Archive for the ‘playboy’ Category

Wednesday, May 10th, 2023

Pinups: Alberto Vargas

Alberto Vargas

Alberto VargasAlberto VargasWe’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.

Alberto VargasAlberto VargasVargas 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…

VARGA IN THE 1920s

Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas

VARGAS IN THE 1960s

Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas
Alberto Vargas

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Magazine CartoonsMagazine Cartoons

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Magazine Cartoons.

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Friday, March 17th, 2023

Pinups: John Held Jr.

John Held Jr

John Held JrJohn Held JrPlayboy had some of the greatest “girl cartoonists” of all time on their staff. You might have seen our previous posts on Playboy cartoonists Sokol, Dedini, Interlandi, Sneyd and Vargas. We will be posting more by these great artists soon, but I particularly wanted to bring this great Playboy retrospective 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…

John Held Jr
John Held Jr
John Held Jr
John Held Jr
John Held Jr
John Held Jr
John Held Jr

I just added the last page of this article, which includes some great biographical info on Held. (A nice Virgil Partch comic too!)

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Magazine CartoonsMagazine Cartoons

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Magazine Cartoons.

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Tuesday, January 24th, 2023

Pinups: Phil Interlandi’s Playboy Cartoons

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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 artist’s biography 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."

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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.

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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.

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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."

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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.

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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 Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist

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

Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi Playboy Cartoonist
Phil Interlandi
We changed our minds!

Phil Interlandi
He’d rather fight than switch.

Phil Interlandi

Phil Interlandi

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

Phil Interlandi
Daphne! Get your butt in here!

Phil Interlandi
The starter is fresh!

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

Phil Interlandi
Pay attention, damn it, pay attention!

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

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!

Stephen Worth
Director
Animation Resources

Magazine CartoonsMagazine Cartoons

This posting is part of the online Encyclopedia of Cartooning under the subject heading, Magazine Cartoons.

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