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Little Annie Fanny[edit]

Little Annie Fanny
Author(s)Harvey Kurtzman
Illustrator(s)
Current status/scheduleConcluded
Launch dateOctober 1962
End dateSeptember 1988
Publisher(s)Playboy
Genre(s)Humor, Adult

Little Annie Fanny is a comics series created by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder. It appeared in 106 issues of Playboy magazine in two to eight page episodes, debuting October 1962 and concluding September 1988, then published in two volumes in 2000 and 2001 by Dark Horse Comics. The series is a humorous satire of contemporary American society and its sexual mores. Annie Fanny is the title character, a statuesque, buxom, young blonde woman, who innocently finds herself naked in every episode. The series is notable for its fully-painted, luminous color artwork and for being the first full-scale, multi-page comics feature in any major American publication.

History[edit]

Creation[edit]

Little Annie Fanny began as a male character.[1] Harvey Kurtzman, creator and editor of Mad comic book-turned-magazine in 1952, was contacted by Hugh Hefner, publisher and owner of Playboy magazine (founded in 1953), after Hefner, a one-time cartoonist, picked up an early copy of Mad at a Chicago newsstand and knew he was seeing extraordinary work.[2] The two immediately developed a mutual respect and friendship. Hefner hired Kurtzman in 1956 after Kurtzman, through Hefner's encouragement, felt compelled leave Mad.[2] Hefner also hired cartoonists Will Elder, Russ Heath, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, and Arnold Roth, and asked Kurtzman to create Hefner's new full-color satire magazine Trump.[3] After Trump failed in early 1957, and after the group's independent efforts failed again with Humbug in early 1958,[4] Kurtzman's began to pitch feature proposals to Playboy, all of which were rejected. The discouraged Kurtzman received a note from Hefner which said, in part, "I bow to no one in my appreciation for H. Kurtzman."[5] Encouraged, Kurtzman met in 1958 with publisher Ian Ballantine, who saw the inherent genius in Kurtzman's work and published Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book the following year: four adult satire stories, one of which introduced the innocent and idealistic character Goodman Beaver. After the commercial failure of Jungle Book,[6] Kurtzman continued to correspond with Hefner and with Playboy executive editor and author Ray Russell. In a February 1960 letter to Kurtzman, who was still trying to convince them to produce his features articles for Playboy, Russell said, "Hef and I both strongly feel that there is great value in the comic strip for us ... They are bright, colorful, easily assimilated ... dramatic, and tell a continuous narrative. Big problem, of course, is to adapt this technique to something that would have meaning for Playboy and be defensible and justified in our pages." The executive editor then expressed that they wanted a comic that contained satire "as an excuse or rationale for a slick magazine to be publishing a comic strip." Cartoons were an established part of Playboy, but comics had to be justified.[7] Despite their instruction, Kurtzman's further proposals to Hefner and Russell failed to provide what they were looking for, and after attempts to freelance for other periodicals,[8] he began to realize the market was narrowing for artwork he drew himself.[9]

In 1960, Kurtzman entered into a business partnership with publisher James Warren on yet another satirical magazine, Help![10] This time, Kurtzman wrote and laid out the stories, but left the artwork to his competent collaborator Will Elder. Help! furthered the adventures of Goodman Beaver and began to attract a small audience but little financial reward.[9] Becoming dejected again, Kurtzman wrote to his friend Hefner in late 1961, admitting he "might be looking for work soon" and asked if he could submit "a strip for Playboy à la old Mad." He submitted some early Goodman Beaver strips and was surprised to receive a favorable response from Hefner, who liked the "fresh and eager" character, as Kurtzman had described him in his opening panels.[11] Hefner especially found amusing "Goodman Goes Playboy", which depicted a boisterous romp in the Playboy mansion, published in Help! the following month.[12] However, Hefner firmly insisted that the material was absolutely not right for Playboy. In his response to Kurtzman, however, Hefner asked for an explanation of the character and suggested, "Maybe there is a way of launching a similar series ... that can somehow be related to Playboy". Kurtzman replied, "Goodman Beaver's reason for being is ... a character who could be foolish and at the same time wise ... naive yet moral. He innocently partakes of the bad while espousing the good. That way, I can simultaneously treat foibles and ideals. He's a lovable, good-natured, philosophical idiot. He's restless. He wanders and can show up anywhere. He's young and can get involved in sexy situations. (That last sentence was for you.)"[13] A week after this explanation, Kurtzman wrote Hefner again: "What would you think of a girl character ... whom I could apply to my kind of situations?" After six long weeks, Hefner replied: "I think your notion of doing a Goodman Beaver strip of two, three, or four pages, but using a sexy girl ... is a bull's eye. We can run it every issue."[14]

