. » – Gahan Wilson

Chez Gahan Wilson (as with his esteemed colleagues Charles Addams and Edward Gorey, for instance), it’s always Hallowe’en! Here’s a trio of particularly fitting cartoons published over the years in Playboy magazine, always one of the finest homes for wayward cartoonists. Gahan was pretty much the only guy Hugh Hefner didn’t encourage to draw buxom females.

GahanCommercializeA — Playboy, October 1959.

GahanSetArrivedA — Playboy, November 1967.

Early in the magazine’s existence, Hef was looking for a Chas. Addams to call his own (the man himself was under exclusive contract with The New Yorker), and he found him. Yet, as Hefner said in his introduction to Fantagraphics’ extraordinary collection, Gahan Wilson: Fifty Years of Playboy Cartoons: « I don’t think I could have imagined before the fact how Gahan was going to grow. What one saw in the beginning was only the promise. »

– RG

Shel Silverstein: Without Borders

September 25, 2018January 30, 2021gasp659 Comments

« I’m not content when I’m traveling, but I’m not content when I’m not traveling. So I guess I’ll keep traveling. » – Shel Silverstein

Another one of those nice Jewish boy geniuses, Sheldon Allan Silverstein (1930-1999) was born eighty-eight years ago, on September 25, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois. Uncle Shelby lived life to the fullest, creatively in every respect. He tried his hand at many things, and what do you know? He succeeded at every often-unlikely turn, sometimes artistically if not commercially, but generally on both counts: cartoonist, singer, songwriter, screenwriter, poet, actor, playwright, children’s book author, bon vivant, raconteur and lover… yet his dad was never impressed. Old man Nathan wanted his son to join him in selling furniture. Some obstacles are just plain insurmountable.

Once more, faced with the daunting prospect of discussing a prolific and versatile creative soul, it seems well-advised to concentrate on a tiny area of his roadmap. And so…

In 1957, Playboy magazine founder and esteemed patron of cartoonists Hugh Hefner entrusted Shel with a special assignment, that of roaming the Earth and recording his special impressions. The results, published between 1957 and 1968, were twenty-three travelogues brimming with the gregarious Silverstein spark and spirit. But he first had to be sold on the approach. According to Hefner, in his foreword to the definitive collection “Playboy’s Silverstein Around the World” (2006), « I envisioned something along the travel letters Ernest Hemingway submitted to Esquire — A sort of personal diary that would be dispatched from around the globe. Shel was uncomfortable in that role. He didn’t want to include himself, but I persisted. And I’m glad I did. What we got back in those drawings was narrative storytelling of a very personal manner. We saw Shel establish himself as a character.»

ShelBuddahA — From “Return to Tokyo” (May, 1957).

ShelGarretA — From “Silverstein in Paris” (January, 1958).

ShelMoscowA — From “Silverstein in Moscow” (March, 1958).

ShelGreenwichA — From “Silverstein in Greenwich Village” (September, 1960).

ShelGoofyA — From “Silverstein in Hollywood” (January, 1968).

ShelNewsstandA — From “Silverstein Among the Hippies” (August, 1968).

ShelPortraitA — Shel at work in Italy (1958); photograph by John Reid, Jr.

Let’s leave off with these revealing words from Playboy photographer Larry Moyer: « He was one of the funniest guys I ever knew — and it was never at anybody’s expense. A lot of humor is based on putting other people down. I don’t remember one time Shel ever put anybody down in his work — and that’s something. » That’s something indeed, now more than ever.

– RG

Skip Williamson Hears the Music

August 19, 2018May 16, 2020gasp653 Comments

« Taste the sweetness of Destiny, racist pig!* »

The Old Underground Hall of Legends took some bad hits in 2017, with the losses, within less than a couple of weeks, of Jay Lynch (January 7, 1945 – March 5, 2017) and Mervyn “Skip” Williamson (August 19, 1944 – March 16, 2017). Skip, in fact, would have turned seventy-four today.

Again, we’re dealing with an artist with a long and nomadic career, so it’s best to think small. There’s plenty of excellent, in-depth biographical material on the subject already out there, so I’ll scare up a few scarce items that reflect Skip’s lifelong love of (and involvement with) music.

