Rowland B. Wilson: Going Electric

Bob Dylan went electric in July of 1965. Rowland B. Wilson's Spanish serenader took a few more years to reach that milestone, but he arrived there in October of 1969 when a certain cartoon appeared in Playboy. The original magazine art demonstrates Wilson's customary mastery of local costume and architectural detail. It was sold on July 17 at Heritage Auctions.

Rowland B. Wilson
Original art
Playboy, October 1969

Rowland B. Wilson
Heritage Auctions listing accessed July 13, 2024

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/rowland-b-wilson-playboy-single-panel-gag-cartoon-illustration-original-art-hmh-1969-/a/322429-48266.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Open-JumpLot-PreviousLot-050318

Rowland B. Wilson
Heritage Auctions item description

Sold!

Note:  I'm quite happy to use this blog to celebrate the artistry of the talented Rowland B. Wilson. If you send me scans or photos, I'll plug them right in.

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Rowland B. Wilson: An Acute Infringement

This past July 10, Heritage Auctions sold an original Playboy cartoon by Rowland B. Wilson. The stamps and printer's markings indicate it was published in the magazine. The full page cartoon demonstrates Wilson's skill as a draftsman and watercolorist, as well as his penchant for dramatic, low angles. But the humor comes from the contrast of the unsophisticated, dying, older man summing up the political situation with contemporary academic jargon. My only quibble is the use of the word aborigines in the setting of the American Old West. It feels wrong, even by the standards of 1975.

"The way I figure it, captain, the aborigines sense an acute infringement of their territorial imperative
and are retaliating with aggressive anti-establishment behavior!"
Rowland B. Wilson
Original art
Playboy, c. 1975

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/rowland-b-wilson-playboy-single-panel-gag-cartoon-illustration-original-art-hmh-c-1975-total-2/a/322428-47249.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-JumpLot-PreviousLot-050318

". . . retailing with aggressive anti-establishment behavior?"
Rowland B. Wilson
Heritage Auctions item description

Note:  Was this cartoon art actually published? It was. I can't find it anywhere, but that doesn't mean much. Heritage couldn't locate it either, designating it only "HMH"—for Hugh M. Hefner—"c. 1975." So I'll put it to the readership: When did this cartoon by Rowland B. Wilson appear in Playboy magazine? Kindly site chapter and verse. Please send a scan or photo of the spread as well, and I don't mean the centerfold.

04727

Rowland B. Wilson: Meet The Executioner

On July 24, Heritage Auctions sold a full-page original Playboy cartoon by Rowland B. Wilson that appeared in the August 1985 issue. Say what you will, the artwork is well-executed.

"Hi! My name is Rick—I'll be your executioner today!"
Rowland B. Wilson
Original art
Playboy, August 1985, p. 105

Rowland B. Wilson
Heritage Auctions listing accessed July 13, 2024

https://comics.ha.com/itm/original-comic-art/illustrations/rowland-b-wilson-playboy-august-1985-single-panel-gag-cartoon-illustration-original-art-hm/p/322430-41001.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyTrackedLots-101116#

"Created in mixed medial [sic] on textured art paper."
Rowland B. Wilson
Heritage Auctions item description

Here it is in situ in the magazine:

Playboy, August 1985, pp. 104-105

https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/playboy-usa-original-august-1985-1104545038/

Sold!

04726

R. Crumb: Looking for Work

Today it's hard to remember a time when underground comix artist R. Crumb's work was not in demand. But in the early 1960s, a still unknown Crumb living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan was looking for a job. He asked Harvey Kurtzman of Mad magazine renown to forward a handwritten request for help to author and illustrator Shel Silverstein. In his letter, Crumb pleaded with Silverstein for his assistance in soliciting some business for him from Playboy's publisher Hugh Hefner. Kurtzman forwarded Crumb's letter after penning his own above it in which he pushes Silverstein to talk to Hefner about bringing Crumb out to Chicago. As it happens, the Playboy prospect was not to work out, but in retrospect, just looking at the exasperated bird he drew at the bottom of the letter, it's hard to imagine Crumb not finding some path to success. 

R. Crumb
AbeBooks listing accessed June 5, 2022

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30314694723&searchurl=kn%3DR.%2BCrumb%26sortby%3D1&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-image7

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Hugh Hefner's Copy of Fornicon by Tomi Ungerer

Tomi Ungerer's Fornicon (1969) has not become less disturbing in the fifty years since its unlikely publication. It's precisely-imagined depictions of mechanized genital stimulation may even have gained some new resonance in our own deeply-troubled age saturated in impersonal internet pornography. This is not a book I've ever desired to own, not even in my sexually-curious youth, but if I were going to conceal a copy in my personal library I don't think I could find a more apt one than that belonging to Playboy magazine's founder and publisher Hugh Hefner. It's actually from the limited edition of 500—five-hundred!—signed and numbered, but not personalized. Still, with the link between illustrator and publisher it's quite an association copy. Frankly, it's hard to see from Fornicon how Hefner made use of Ungerer's esthetic in his magazine depicting "the girl next door," but Ungerer was certainly capable of producing a wide variety of images, a great many of which could be safely mass-marketed.

