Pinups: Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


The internet never ceases to amaze me... I was working on this post, featuring early examples of Playboy cartoons by Phil Interlandi, when I took a break to check my email... A message had just come in from Interlandi's daughter Carla, filled with great info for our Cartoon Hall of Fame entry. I'm going to let her tell you about her father...

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PHIL INTERLANDI
By Carla Interlandi Armstrong
Phil Interlandi was a veteran freelance magazine cartoonist whose work appeared in national magazines ranging from Look to Better Homes & Gardens but most notably in Playboy, where he was a mainstay for decades. A longtime resident of Laguna Beach, CA, Interlandi sold his first cartoon to Playboy in 1955. "He had an acerbic wit." said Michelle Urry, Playboy's cartoon editor. "He just ran roughshod over all the sacred cows. He didn't care about the taboos."



The Chicago-born son of Sicilian immigrants, Interlandi showed artistic ability at an early age, as did his identical twin, Frank, who later became a syndicated political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. During World War II, Interlandi joined the Army at 17. He drew cartoons for The Yank, the Army newspaper, and was later a prisoner of war in Germany, a subject he didn't like to talk about according to his daughter, Liza Stewart.


After the war, Interlandi and his twin brother studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Interlandi worked a number of years in advertising before becoming a full-time freelance magazine cartoonist. A year after he moved to Laguna Beach in 1952, his twin followed. The inseparable brothers were part of Laguna's colorful cadre of cartoonists that grew to include Ed Nofziger, John Dempsey, Don Tobin, Roger Armstrong, Dick Shaw, Virgil Partch and Dick Oldden.



Following Phil Interlandi's lead, the cartoonists began a midday ritual of taking a break from their drawing boards and meeting in the bar at the White House restaurant on Coast Highway. "That was the first bar I walked into in Laguna," Interlandi explained in 1982, "and it became a habit."



Interlandi illustrated a number of books, including Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things, and I Wish I'd Said That, in addition to Dick Van Dyke's Faith, Hope and Hilarity: The Child's Eye View of Religion and Ed McMahon's The Barside Companion.



He was really just a marvelous artist," said New Yorker cartoonist Sam Gross, who had known Interlandi for 30 years. "He also really knew how to draw good looking girls and yet make the cartoon funny."



Phil Interlandi passed away in 2002 at the age of 78.



Thanks to Carla Interlandi Armstrong for the insights about her father's life and career.

For more Playboy cartoons, see these posts... Erich Sokol, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

If you're a fan of Playboy artists like Cole, Dedini, Wilson and Sokol, you will want to get this great collection of cartoons, Playboy: 50 Years- The Cartoons. Check it out!

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.26.09
.

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Media: Two More Playboy Cartoonists

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


Roll me over, in the clover...
We continue to work on scanning cartoons from Chad Coyle's wonderful collection of vintage Playboy magazines. Previously, we featured Erich Sokol and Eldon Dedini. Today we focused on Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

While both have strong, clear compositions, their rendering styles are quite different. Sneyd used layers of watercolor washes and delicate transparancies to create depth, while Interlandi slashed out his forms and textures with a bold, confident style. When you see the cartoons interspersed in the magazine, you might not realize how different each artist is, but when you see the cartoons grouped together by artist, you can really get a feeling for their individual style.

DOUG SNEYD

Can I stay and help you clean up the mess?


You came highly recommended, but I had no idea...


And this time, be more careful!


I won't be bothering you and Pop
with any more embarassing questions!


He wants to know if we make deliveries.


PHIL INTERLANDI

We changed our minds!


He'd rather fight than switch.






You have a dirty mind. I like that in a man.


Daphne! Get your butt in here!


The starter is fresh!


All I could get out of him was name, rank and serial number...
and an ingenious American invention called a "quickie".


Pay attention, damn it, pay attention!

For more info on the great cartoonists who worked for Playboy in the 1960s, see our posts on... Erich Sokol and Eldon Dedini.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

10.13.08
.

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