SkipDylanA — « Right now I’d like to do an original composition which deals with the basic existentialistic thought and parallels between the works of Kafka, Tillich, and Buber in relation to the ‘I-Thou’ concept, and which has just been covered by the Rolling Stones…» Underground comix *provocateur* Mervyn “Skip” Williamson (born 1944 in San Antonio, TX) takes a witty jab at noted self-mythologist Robert Allen “Bob Dylan” Zimmerman. From the March, 1967 issue of Escapade (incorporating *Gentleman*!), likely a Charlton Publications product (“*Second class postage paid at Derby, Conn.”*), a factoid that may someday help you win a bet.

Snuk1A — « *Snuk Comix no. 1* (Skip Williamson, 1970). Extremely rare comic book created for the band Wilderness Road, by Underground Comix artist Skip Williamson. The story is that the printer objected to drug references, and would not deliver the printed comics; Skip managed to grab a few copies before the run was destroyed. As of 2003, only two copies were known to exist; while there have been a few more found since that time, the number of existing copies is staggeringly small… » Typical boorish behaviour on the part of the printer. Most people are unaware of the power that printers held and frequently abused before the salutary advent of digital print. Guys, *first* you nail the printing job (you call *that* registration?), *then* you indulge in moral grandstanding.

SkipW_Billy3MileA — 1979 original art for a piece Williamson produced for Playboy magazine. « Now what », you may ask « Do Billy Joel and Three Mile Island have to do with one another? » Here’s one account: « Anne had a couple of his 8-tracks, and made plans to see him live at the Hershey Arena during his 1979 tour … plans that were thwarted by a little incident at a nuclear reactor near my home, Three Mile Island. See, when the accident happened, in March of ’79, people had to be evacuated. And those people had to go somewhere. And there just weren’t a whole lot of large buildings suitable for holding thousands of radioactive refugees in the area at that time, so The Hershey Arena had to be put to use, even if it meant canceling a few Hershey Bears games and a Billy Joel concert »

I was too young and in the wrong small town for Underground Comix to reach me back in the 1970s, but when Skip put together the « Playboy Funnies » section (featuring the likes of Bobby London, Jay Lynch, Chris Browne, Art Spiegelman…) for Mr. Hefner’s magazine, I in due course discovered his work since I read Playboy for the cartoons. I immediately took to Williamson’s stylish, bouncy, clean and friendly visuals, paired with his unflagging subversiveness. Not that I got much of said subversiveness at the time… but that’s how it works.

Happy birthday, Skip!

-RG

*Class War (Bijou Funnies no. 3, 1969 The Print Mint)

Happy Birthday to Eldon Dedini

June 29, 2018June 29, 2022redscraper6 Comments

Amidst all the (justified) doom and gloom that this week has brought us, there is one bright spot that comes just in time to save this week from being a complete downer. It’s Eldon Dedini’s birthday! (He was born in 1921, on June 29th.) Yes, I know that he died in 2006… but his joyous, delightfully hedonistic art lives on. As a Russian whose father once started a rowdy party because it was Mozart’s birthday, I claim the privilege of celebrating Dedini’s jour de naissance by raising my glass of rosé (satyr-approved, of course) in his honour.

Dedini-Swan — “That’s all very well for you, but I’m the one who’ll have to sit on the eggs”.

He was one of Gus Arriola’s closest friends. To quote Arriola, «calling Eldon a cartoonist just christens the tip of an impressive iceberg. Beneath the surface is a superb painter, a remarkably inventive illustrator, philosopher, and humorist—a keen observer, revealing life’s little truths with his unerring brush. His chief reward was the viewer’s invariable burst of laughter. He was a walking repository of eclectic knowledge about art, history, jazz, wine—you name it. I gave up using my encyclopedia on a subject search: it was faster to pick up the phone and call Eldon.» By the way, I pulled this quote out of a R.C. Harvey article published in the Comics Journal titled “Viewing Life Through a Twinkle”, which gives you an idea of what a fun read it is.

