# I looked through the new Playboy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822 "2016-03-03T12:46:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/21 "2016-03-04T14:44:21Z")
> [@Orwell](#): > > I agree. The naughty and erotic cartoons were very much unique to Playboy. Why they would stop is bewildering. Many were quite humorous. I dunno. I’ll give the new version a chance and see whether I think renewing is worthwhile. Yeah, but dropping the more explicit erotic cartoons fits in with their new publishing philosophy. But that doesn’t explain why they got rid of ALL cartoons. I would’ve expected just as many cartoons, and as many ones with racy content, just not so explicitly displayed. A lot of Playboy cartoons relied on the reader being able to figure out the implications. In any event, none of it explains why they dropped Gahan Wilson’s cartoons. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/22 "2016-03-04T16:06:25Z")
I can’t believe they only just now stopped carrying the party “jokes”. Good grief, they were pathetic 40 years ago and got worse. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/23 "2016-03-04T16:46:13Z")
I’m a long-time subscriber and I probably won’t miss the nudes, but I will definitely miss the cartoons! What’s also notably missing is the Playboy Forum. The Forum was one of the features that always elevated Playboy over its rival skin mags. It was a true exchange of ideas, and not just liberal vs. conservative talking points. It was smart stuff. Its departure is part of a more lightweight, short-attention-span approach that is definitely aimed at a younger audience. I still read it cover to cover, and the content wasn’t horrible. But it’s not as filling anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/24 "2016-03-04T22:47:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In any event, none of it explains why they dropped Gahan Wilson’s cartoons. Maybe Gahan’s retired? The poor guy just turned 86, after all. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen his work in _The New Yorker_ for quite a while now. Many of the great full-page color artists have nice albums published…I have big collections by Jack Cole, Dick Sneyd, Erich Sokol, Charles Miller, and a few others. And you can buy the fiftieth anniversary Playboy cartoon collection online for a few bucks. In hardcover. Don’t forget Kurtzman and Elder’s “Little Annie Fanny,” the first fully-painted multi-page comic. While it was rarely funny, it’s certainly amazing to look at. Dark Horse Comics published the whole run in two extensively footnoted volumes (so you don’t miss any of the thousands of pop culture references). ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/25 "2016-03-06T21:47:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Don’t forget Kurtzman and Elder’s “Little Annie Fanny,” the first fully-painted multi-page comic. Ah yes. James Bomb, Daddy Bigbucks, Wanda Homefree, Macho Mitch… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/26 "2016-03-07T02:32:21Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Maybe Gahan’s retired? The poor guy just turned 86, after all. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen his work in _The New Yorker_ for quite a while now. I think he was just in one, which I pointed out to my wife. He must be ancient - I saw him at a Worldcon in 1972 and he wasn’t super young then. I haven’t read Playboy in decades, but it is a shame about the cartoons. Hell, even New Yorker cartoons have nipples now. And good erotic cartoons are not as easy to get online. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/27 "2016-03-07T04:26:53Z")
I knew him in the late 1980s…I was the editor on his not-so-great novel, _Everybody’s Favorite Duck_. We had some nice chats about vintage cartoonists and horror illustrators. We’re both big Lee Brown Coye fans. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/28 "2016-03-25T12:11:23Z")
In today’s news – _Playboy_ may be up for sale now: > **[Playboy Magazine May Soon Be For Sale](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/playboy-magazine-sale_n_56f4a81ce4b0143a9b47ddbd)** > > Circulation of the magazine has fallen off a cliff in recent years. > [@](#): > > **Playboy Magazine Publisher Exploring Sale: Source** > > Circulation of the magazine has fallen off a cliff in recent years. > > By Mike Stone > > (Reuters) - Playboy Enterprises [ICONAP.UL], the owner of Playboy magazine, is exploring a sale, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters, in a move that comes after the storied magazine stopped publishing nude photos of women and put up the iconic Playboy Mansion up for sale. > > The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said the company could be valued at more than $500 million. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/29 "2016-03-25T15:12:16Z")
