Little Annie Fanny
| Little Annie Fanny | |
|---|---|
Little Annie Fanny Volume 1,
Dark Horse Comics, 2000 |
|
| Author(s) | Harvey Kurtzman |
| Illustrator(s) | |
| Current status / schedule | Concluded |
| Launch date | October 1962 |
| End date | September 1988 |
| Publisher(s) | Playboy Enterprises |
| Genre(s) | Adult humor |
Little Annie Fanny is a comics series by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. It appeared in 107 two- to seven-page episodes in Playboy magazine from October 1962 to September 1988. Little Annie Fanny is a humorous satire of contemporary American society and its sexual mores. Annie Fanny, the title character, is a statuesque, buxom young blonde woman who innocently finds herself nude in every episode. The series is notable for its painted, luminous color artwork and for being the first full-scale, multi-page comics feature in a major American publication.
Kurtzman, a cartoonist, created the series at the culmination of his career. He had launched Mad magazine, worked briefly for Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner and on a series of solo and collaborative projects, then returned to working for Hefner with Little Annie Fanny. Each episode of the comic strip was designed and written by Kurtzman and rendered in oil, tempera, and watercolor by Elder. Hefner edited each episode, often requiring detailed changes to ensure that the series remained true to the magazine's editorial style. Critical reaction was mixed, with most praising the elaborate, fully painted comic, but some dismissing it as falling short of Kurtzman's full potential. The complete series was first collected into two volumes in 2000 and 2001 by Dark Horse Comics.
Harvey Kurtzman founded the satirical Mad magazine in 1952; an early fan was onetime cartoonist Hugh Hefner, who founded the men's magazine Playboy in 1953. Hefner offered Kurtzman an opportunity to conceive a new humor magazine for his enterprise, which the cartoonist accepted when he left Mad in 1956 in an ownership dispute. Kurtzman took most of the Mad artists with him, including frequent collaborator Will Elder, to create the adult-oriented humor magazine Trump. Although it sold well, Hefner ran into financial problems in 1957 and halted Trump after two issues. He provided office space for the artists, from which they self-published the satirical magazine Humbug in 1957–58. It failed to gain a significant following, and a dejected Kurtzman began pitching feature proposals to Playboy, all of which were rejected. However, he received a note from Hefner: "I bow to no one in my appreciation for H. Kurtzman." Hefner's praise encouraged Kurtzman to meet with publisher Ian Ballantine and create Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book (1959). This introduced the innocent and idealistic Goodman Beaver, a male character who continued to appear—with artwork by Elder—in Kurtzman's Help! (1960).
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