The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Dedini is merrily frolicking satyrs, closely followed (or preceded) by unapologetically buxom women, all of this merry crowd looking to have some fun of the most basic kind. It’s not all randy woodland gods, though; there’s also room for lascivious gnomes, salacious wolves and whatever other lechery comes to mind. (Most of these were published in Playboy Magazine.)

Dedini-Satyr-Balzac — « Remember what Balzac said – *‘it is easier to be a lover than a husband for the simple reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than to say pretty things from time to time.*‘ »

Dedini-MakeUpOurMinds — Ooh, tough choice.

Dedini-MushroomScene — « *Either we start pushing birth control or we’re going to be up to our asses in little people. »*

DediniWolfA « But will you love me when I’m old and gray? » From Playboy’s August, 1971 issue.

Dedini-LonelyMan — Nothing like taking the proactive role, huh?

Although it’s easy to be blown away by Dedini’s take on Grecian and Roman mythology – I think fabled creatures gave him an easy outlet for his joie de vivre – he could seemingly draw anything he wanted to, stunning forest landscapes or historical costumes, capturing carpet textures, clothing accessories or musical instruments with equal ease.

Dedini-FreshandInnocent

Dedini-ThunderWoman

Dedini-RockBand — « *Well, I guess it goes to prove that not all God’s children got rhythm.* » Note the name of the band, which made me snort into my tea.

Dedini-Religion — Whatever religion *that* is, I want to join it!

To wrap up, here’s a sweet anecdote from the aforementioned Viewing Life Through a Twinkle:

“During an intermission at one year’s Festival, Dedini and some other PBL members went up on stage to have their photograph taken. Duke Ellington was still on stage, seated at the piano, putting eye drops in his eyes. When Dedini was introduced as “a cartoonist who sometimes draws jazz cartoons,” Ellington got up and, without saying a word, pulled out his wallet and started looking through it as he meandered, aimlessly, around the platform. Finally, he found what he was looking for, a folded up magazine clipping. He carefully unfolded it and spread it out on the piano: it was a cartoon Dedini had done for Collier’s. The cartoon depicted two Russians in Red Square, one of whom is obviously a dealer in blackmarket phonograph records: he has opened his coat to show the other fellow the record that he has tucked inside, saying, “ … Cootie Williams, trumpet; Johnny Hodges, alto sax; Barney Bigard, clarinet; Harry Carney, baritone sax; Duke Ellington, piano …” Said Dedini: “Ellington loved that cartoon because when he toured Russia the people of Russia loved his music, but they couldn’t buy the records.” For years thereafter, Ellington sent Dedini a Christmas card. “I have about twenty,” Dedini said. “He sends them in June.”

~ ds

Gahan Paints What He Sees!

February 18, 2018February 18, 2022gasp6510 Comments

Another day, another birthday, it would seem. Well, I feel this one’s of particular importance… Gahan Wilson, born February 18, 1930, turns 88 today. As you may know, many an artist burns bright and burns fast, enjoying a peak of a handful of years followed by a settling into habit or mediocrity. That’s not our Mr. Wilson, who’s been prolific, reliable and versatile for over a half-century. That makes him, I suppose, easy to take for granted. Let’s not, shall we?

Most visibly, he’s built up a splendiferous body of work at Playboy, which was collected in exemplary fashion (2010), for your convenience, by the fine folks at Fantagraphics (in case you don’t have room for the entire magazines.) With the possible exception of Shel Silverstein, Gahan was perhaps the only cartoonist Hugh Hefner didn’t habitually encourage to throw in some buxom females.

GahanGeriatricHeroA — « Well, it certainly is nice to know someone’s looking out for us old folks! » (Playboy, November, 1987.)

He’s also been a regular contributor to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction since 1964, again gathered by the reprobates at Fantagraphics, this time in a tome entitled « Gahan Wilson’s Out There » (2016). Significantly, the book includes Wilson’s prose works for the magazine, gems of concision and dark wit.

