Little Annie Fanny, Volume 1 [Paperback]

Will Elder (Author), Hugh Hefner (Author), Harvey Kurtzman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2001

Dark Horse Comics and Playboy Enterprises are proud to present for the first time ever the more than 400 pages of the late, great Harvey Kurtzman's Little Annie Fanny, collected in two deluxe volumes. Kurtzman, creator of Mad magazine and godfather of underground comix, teamed with longtime E.C. Comics collaborator Will Elder (and sometimes Frank Frazetta, Russ Heath, and Jack Davis!) to create a Playboy icon second only to the bunny and a risque comics icon second to none! Each volume showcases over 200 pages of stunningly rendered stories from the sexy strip's 25-year run. Trend setting in its use of color, irreverent in its satirical look at the changing face of America, and a masterpiece of technique, this definitive collection of one of world's most controversial comic strips is long overdue. This first volume takes us through the swinging Sixties with the Beatles, Civil Rights, and the beginning of the Sexual Revolution. Also included, a detailed behind-the-scenes look at the strip's creative process, featuring never-before-seen art and preliminary drawings!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Little Annie Fanny, the buxom blonde who appeared for 26 years in the pages of Playboy magazine, returns in the first of a two-volume reprint. Created by Mad Magazine cofounder Harvey Kurtzman and legendary cartoonist Will Elder, Fanny's comic exploits (in various states of undress and nearly always topless) are set during the swinging '60s. These panels, published from 1962 to 1970, allow few cultural events of the period to escape Kurtzman and Elder's madcap social satire. Psychedelic drugs, the sexual revolution, the Peace Corps, the civil rights movement and the space race all feature as backdrops for Annie's misadventures and almost all of the gags involve Annie shedding her clothes while the men around her turn into fawning idiots. Among her many adventures, the witless actress sprints in the 1968 Olympics, plays football for the Green Bay Packers and gets naked with the Fab Four. The book features inspired caricatures of Marcello Mastroianni, Barry Goldwater, J. Edgar Hoover, Frank Sinatra and other figures of the time. The drawings are striking for their color and detail (other artists assisting Elder include Frank Frazetta, Al Jaffee and Jack Davis), and the backgrounds are filled with hilarious antics in the classic Elder style. Sketches, drawings-in-process, a history of Little Annie Fanny, as well as annotations on each comic segment are also included.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

...Some of the farthest-out, most beautifully executed episodes of the zaniest, lushest, most unique cartoon feature ever conceived. -- Hugh Hefner

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (January 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156971519X
• ISBN-13: 978-1569715192
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #521,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good news, bad news, January 8, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Little Annie Fanny, Volume 1 (Paperback)

This book is roughly equivalent to the collection "Playboy" published in 1972 with the same title; it contains more episodes than the earlier one, but not all of them (which means this new volume is likewise just a selection, not the complete run), and the colors aren't as bright as the original book. Nor does it contain the foreword Hefner wrote for the first edition. On the other hand, the new edition contains 20 pages of editorial matter at the end, explaining contemporary references and historical background that few readers needed 30 years ago. So the purist will want to hang on to (or acquire) the 1972 edition, but everyone else can revel in this sexy social satire. The best news of all is the subtitle: vol. 1. The post-1972 strips were never collected in book form, and it is to be hoped that vol. 2 is already in production.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oh Boy!, December 16, 2000

By 

E. Steven Fried (Seattle) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Little Annie Fanny, Volume 1 (Paperback)

When I was 8 years old my friend Jamie had a bunch of his dad's Playboys in a shed in the basement of his house. We used to sit down there, pretending to play poker and making card houses while leafing through the magazines. Although the photos did plenty to stoke my pre-pubescent desires what really got my young blood boiling were the Annie Fanny strips in the back. I could never suitably explain why, but in the same way that a Fellini film is so more enticing than reality, those painted cartoons depicting the escapades of the buxalicious Miss Fanny were far more erotic than the photos of the real women in the magazine. Well, it's many years later and, boy, am I glad they reprinted them all in a handsome volume. What's interesting to me now (okay, what's additionally interesting to me now) are all the topical period references to Jack and Bobby Kennedy, James Bond, The Beatles, Martin Luther King and all manner of 60's icons. Plus, it is a revelation to find out that quite a few other artists other than Kurtzmann and Elder worked on the strip including Jack Davis and Al Jaffee, both Mad veterans, and Frank Frazetta, the king of pulp fantasy paintings. All in all, this is a great treat for those in the mood for the retro comically naughty. Austin Powers fans will love this!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Geniuses in Limbo, March 22, 2002

By 

Milo Miles "doctornork" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Little Annie Fanny, Volume 1 (Paperback)

One of the most frustrating creations in all of comix. No question this is the most big-budget (big-busted), lavished-over (slathered-over), gorgeous (engorged) strip ever made. Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder and some spiffy helpers had all the resources they needed at last. There are many hilarious, cutting, zany and fun-nostalgic moments here. Yet finally, it feels like a defeat. "Playboy" is just a smaller, and more small-focus universe than the old "Mad." Harvey wanted to run his own show, and being a hired hand even in a gilded palace like the Playboy Mansion ground him down. The strips almost imperceptibly become more mechanical, more resigned. Horribly enough, the satires in issues of "Mad" from this era eventually come to seem wilder, freer, more penetrating than "Little Annie Fanny." The hugest overall problem is that male lust is simply not Kurtzman's best subject (especially by today's standards, he doesn't have much perspective on it). Weakness, venality, folly and self-deception are closer to his heart, and for whatever reason, Annie could never bring him as close to those subjects as her earlier, male incarnation, Goodman Beaver. But man, is that art beautiful.