Pinups: Eldon Dedini in the 1960s

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.


Here's another look at the artistry of Eldon Dedini from the pages of Playboy magazine. In case you missed it, check out the video interview with Dedini contributed by Archive Supporter Ken Kearney.

Dedini often did spot advertisements in Playboy. Here are a couple of great examples...



These ads redefine the term, "soft sell"! Today's batch of cartoons feature hippies, go-go dancers and gurus from the "swingin' 60s"... and of course, plenty of pretty girls.














If you enjoyed this post, see... Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!)

Check out these articles too... Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Jack Cole Valentine, Little Annie Fanny Takes A Trip, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, More Little Annie Fannie, Biography: Jack Davis, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, and More Sokol, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Pinups: Happy Valentines Day- Jack Cole Style

Just a quick Valentine's Day gift from the great Jack Cole...



If you enjoyed this post, check out these articles... Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Little Annie Fanny Takes A Trip, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, More Little Annie Fannie, Kurtzman Comic Books, Biography: Jack Davis, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, and More Sokol, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Pinups: Little Annie Fanny Takes A Trip

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.


Today, we continued to work our way through the collection of Playboy magazines that we have been digitizing for the past year or so. Here are two more "Little Annie Fanny" episodes from late 1960s Playboys. If you missed our previous posts on this classic series by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder, see the links at the bottom of this post.


The first story up features some great work by a cartoonist we recently profiled, the master caricaturist, Jack Davis. Check out his great crowd scenes on the third and fourth page. Also remarkable are Kurtzman's brilliant layouts for the first two pages (you can feel the pitch and roll of the ship!) and the Mad magazine style final bird's eye view.






The second story up is a different type of trip, with a psychedelic "op art" touch and a full page downshot crowd scene for the climax. The "Little Annie Fanny" series was probably the most elaborately drawn comic strip ever!





Check out these great "Little Annie Fanny" collections at Amazon.com!

As always, let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

If you enjoyed this post, check out our articles on Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, More Little Annie Fannie, Kurtzman Comic Books, Biography: Jack Davis, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, and More Sokol, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
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Biography: Jack Davis

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 great cartoon and pinup art.


Will Finn, in his excellent blog small room recently posted a great article titled Using It, Losing It, and Getting It Back on the decline in drawing quality of Chuck Jones' later work for the animation art market. He offers an interesting theory that perhaps Jones' strength lay in his depiction of personality in motion, and when he chose to focus on static images, his work lost its energy. The fickle nature of the creative spirit is better discussed by artists than by archivists, so I'm not going to add to what Will has said. But I'm going to offer an example from the comic world of a similar nature... Jack Davis.

Please note that I'm focusing on Davis at his peak in this post. If you are interested in looking into how his work seems to run hot and cold, see David Apatoff's insightful article, Counting To Nine.


Jack Davis was a cartoonist from a very early age. His first published work appeared in Tip Top Comics in 1936. He was twelve years old at the time. In 1949, he packed up and moved from Atlanta to New York City, where he was hired by EC Comics to draw for The Vault of Horror and Two-Fisted Tales. At EC, Davis met Harvey Kurtzman, who liked his work and used him in Mad magazine. Kurtzman and Davis also worked together on Little Annie Fanny in Playboy. (See the links below for some examples of this terrific series...)


Davis went on to become one of the most sought-after illustrators and caricaturists in America. His caricatures of public figures appeared on the covers of Time magazine and TV Guide, as well as record covers, movie posters and bubble gum cards. Davis is currently one of the best-known and recognizable cartoonists in the world.


Here is an early Davis story from Mad magazine that shows his immense talents at their absolute best. Every panel of this comic is drop-dead brilliant!

KANE KEEN
Mad Magazine 1953










Many thanks to the talented cartoonist, Amir Avni for contributing the copy of "Son of Mad" from which this great story was scanned. Also thanks to the stalwart archive supporter Eric Graf for lending us record covers from his extensive collection to digitize.

If you enjoyed this post, check out these articles... A Passel of Sokol, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons and More Sokol, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Pinups: A Passel of Sokol

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.


Today, we continued to work our way through the collection of Playboy magazines that we have been digitizing for the past year or so. Here is a batch of cartoons by Erich Sokol. We start out with a biographical feature on the cartoonists who worked for Playboy in the mid-1960s.



Next up is a Sokol feature that highlights his remarkable ability to caricature...




And a pile of Sokol cartoons from the late 1950s through the early 70s. Check out the wide variety of colors, the attention to light and the skillful composition in these cartoons...










As always, let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

If you enjoyed this post, check out our articles on Early Erich Sokol Cartoons and More Sokol, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Pinups: Meet Doug Sneyd

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.

Here's a gift that I've taken much too long to acknowledge... Last Summer, Archive supporter, Sean Worsham donated a great book of unpublished cartoons by Playboy cartoonist, Doug Sneyd. (Mr. Sneyd even autographed it for us!) It gives a fascinating glimpse at the thought process behind Sneyd's wonderful cartoons. Here are a few choice pages from the book...







I highly recommend this book. You can order an autographed copy for yourself at... www.DougSneyd.com.

