Customer Reviews

Little Annie Fanny, Volume 1

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

Little Annie Fanny is easily one of the finest, most beautiful comics ever created. She deserves to stand up high with Little Nemo, Maggie & Jiggs and the Wallet family. Every panel was brilliantly painted, and the humor was straight out of the golden age of Mad Magazine. Playboy's recent attempts at reviving Annie with new artists and writers is sad and embarassing, and they really should stop. No one will EVER be able to duplicate the genius of Kurtzman and Elder, and the sweet, lovely, wide-eyed innocence of the original Annie. Too bad these two volumes aren't hardbacks, because they're definitely keepers.

Little Annie Fanny is the creation of some members of the usual gang of idiots at Mad magazine. Sumptuously drawn, we see caricatures of the media figures of the day, including the Kennedys, the Beatles, J.D. Salinger, Kirk Douglas, and many more. The art might be the most slaved over in the history of comics: each panel was painstakingly painted. Annie herself is a wondrous achievement in erotic art. Particularly striking panels include: bottom panels p. 143 and 186, full page p. 190). Annie's amazingly built, has an almost constant expression of naïve surprise and her disposition is always pleasant against all manner of hypocrisy, false values and sin. Though a fantasy character, seemingly as unreal as can be, she grows on us and turns out to have a consistent personality buoyant enough to sustain an inextinguishable naiveté that is deeply charming - she's not just T&A. She's a wide-eyed heroine of innocence. I have seen children with such personalities and it's a shame that it never survives unscathed through adulthood.

Little Annie Fanny is satire, which does not always elicit raucous laughter: a reader who expects to laugh out loud will be disappointed. I didn't laugh once throughout the book (which loses it one star). The cluttered and frantic aspect of the panels rapidly became irritating. The reader who wants beautiful erotic satire will be sated by this one, though. As a historical document, it has great value, especially for those of us who want the marking events, mores and individuals of our lifetime in a satirical light. The now of then is the then of now...

Explanatory notes come at the end of the book, and very interestingly, there is a work-in-progress Beatles episode, on their peccadillo in India, that looks like it could have been the most beautiful of all. It was aborted because, the Beatles having abandoned the Maharishi, it was no longer topical: already the then of then.

Since writing the above review, I received the second volume. Though I recommend both highly, the first is a little better than the second.

I bought this book because I'm a former devoted Mad Magazine reader, and remember Little Annie Fannie from when I used to sneak peeks at Playboy Magazine. Reading the collection is like reading a Mad Magazine collection with playful adult content.

Because I grew up in the 60s, I recognize the jokes and faces that were in the spotlight and in the news. It's a joy to have these collected in two books. I've got to buy the other volume as well.

The book's production is beautiful, as is Little Annie Fannie. I couldn't have asked for better.

Excellent compilation of the Little Annie Fanny cartoons featured in Playboy magazine. Very high quality reproduction.

i enjayed the book very well and the color was nothing i ever saw the cartoons in the book, they reminded me of when i first saw them in a popular magazine.

Having acquired vol 2 I had tremendous problems locating vol 1 - Amazon UK were a washout but Amazon USA did the trick. Annie Fanny was the ideal woman to a young man waking up to the delights of Playboy in the 1960s and this series of reprints says a lot about what was going on in politics and film at the time. Apart from Annie's obvious delights, the books are a masterpiece of penmanship and design and are a constant reminder of how innocent life was then.