Political Cartoons: David Horsey on His Influences

Great posts by Seattle Post Intelligencer cartoonist, David Horsey...

Mad Magazine- My Early Influence

And The Other Influence- Playboy
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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

3.26.09
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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

3.5.09
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Pinups: Eldon Dedini's Satyrs and Nymphs

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.


You can't beat Christmas in the country.
A while back, we posted a group of Playboy cartoons by Eldon Dedini. Today, we present more of this artist's amazing work, along with a video interview of Dedini in his studio discussing how he got his start.

Eldon Dedini is best known for his magazine cartoons from Esquire and Playboy. But early in his career, he was an editorial cartoonist for local newspapers, and a story man for Walt Disney.

Archive supporter, Ken Kearney lives close to the Monterey area, where Dedini lived and worked for many years. In 2005, he produced an interview video, which he generously donated to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive for our biographical database. Here is a clip from Ken's video where Dedini tells how he got started as a cartoonist and his experiences as a story man with Disney on Fun & Fancy Free and Donald Duck cartoons like Dumbell of the Yukon.



Eldon Dedini Interview (Ken Kearney/2005)
(Quicktime 7 / 14.2 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

DEDINI IN PLAYBOY
Here is a feature on Dedini's famous "Satyr & Nymph" comics from Playboy, followed by some higher resolution images of individual cartoons...







We forgot the picnic basket!


I'd like you to meet my father,
but I don't dare. You know how
even old satyrs are!


It's not that I didn't believe in Santa Claus-
It's just that you've shattered my image
somehow...
For more info on the great cartoonists who worked for Playboy in the 1960s, see these posts... Eldon Dedini Part One, Erich Sokol, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

If you're a fan of Dedini, you will want to get Fantagraphic's great book, An Orgy Of Eldon Dedini. It comes with a DVD documentary called "Dedini: A Life In Cartoons" Check it out!

I'm not sure if Ken is offering these for sale, but if you would like to inquire about ordering a DVD of Ken Kearney's Dedini interview, email, kenkearneystudios@hotmail.com.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

2.10.09
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Pinups: 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.



Over the weekend, an Archive Supporter stopped by to donate his collection of vintage Playboy magazines to the Archive. He mentioned that there was no need to thank him by name on the blog, his wife would be pleased that they were given away. He plans to proudly tell her that he donated his collection to a museum!

Some people have asked why we've featured Playboy cartoons by artists like Erich Sokol and Eldon Dedini. The answer is simple... Playboy employed some of the top cartoonists of the 50s and 60s. Their work exemplifies all of the attributes of good design.

Today, we are featuring the work of two giants of cartooning... Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder.

Harvey Kurtzman made a name for himself in his early years with the one page "Hey Look!" comics, as well as his work editing EC Comics' war comics. His style was detailed and thorough. His layouts and continuity breakdowns left little room for deviation. When EC decided to create a humor line, Kurtzman was assigned the job as the founding editor of Mad. Beginning as a ten cent comic book, and eventually switching to a twenty five cent magazine (to avoid review by the Comics Code Authority), Mad became a huge hit in the five years it was under Kurtzman's leadership. Much of the sensibilities of Kurtzman's work for Mad are shared by "Little Annie Fanny" for Playboy.

Will Elder worked as an artist under Kurtzman at EC and on Mad, expanding and elaborating on Kurtzman's detailed layouts. They were a great team, and the combination of Kurtzman's foreground action and Elder's background gags became a standard device for them throughout their collaborations. Other artists who worked on the "Little Annie Fanny" series were Jack Davis, Russ Heath and Al Jaffee (all former Mad alumni).

The "Little Annie Fanny" series debuted in the October 1962 issue of Playboy magazine. The comic was a parody of the Playboy image itself, vaguely based on the "Little Orphan Annie" theme, with lots of topical references and pokes at popular culture. The strip was the first fully painted comic in American magazines, and was very time consuming to produce. Kurtzman continued the series until 1988- its 100th episode- when he retired it, stating that all of the possible story ideas for the character had been exhausted.

January 1963






April 1964






March 1966




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

We'll have more great Playboy cartoons for you soon.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Eldon Dedini Part One, Part Two (video interview!) and Part Three, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Jack Cole Valentine, Little Annie Fanny Takes A Trip, 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.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.15.08
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Pinups: John Held Jr.

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, Archive volunteer, Gary Francis brought in a couple of Playboys from the late 60s to add to our collection of digitized images by Sokol, Dedini, Interlandi, Sneyd and Vargas. We will be posting more by these great artists soon, but I particularly wanted to bring this great feature on John Held Jr. to your attention.

John Held Jr was born in 1889, and by the age of 16 was an accomplished sports cartoonist for the Salt Lake City Tribune. He served in the military during WWI, and soon after his return he gained fame for his work as an illustrator for Life, Judge and College Humor. His style and subject matter defined the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s. His cartoons depicting sexy flappers and their raccoon coated beaus living the life of flaming youth were all the rage. In later years, he worked in woodcuts and illustrated scenes from the "Gay Nineties"

Here is a feature on Held from the January 1966 issue of Playboy magazine...