Production[edit]

The time had come to design the comics feature. Kurtzman, working with Will Elder, suggested to Elder an "outlineless" style, but expressed a preference for a fully India inked outlined style with flat comic book color behind it. Hugh Hefner, whose opinion prevailed, preferred the more difficult and virtuosic fully-painted look. When it came time to name the feature, Kurtzman's suggestions included The Perils of Zelda, The Perils of Irma, Little Mary Mixup, until finally Little Annie Fanny, the title (and logo) an obvious take on Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie.[15] The feature would be in the comic strip format, but multiple pages in length. Kurtzman set to work, coming up with a story's idea, submitting to Hefner, and getting it approved. He often was allowed, with Playboy's generous budget, to travel to a location to research the story, take photographs, and produce early sketches. He would then write a preliminary script that would be submitted to Hefner, who edited and revised it. Kurtzman then worked out the story's composition, pacing, and action in thumbnail drawings, pencil roughs of each page of the comic, then drew larger, more detailed layouts dictating everything from lighting to speech balloon placement. These would need to be approved by Hefner—a typical story might take as many as nine pages of layout—then discussed with Elder, who would drive from his home in New Jersey to Kurtzman's home in New York. The two would sit on Kurtzman's back porch for hours where he acted out every detail; Elder says, "He would change his voice and take on the characteristics of of each role ... We'd crack each other up and fall down laughing". This would give Elder what he needed to create the penciling, including "eye pops"—background gags worked into holes in Kurtzman's layout (many would be rejected by Playboy, so Elder would create as many as possible) and then the final rendering.[16] Elder painted exclusively in tempera and watercolor, never once using ink. His technique included layering numerous color washes to give Annie its luminous tones. Speaking about his craft, Elder said he would begin with "a three-ply illustration board. The white board works as white paint. With oils you can pile things on; you can pile the light colors on top of the dark colors. In watercolor, you leave the white board alone and you hit the dark spots first ... This was always a job of painting."[17] Deadlines were tight and occasionally other artists would be called in to help complete the finished art, including Russ Heath, Arnold Roth, Jack Davis, Al Jaffee, Frank Frazetta, and Paul Coker.[18] Jaffee, a childhood friend of Elder's, reminisced about the experience: "Little Annie Fannie was the most unique, lavishly produced cartoon cum illustration feature ever. Each panel was a miniature masterpiece that Willie glazed and re-glazed in brilliant watercolor until he reached the level of 3-D-like translucence that he wanted. I know from first-hand experience what went into this project."[19] Letterers then inked the balloons and Kurtzman cleaned and submitted each episode's finished work. Little Annie Fanny became, not just Playboy's first comic strip, but the first full-scale, multi-page comics feature in any major American publication.[20]

Characters[edit]

Annie Fanny is the feature's lead character. Like any young woman appearing in any Playboy pictorial, Annie is beautiful and often unclothed.[21] Her character remains sexually innocent, however, oblivious to the worldliness around her. She is the morally upstanding Goodman Beaver character who came before her, a modern Candide, remaining above the story's corruptions and temptations. Unlike Goodman, however, Annie is never shocked or offended; she remains blithe.[22] The authors of Icons of the American Comic Book say Annie "glides through a changing world with an untiring optimism, despite the base desires of many of her admirers ... she remains untainted; a buxom blonde whose own good-natured lack of desire insulates her from the pitfalls of others." These others must be the ones to explain to Annie (and the reader) the new rules of society introduced each episode.[23] Ruthie, Annie's roommate, appeared in the first episode and remained in the strip through its entire run. Sugardaddy Bigbucks, Annie's surrogate father, a powerful and manipulative capitalist, is taken from the Daddy Warbucks character in Gray's Little Orphan Annie, as is his mysterious assistant The Asp (who, in the strip, becomes The Wasp) and his giant bodyguard Punjab (who becomes Shazam). Wanda Homefree, Annie's wild and shapely best friend, first appears in Episode 10 in a beauty contest as Miss Greenwich Village, then is often seen at Annie's side throughout the remainder of the series. Ralphie Towzer, Annie's nerdy but hip do-gooder boyfriend, is a combination of actors Mickey Rooney and Robert Morse but with the look of Goodman Beaver (with playwright Arthur Miller's eyeglasses and pipe), coming across as straight-laced as ever. Solly Brass, Annie's huckster agent, is clearly based on actor Phil Silvers. Other supporting characters include ad man Benton Battbarton (his name taken from the ad agencies Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn and Benton & Bowles), ad rival Huck Buxton (modeled on the gap-toothed British actor Terry-Thomas), Duncan Fyfe Hepplewhite (a starving artist), and Freddie Flink (a look-alike of comic actor Fred Gwynne from Car 54, Where Are You?).[24]