I've spent the better part of this week scanning more mid 60s Playboys. Here's a gallery of Sneyd's work from that period...










As always, let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

If you enjoyed this post, check out our articles on Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Early Erich Sokol Cartoons and More Sokol, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi and Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Biography: Ward Kimball- Escapader Cum Laude

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.


OK. With that picture above, you probably think I've gone off the deep end! But look a little further... This "girlie" magazine from the late fifties has incredible cartoons and illustrations... and an article on the incomparable Ward Kimball!


How the wildest "Old Man" ended up in a men's magazine is anybody's guess. But the article captures Kimball at his peak. And the great illustrations and cartoons in the magazine itself (including a Searle influenced trip to Europe by Schoolhouse Rock designer, Bob Eggers) express the joyful exhuberance of the era. As an added bonus, there's an ad for the Famous Artists Course featuring the inspiring life story of illustrator, Albert Dorne. Enjoy!















Thanks to archive supporter Gary Francis for sharing this gem with us.

If you enjoyed this article, you'll also want to check out... An Interview With Playboy's Eldon Dedini, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla, Tytla At Terry: Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll &' Hyde Cat 1940, The Pencil Test of Art Babbitt's Best Scene, our Profile of Carlo Vinci, and Remembering Berny Wolf

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Pinups: More Of Kurtzman and Elder's Little Annie Fanny

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.



Little Annie Fanny by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder was a mainstay of Playboy magazine for decades. From 1962 to 1988, they produced 100 episodes, assisted by guest artists like Jack Davis, Russ Heath, and Al Jaffee. This crack team also worked for Mad magazine and Hugh Hefner's short-lived humor magazine, Trump.



Here are three great stories from the late 60s. In particular, pay attention to Elder's hilarious "micro gags" in the backgrounds of the third story. They're even funnier than the Bond parody playing out in the foreground!















As always, let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

If you enjoyed this post, check out our first article on Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny. For more info on the great Playboy cartoonists, see these posts... Early Erich Sokol Cartoons and More Sokol, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi and Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons.

Check out these great "Little Annie Fanny" collections at Amazon.com!

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Pinups: Early Sokol 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.



Over a year ago, we began our series of posts on Playboy cartoonists with a feature highlighting Erich Sokol. Sokol was arguably the most gifted artist who ever worked for the magazine, with a keen eye for all of the elements of good drawing- composition, clear silhouettes, original color harmonies, interesting staging and a keen sense of light and shade. There's a lot to be learned from these masterful cartoons. His style evolved as time went by, and his images became more and more beautiful. This group of cartoons is arranged in a more or less chronological manner. Compare the first one from the mid-1950s to the last one from a decade later, and you'll see how much he progressed...













Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

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 and Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons.

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

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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

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Pinups: Jack Cole And More Great 50s 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.



Today, we continue our series of posts on the great cartoonists who worked for Playboy magazine over the years. Today, we feature artists from the late 1950s. Starting with...

JACK COLE
More than any other artist who worked at Playboy, Jack Cole was most responsible for establishing the tone and style of the single panel full page cartoons that appeared in its pages His watercolor technique was loose and free, but the overall impression was brilliantly planned out and remarkably expressive.

Born in 1914 in New Castle Pennsylvania, Cole was a self-taught artist. At age 17, he bicycled across the country to Los Angeles and sold the story of his odyssey, along with his own illustrations, to Boy's Life. After graduating from High School, he moved to New York and took up work in the comic book business. He moved up through the ranks at Harry A. Chesler, Centaur Publications and Lev Gleeson on a variety of crime and action comics. In 1940, he assisted WIll Eisner on The Spirit, ghosting the strip when Eisner was drafted during the War. He is best known though, as the creator of the Marvel superhero, Plastic Man.

In 1954, Cole began selling one panel "girlie" cartoons to various magazines, and his work caught the attention of the editors of the fledgling publication, Playboy. For the next few years, Cole's cartoons appeared in every issue, until his untimely suicide in 1958. Here are a few of Cole's beautiful watercolors from the late 1950s...







JACK DAVIS
When you think of Jack Davis, you probably think of his work with Harvey Kurtzman at Mad magazine, his covers for TV Guide, his advertising work and movie posters, and perhaps the Little Annie Fanny comics he painted for Kurtzman at Playboy. But you don't normally think of him as a one-panel cartoonist. Here's a rare example...



CHARLES W. MILLER
I don't have any info on Charles W. Miller. His tighter style is closer to the illustrators who worked for Colliers in the late 1940s than it is the washy, stylized work of Dedini, Sokol or Cole. But he was obviously a very accomplished artist- check out the sophisticated lighting in the second example for proof of that. If you know details of his biography, please post to the comments below.




AL STINE
Al Stine is still living, painting and teaching in South Carolina. In fact, he recently started doing editorial cartoons for the Anderson South Carolina Independent Mail. His masterful transparent watercolor technique really sets him apart. If you enjoy his work, drop him an email through his website- AlStine.com. It would be nice if someone out there would interview him and collect the info for our Biopedia Page.




Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

For more Playboy cartoons, see these posts... Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Erich Sokol, 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

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