December 2007 PLAYBOY Juxtaposition

I read PLAYBOY for the cartoons. That's what I tell people. Well, the cartoons and the ads. At least that what I'm talking about today.

Just got the December issue of PLAYBOY, and boy oh boy -- there's some whacky, wonderful stuff in there. PLAYBOY continues to be a very cartoon friendly mag. Not only is there a never-before-seen Dedini cartoon, but there are a lot more other cartoons by the usual suspects (Gahan Wilson, P.C. Vey, Marty Murphy, Jonik), as well as some by relative newcomers (like Roy Delgado, not a newcomer to cartooning, but a new regular PLAYBOY presence, who had an excellent gag in this ish). Sorry to say that my fave PLAYBOY cartoonist, Don Orehek, was not in this one.

PLAYBOY was, and still is, a premier cartoon market. It took me a long, long time before I got my first sale. Let's look at some of the cartoon-related items in the new PLAYBOY (available for download at its Web site).


Here's an ad that uses a foursome of previously published PLAYBOY cartoons in its copy. Nice to see this, although the ad badly cropped a number of the cartoons. They guillotined good ol' Glenn McCoy's signature right down the middle.


Leroy Neiman gets a page, along with an announcement of a book of his "Femlin" (the girl on those Party Jokes page) drawings titled FEMLIN 50TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION. Yeah, he's been drawing the girl for 50 years! Why "Femlin?" Because, way back in 1957, when Neiman showed Hefner some of his drawings, his reaction went something like this:

HEF (looking at sketches): A gremlin.

NEIMAN: Strictly feminine.

HEF: Femlin.

A cartoon centerfold of great old Christmas cartoons (Dempsey, Erikson, Buck Brown, Kliban and Dedini). It's great to see these wonderful color bits of cartooning. If you're a fan of great cartoon art, these guys are worth the purchase price.

PLAYBOY has a lot of ads, and I want to talk about a very odd insert that came with my copy. But before that, I want to let you know that I want to avoid the below Blogger warning image:


So, I'm going to be using this image:

Please do not feel infantilized. Thanks.

OK, so I got the below house ad with a nice lady inviting me to visit their Web site:


And so I turned it over and saw the below. This is all one side of the card, with one side telling me to Give the Gift of Literacy ... and then ... get a Free Nude Celebrity Video ... ?!?!?!


So, remember: if you got some bad nudity, give equal space to a good cause!

H/t to my wife who noticed this advertising juxtaposition with a comment, "This would be a good blog entry."