Synopsis[edit]

Little Annie Fanny takes the reader through the changing attitudes of American culture, showcasing trends and fads through biting satire. In each of the 106 episodes, Annie experiences the latest hip movie, fashion statement, edgy politics, or societal headline. In the first decade of the strip's existence (when the strip ran up to eleven times per year), Annie meets caricatures of the Beatles (who have eyes for Annie, naturally), Sean Connery (playing agent "James Bomb"), The Catcher in the Rye author J. D. Salinger (as "Salinger Fiengold"), the Green Bay Packers (or "Greenback Busters") and Elvis, Dylan, Sonny & Cher on the "Hoopadedoo Show" (Hullabaloo show), all the while poking fun at miniskirts, LSD, free love, and bra burning. Background caricatures include Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, fashion designer Rudi Gernreich, comic strip character Flash Gordon, and Humble Oil's "Put a Tiger in Your Tank" advertising campaign[25] In the next decade of the 1970s (when the strip ran three to five times per year), Annie copes with violent movies such as A Clockwork Orange and The Godfather and experiences disco, streaking, nudist communities, and gay liberation.[26] Finally, in the 1980s (when the strip appeared one to two times per year) she encountered Indiana Jones, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Howard Cosell, and Woody Allen.[27]

Reception[edit]

Comics expert Don Markstein professes the comic "reached a high point seldom achieved by cartoon art." Speaking from his website Don Markstein's Toonopedia, he said, "Harvey Kurtzman, founding editor of Mad magazine, strove for most of his life to advance the boundaries of comics, not just in terms of storytelling, but also in production values" and that Annie actually achieved at least the latter of these. As for its venue, he said, "Playboy magazine, whatever you may say about its content, always did a first-rate job of printing color pictures."[20] Comics commentators Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith expressed respect for the series, saying it "reads today as an amusing look at the evolving mores of the sexual revolution"[28] and cartoonist/critic R. C. Harvey called it "a masterpiece ... the most lavish color comic strip of all time."[29] Not all were impressed. After observing that Kurtzman was strapped financially before making his living for over twenty-five years only from Playboy, author Paul Buhle stated, "The strip had many brilliant early moments, but went downhill as the writer and artist bent to editor Hugh Hefner's demands for as much titillation as possible."[30] Art agent Denis Kitchen, who handles the estate of both Kurtzman and Eisner, claims that "most Kurtzman devotees would not consider Little Annie Fanny genius work" and "some would argue the opposite: that it was genius diluted or degraded."[31] The focus of ire of these devotees, continue Kitchen and Buhle, is on Kurtzman's boss Hefner, who "was often a punctilious taskmaster with a heavy red pen who often had very different ideas about what was funny or satiric" and who, of course, insisted each strip "had to include Annie disrobing."[31] Duncan and Smith admit some agreement to this, and refer specifically to the feelings of Kitchen and Buhle: "Humor sometimes mixes awkwardly with the loaded topics of the era, and some have found Annie's lack of character development and the requisite sexual hijinks an impediment to taking her seriously." Regardless, they repeat their expressed respect: "the eternally innocent Annie performed admirably as a nonjudgmental witness to the changing tides of the sexual revolution."[32]

Adaptation[edit]

