Archive for the ‘playboy’ Category

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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Thursday, January 5th, 2023

Pinups: Jack Cole And More Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists

50s Playboy Cartoonists

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.

50s Plastic Man Jack Cole50s Plastic Man Jack ColeBorn 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…

50s Playboy Cartoonist Jack Cole
50s Playboy Cartoonist Jack Cole
50s Playboy Cartoonist Jack Cole
50s Playboy Cartoonist Jack Cole
50s Playboy Cartoonist Jack Cole

Here’s a Valentine’s Day feature by Cole…

Jack Cole Shel Silverstein Valentine Gift

Jack Cole Shel Silverstein Valentine Gift

Jack Cole Shel Silverstein Valentine Gift

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…

50s Playboy Cartoonist Jack Davis

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.

50s Playboy Cartoonist Charles W Miller
50s Playboy Cartoonist Charles W Miller

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 Biography Page.

50s Playboy Cartoonist Al Stine
50s Playboy Cartoonist Al Stine


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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