Gahan Wilson 50 years of Playboy Cartoons

Product Information

The magazine generally reflected a liberal editorial stance, although it often interviewed conservative celebrities.

Many "men's magazines" like Playboy or Penthouse feature humoristic erotic comics as well. A hit was 'Little Annie Fanny' by Harvey Kurtzmann, which ran in Playboy from 1962 until 1988. In Holland, we have the antics of 'Willem' by Aloys Oosterwijk in the magazine, Panorama. Not everyone was quite so vitriolic. But Katha Pollitt at the Nation came close, calling Hefner “a creep” and a “toxic bachelor.... You have to ignore a lot of human suffering to buy the notion that ‘Hef’ was a fun-guy genius who brought us sexual liberation.” WATCHING THE FIRST TWO EPISODES of the docuseries, I kept wondering how these women let themselves become ensnared in Hefner’s fantasy. Did they know what they were getting into?

16.

For most artists, "erotic" means the depiction of what arouses their desire - which is usually a beautiful young woman or man, with little or no clothes on. Comic artists add to the sexually charged atmosphere by drawing their objects of desire in exciting stories. The artistic qualities of many erotic comics are very high, and many artists have earned themselves a respectable reputation in this genre. In Europe, the erotic scene is headed by names like Alex Varenne, Max Cabanes, Lorenzo Mattotti and probably the master: Milo Manara.

Some comic artists cater to several specific fetishes, such as feet, high heels, leather boots, nylon and rubber. Italian artist Franco Saudelli (together with his artistic wife Francesca Casotto, who often modelled for him) was a master at depicting feet in such a way, that even the ones that have no sexual interest in them, start to understand the fascination some others have. Famous as the fuzzy tail was, it was the highly regulated life of a Bunny that attracted attention. The Bunny costume was designed for its sex appeal, but sex went nowhere in a Playboy Club: the Bunnies were not permitted to date any of the customers. Some of the Bunnies, however, wound up as Playmates.In the 1960s and 70s underground comics reacted to the implementation of the Comics Code by drawing comics about any controversial subject they could think of - mostly sex. Robert Crumb and Spain Rodriguez are big names in this area.