Twice Annie was attempted to be adapted into a motion picture or television feature; twice the attempt failed. The December 1978 issue of Playboy mentioned a "world-wide search for the actress" who would "portray Little Annie Fanny in a live-action movie", but no film was ultimately made.[33] In 2000, Mainframe Entertainment was approached by Playboy TV to create a CGI animated television series based on Little Annie Fanny, but no series was ever produced.[34]

References[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 203; Markstein 2001; Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 428; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, pp. 188, 210.
  2. ^ a b Kitchen 2000, p. 203; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 121.
  3. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 203; Markstein 2001; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, pp. 122–123.
  4. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 203; Kitchen & Buhle 2009.
  5. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 204; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 209.
  6. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 205; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, pp. 151–153.
  7. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 206–207; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 211.
  8. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 207; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, pp. 160–183.
  9. ^ a b Kitchen 2000, p. 208.
  10. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 208; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 188.
  11. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 205, 208.
  12. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 209; Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 428; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 204.
  13. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 208–209; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 210.
  14. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 208–209; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 211.
  15. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 210–211.
  16. ^ VandenBergh 2001, pp. 203, 205; Kitchen 2001, pp. 213, 221, 222, 225; Kitchen & Buhle 2009, pp. 211–212.
  17. ^ VandenBergh 2001, pp. 207, 209.
  18. ^ Kitchen 2000, p. 4.
  19. ^ Jaffee 2001, p. 211.
  20. ^ a b Markstein 2001.
  21. ^ Markstein 2001; Buhle 2007, p. 304.
  22. ^ Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 428; Kitchen 2000, p. 208.
  23. ^ Duncan & Smith 2013, pp. 428–429.
  24. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 212–213; VandenBergh 2001, p. 205.
  25. ^ Kitchen 2000, pp. 212–213; Duncan & Smith 2013, pp. 428–429.
  26. ^ Kitchen 2001, pp. 233–237; Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 429.
  27. ^ Kitchen 2001, pp. 237–240; Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 429.
  28. ^ Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 428.
  29. ^ Harvey 1996, p. 140.
  30. ^ Buhle 2007, p. 329.
  31. ^ a b Kitchen & Buhle 2009, p. 209.
  32. ^ Duncan & Smith 2013, p. 429.
  33. ^ Playboy magazine December 1978.
  34. ^ Edwards 2000; Atherton 2000.

Bibliography[edit]

Books

  • Buhle, Paul (2007). Jews and American Popular Culture: Music, Theater, Popular Art, and Literature. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0-275-98795-4.
  • Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J. (2013). Icons of the American Comic Book: From Captain America to Wonder Woman. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-0-313-39924-4.
  • Harvey, Robert C. (1996). The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-0-87805-758-0.
  • Jaffee, Al (2001). Reminiscence (Overview and Annotations to Playboy's Little Annie Fanny: Volume 2: 1970–1988). Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1-56971-520-8.
  • Kitchen, Denis (2000). The Origins of Little Annie Fanny (Overview and Annotations to Playboy's Little Annie Fanny: Volume 1: 1962–1970). Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1-56971-519-2.
  • Kitchen, Denis; Buhle, Paul (2009). The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics. New York, NY: Abrams ComicArts. ISBN 978-0-8109-7296-4.
  • Kitchen, Denis (2001). Eye Pops and Gags (Overview and Annotations to Playboy's Little Annie Fanny: Volume 2: 1970–1988). Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1-56971-520-8.
  • VandenBergh, Gary (2001). Little Annie Fanny Through The Eyes of Will Elder (Overview and Annotations to Playboy's Little Annie Fanny: Volume 2: 1970–1988). Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1-56971-520-8.

Journals, magazines, web

  • Atherton, Tony (March 25, 2000). "Children's TV Producer Gets Playboy Contract". Ottawa Citizen.
  • Edwards, Ian (April 17, 2000). "N/A". Playback. Retrieved December 28, 2014. Mainframe, meanwhile, continues to wait for the green light from Playboy TV to be the service producer to do a computer-animated series based on Playboy magazine's decades-old comic strip Little Annie Fanny.
  • Markstein, Don (2001). "Little Annie Fanny". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
  • "Little Annie Fanny: The Motion Picture". Playboy. Chicago, IL: Playboy Enterprises. December 1978.
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