GahanPlugA

Which brings us to another facet of Gahan’s œuvre: his writing. I greatly enjoyed his regular film column in Twilight Zone magazine (1981-89). For the publication’s August, 1985 issue, he provided, in addition to his regular contribution, an eye-catching (watch out!) cover illustration and a feature article « I Hear You Callin’ Cthulhu », a review of the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. « Hot on the trail of Dagon, the shoggoths, and other Lovecraftian horrors, the noted cartoonist (and intrepid TZ columnist) finds himself drawn into a labyrinth of secret caverns, sinister intruders, tentacled monstrosities — and a terrifying thing called the Insanity Table. »

GahanTwilightZone85A

GahanDice1A — « *Our intrepid gamesman gathers his courage…* »

GahanDice2A — « *… tests his luck against the dark gods…* »

GahanDice3A — « *… reads his fate in the faces of the dice…* »

GahanDice4A — « *… and when the smoke clears, is seen no more.* »

Happy Birthday, and thanks for all the tentacles, Mr. Wilson!

– RG

Spending Some Quality Time With Barbara Shermund’s ‘New Woman’

February 8, 2018March 5, 2022gasp652 Comments

Although it’s tempting (but lazy) to assume so, men didn’t *altogether* corner the risqué cartoon niche.

It would be quite an injustice to count out the magnificent Barbara Shermund (1899-1978), prolific contributor to The New Yorker (including eight covers) and Esquire magazines, and so much more.

Far too little is known about this pioneering artist, but here’s an insightful piece aiming to rectify the situation, at least a little, written by Caitlin McGurk:

https://library.osu.edu/blogs/cartoons/2012/03/27/womens-history-month-barbara-shermund-1899-1978/

ShermundVersatile — Nothing new under the sun! Frankly, *that* situation hasn’t gained a wrinkle since this cartoon’s appearance in **The New Yorker**‘s July 21, 1928 edition.

NewYorker1935A — One of Ms. Shermund’s aforementioned New Yorker covers, from the June 29, 1935 edition.

ShermundGrannyFaintA — « *All I said was, ‘Granny, how do you like my new bathing suit?’* » Undated piece in ink and watercolour.

ShermundLostA — « *She’s lost!* » **Esquire**, 1944. Ink and watercolour.

ShermundTunnelA — « *Mr. Dillon, I’d like to ask your daughter’s hand in marriage.* » (1953, ink and watercolour.)

ShermundApeA — « *Who was that fellow I saw you with at Ciro’s last nite?* » (**Cheering Section**, 1955. Ink and watercolour.)

BarbShermundNoA — « *Mother always makes me write it five hundred times before I go out with Mr. Parker* » **Esquire**, publication date unknown, ink and watercolour.

ShermundCowboyIndianA — « *Let’s play cowboy and indian!* » (**Cheering Section**, 1959. Ink and watercolour.)

I can’t help but be reminded, by that final piece, of Jack Cole‘s rather more trenchant take on a similar power imbalance, published a year earlier.

ColeUncleSamMaidenA — « *Well, there’s history repeating itself.* » (Jack Cole, from **Playboy**, January, 1958.)

A postscript: in March, 2022, Ms. Shermund was the subject of an article in the New York Times’ ‘Overlooked No More’ series, comprising belated obituaries for notable folks whose departure flew under the radar, so to speak. In this case, we learned that:

« Shermund lived out her last years drawing at her home in Sea Bright, N.J., and swimming at a beach nearby. She died on Sept. 9, 1978, at a nursing home in Middletown, N.J.

In 2011, a niece, Amanda Gormley, decided to research her family’s history and was surprised to find that Shermund’s ashes had been left unclaimed in a New Jersey funeral home since 1978.

In May 2019, Gormley raised money through a GoFundMe campaign and, with the contributions of many artists and cartoonists, saw to it that Shermund’s ashes were buried alongside her mother’s grave in San Francisco. »

– RG

The Unforgettable Jack Cole

December 14, 2017February 29, 2024gasp6510 Comments

« What are you mumbling about? »
« Oh, nuthin’! … just that
my false teeth get loose
an’ make a lot of noise! »

Today marks the one hundred and third anniversary of the enigmatic Jack Cole (December 14, 1914 – August 13, 1958) a man embodying, in equal parts, hilarity, talent and torment. Just when everything seemed to be going his way, he took his own life in 1958, for reasons still surmised about. His widow was the only one to know, and she took her secret to the grave.

Let’s move past this morbid stuff and concentrate on the man’s creative legacy, shall we?