I just added the last page of this article, which includes some great biographical info on Held. (A nice Virgil Partch comic too!) If you would like to see more of Held's work, visit Shane Glines' excellent site... CartonRetro.com.

If you find this posting to be useful, you should also see our postings on George Petty's Ridgid Tools Calendars, Erich Sokol, Eldon Dedini, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.22.08
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Media: Playboy's Alberto Vargas

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.


We're very grateful to archive supporter, Chad Coyle for allowing us to digitize his collection of cartoons and illustrations from 1960s Playboy magazines. You might remember our previous posts on Erich Sokol, Eldon Dedini, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi. Today, we focus on the "Grand Old Man" of pinup art, Alberto Vargas.

Vargas was born in Peru in 1896, and travelled to Europe with his family in 1911. His father was a photographer, and Vargas was exposed at an early age to the airbrush as a retouching tool. He studied to be a photographer, and worked in New York as a retoucher for a time, but Florenz Ziegfeld hired him as an illustrator for his Follies in 1917. He scraped by through the depression illustrating for various publications and movie studios. When George Petty left Esquire in 1940, Vargas took over his position with the magazine. Even though this brought much-needed exposure for Vargas' work, the contract with Esquire was extremely unfair. The magazine even trademarked the name Vargas had been working under... "Varga" and wouldn't allow him to use it for any other work. Vargas sued and broke the contract in 1950.

Vargas added the "s" to his name and proceeded to rebuild his career, illustrating playing cards and taking freelance work for True magazine. In 1960, he was hired as an illustrator for Playboy, the venue that made him famous. The "Vargas Girl" represented a high level of perfection in beauty, erotic- but never vulgar. Even when Playboy would have allowed him to depict full frontal nudity, Vargas always kept his models discretely draped. He worked for Playboy until his 90th birthday in 1976, when he retired. Vargas passed away in 1982 at the age of 96.

Completing this group of postings on the Playboy artists of the 1960s, here is the work of the great Alberto Vargas...

VARGAS IN THE 1920s









VARGAS IN THE 1960s






If you find this posting to be useful, you should also see our posting on George Petty's Ridgid Tools Calendars.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

10.07.08
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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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Media: Eldon Dedini

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.


You know, I think I'm actually learning
quite a lot at my Mother's Knee, Mom.
Recently, we posted a group of Playboy cartoons by Erich Sokol. Today, we are featuring the work of Eldon Dedini.

Dedini started out as a staff cartoonist at Esquire in 1942, before coming to Hollywood to work in animation. He was a storyboard artist at Universal for a few years in the mid-1940s, and joined Disney as a story artist on "Mickey & the Beanstalk", "Ichabod and Mr Toad" and several Donald Duck shorts. He continued to do cartoons for Esquire during this period, and moved to the New Yorker in 1950. He began contributing cartoons to Playboy in 1960, joining Phil Interlandi, Jack Cole, Doug Sneyd and Erich Sokol. Dedini passed away at his home in Carmel, CA last December.

Chad Coyle was kind enough to lend us his collection of 1960s Playboys to digitize. We are working our way through the stack artist by artist. We'll bring you more featured Playboy cartoonists in a couple of weeks.


Shouldn't we be putting nuts away for the winter or something?


I hope nothing has happened to those two satyrs
who always surprise us at our bath.


What are 'morals'? Another one of your inventions?


Well, I've always looked at it as sort of
stockpiling the American Dream!


Well, I guess it just goes to prove that
not all God's children got rhythm.


Be sure to notice her dress. It's a topless.


It's become traditional. During the holidays
the country cousin visits the city cousin.


Hi!


Carl is always so interested in people


Terrific, eh? Each year we rent the old lady and come
out here and have a real underground Christmas.



Look at it this way- your medium is your message!


Wow! This is the most consciousness-expanding
plum pudding I've ever eaten!


Don't you find that some New Years
are harder to bring in than others?


Young man, you should be asleep!

If you enjoyed this post, check out these articles... Eldon Dedini Part Two (video interview!), Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, 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, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.06.08
.

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Media: Erich Sokol's 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.


Well, I'm glad she's finally getting interested
in something besides running around with boys.
During the 1960s, Playboy magazine employed some of the best cartoonists around at the time... Eldon Dedini, Gahan Wilson, Phil Interlandi, Jack Cole, Doug Sneyd and Erich Sokol. Archive volunteer, Chad Coyle brought a stack of 1960s Playboys by to be digitized, and there's a wealth of great stuff in them. Today, the Sokols...

Well, how do you like married life so far?


I came up to complain about the noise.


What the hell kind of pacifist are you?


Take off your clothes... take off your clothes!
My goodness, don't men ever think about anything else?




Mother will be disappointed if you don't come in for at least
a few minutes, George. She's expecting to meet you tonight.


You got the part.
Now would you care to try for an Academy Award?


You're welcome.


You were wrong.... I'm NOT old enough to take care of himself.


I believe the new nurse is going to do wonders for him.
He's already learned to count to two...




Tuck my shirt into WHAT shorts?


Why don't you bug out now and I'll call you Friday.
If you enjoyed this post, check out these articles... Early Erich Sokol Cartoons, A Passel Of Sokol, 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, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi, Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons and Meet Doug Sneyd.


Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.28.08
.

Stumble It!