The first eBay photograph is one I could never have imagined: Hugh Hefner's copy of Fornicon displayed atop Senator John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage!

For the record, I could never have imagined the remainder of the eBay photographs either.

Tomi Ungerer
eBay Listing Retrieved June 24, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tomi-Ungerer-FORNICON-Signed-1st-Edition-1970/202637422523?hash=item2f2e21afbb:g:26MAAOSw3AFcnApU

Tomi Ungerer
eBay Item Description

N-gram:  Hugh Hefner and Tomi Ungerer

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Hugh Hefner

Limited Editions

Attempted Bloggery's Booksmart Index

02966

Hugh Hefner's Copy of ffundamental ffolkes

The first book signed and inscribed by cartoonist Michael ffolkes (1925-1988) ever to appear on this blog comes from the library of Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner. Playboy published ffolkes's work regularly. The 1985 paperback, ffundamental ffolkes, is subtitled An Autobiography. On the basis of the cover illustration, it appears to be an unusual one. Ffolkes was the pen name of Brian Davis. Perhaps inevitably, the inscription begins, "ffor Hef..."

Michael ffolkes
eBay Listing Retrieved June 21, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Michael-ffolkes-FFUNDAMENTAL-FFOLKES-An-Autobiography-Signed-1st-Edition-1985/202634714111?hash=item2f2df85bff:g:4hEAAOSwp~VccJSL

Michael ffolkes
eBay Item Description

Michael who? Compared with "Hef," the cartoonist barely registers on Google's n-gram viewer.

N-gram:  Michael ffolkes and Hugh Hefner

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Michael ffolkes

Signed Books

Attempted Bloggery's Ffolksy Index

02963

Hugh Hefner's Copy of Peter Arno's Hullabaloo

Hugh Hefner was only four years old when Peter Arno's Hullabaloo was published in 1930. Hefner, a cartoonist himself, eventually became a fan of Arno's and apparently hoped to recruit him as a Playboy cartoonist. Hefner's copy of the book lacks a dust jacket and may very well have been acquired second-hand. It is signed by Hefner with a sketch of a cartoon head which we are told is his "caricature self portrait." The $920 eBay price tag may prove palatable to admirers of Hefner and his magazine, especially if mitigated with the Make Offer option. It is less likely to appeal to fans of Peter Arno.

Peter Arno
eBay listing retrieved June 20, 2019

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Peter-Arnos-HULLABALOO-1930/202634685538?hash=item2f2df7ec62:g:V~kAAOSw91pccF1I&frcectupt=true

Peter Arno
eBay Item Description

N-Gram:  Peter Arno and Hugh Hefner

April 12, 2026 Update:  The new owner of this book writes about it here.

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Peter Arno

Signed Books with Sketches

Attempted Bloggery's Dreamlike Index

02962

Hugh Hefner's Copy of The Dreamer by Will Eisner

Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner may not have gotten to publish cartoonist Will Eisner, but nevertheless he was an avowed fan of The Spirit. Eisner appears willing to indulge the magazine publisher with an inscribed copy of his 1986 graphic novella The Dreamer.

Will Eisner
Royal Books Listing Retrieved June 20, 2019

https://www.royalbooks.com/pages/books/145371/will-eisner/the-dreamer-first-edition-inscribed-to-hugh-hefner

N-Gram:  Will Eisner and Hugh Hefner

N-gram added June 21, 2019

Quick Links to the Attempted Bloggery Archives:

Will Eisner

Signed Books

Attempted Bloggery's Dreamlike Index

02961

The Lee Lorenz Dollar

Cartoonist Lee Lorenz has been caught in the act of defacing a one dollar bill. This comes from the paper money collection of bandleader Ray Anthony. The eBay listing notes his friendship with Dean Martin, but he is also close friends with Hugh Hefner, and this may have given him access to Playboy cartoonists. You know, at the Mansion...

Lee Lorenz, dollar bill

EBay Item Listing Ended July 5, 2015

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LEE-LORENZ-CARTOONIST-THE-NEW-YORKER-SIGNED-DOLLAR-CERTIFIED-BY-PMG-/381309071223?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58c7caaf77&nma=true&si=MY%252BVlM1DDf4MNMNGGnCdh3m%252FHQQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

eBay Bid History
It takes 21 bids to bring the price from $0.99 to $89.

Note:  You're invited to send in your own pictures of dollar bills decorated by New Yorker—or Playboy—cartoonists. If you don't have any, just send money.

Attempted Bloggery's quick links:

Lee Lorenz

Autograph Drawing Signed

Attempted Bloggery's Pound-Foolish Index

The buck stops here.

02094