It’s #66 on Wiki’s [List of Magazines by Circulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_magazines_by_circulation) as of 2013. And while a lot of the higher-ranking magazines are essentially junk mail ( **AARP The Magazine** , **AARP Bulletin** and **Costco Connection** are the top three and a slew of AAA magazines are up there as well), Hefner hasn’t been able to say “We’ve fallen all the way to number one” in quite a while now. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/30 "2016-03-25T16:11:23Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > It’s #66 on Wiki’s [List of Magazines by Circulation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_magazines_by_circulation) as of 2013. And while a lot of the higher-ranking magazines are essentially junk mail ( **AARP The Magazine** , **AARP Bulletin** and **Costco Connection** are the top three and a slew of AAA magazines are up there as well), Hefner hasn’t been able to say “We’ve fallen all the way to number one” in quite a while now. Well, heck, that still puts it above **The New Yorker** (#82, with 200,000 less in circulation than Playboy), and even further ahead of \*\*Marie Claire, Forbes, Fortune, \*\* and — **Wired**. Of course, this is based on the old circulation figures. They’re clearly hoping it will go up. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/31 "2016-03-25T17:36:55Z")
So I got to complete my image collection of PB Centerfolds (gathered over the years from various websites that came and went). Non-nudes don’t count (although you could make a case that the late 1950s Centerfolds were really non-nudes). Anyway, kind of a bummer in an “end of an era” way. > [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Don’t forget Kurtzman and Elder’s “Little Annie Fanny,” the first fully-painted multi-page comic. While it was rarely funny, it’s certainly amazing to look at. I was more of a “Oh Wicked Wanda” fan (as much as I could be at the time, stealing looks with my friends from their father’s magazines - oh, and woods porn - don’t forget woods porn). In recent years I have seen scans of the comics on VEF, and the comparison still holds: OWW \> LAF… ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/32 "2016-03-25T18:52:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > 5.) Significantly, what’s missing is any hint of humor. The Playbot Party Jokes are gone (no great loss there), but so are all the freakin’ cartoons. No Gahan Wilson. No Caldwell. No Olivia. None of their other sexy cartoonists. And they must have a backlog of LeRoy Neiman femlins and B. Kliban caroons stored away in their vault. In addition, their “Data” page, with the whimsical statistics, is gone. As is any humorous commentary. > ? > > 10.) You can keep the nudes, if you want. Give me back the classic Playboy cartoons and knowing humorous commentary. Heck, _Esquire_ kept the humor when _they_ dropped the (for then) explicit sex. Things like _Maxim_ have it. Who is their target audience here? Are they hoping to pull away readers from _GQ_? Thanks, I can now save some money. The cartoons were one of the best things. Why get rid of them? I mean, I get why get rid of full nudity- this allowed the zine to be sold more places. But cartoons?!?:mad:😕 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822/33 "2016-03-25T19:20:11Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Thanks, I can now save some money. The cartoons were one of the best things. > > Why get rid of them? > > I mean, I get why get rid of full nudity- this allowed the zine to be sold more places. > > But cartoons?!?:mad:😕 Possibly because the cartoons themselves often contained those nekkid wimmens. They didn’t all, of course. Shel Silverstein and Jack Davis and Gahan Wilson’s cartoons rarely featured nudes. Even their “sexy” cartoonists often produced cartoons that were funny and often racy but without explicit nudity. And plenty of Playboy cartoons had nothing to do with sex at all. But, for whatever reason, they’re gone. I notice that, just as the nipples and the pudendae and the gulteal sulci are gone from the photographs, they are also gone from the illustrations. There’s a single color cartoon rendering of a naked woman, on the advisor page, and she’s pretty much show from the side, like the women in the photos. You can show a bare bottom, provided it’s from the side, or partially covered to conceal the buttcrack. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-looked-through-the-new-playboy/747822.md?page=1)