Playboy April 1972

Playboy 

April 1972

Let's take a trip back in time to fifty years ago, and look through the April 1972 issue of Playboy magazine.

One thing readily is apparent: the magazine is thick. Two hundred and fifty pages, much of it advertising: liquor, shoes, clothing, hair spray, automobiles, motorcycles, cigarettes. Some 'hippie' and counterculture gear makes its presence known via the 'Marboro' mail-order poster vendor. The April issue is a reminder that 50 years ago print media was a major venue for marketing. The only magazine on the stands nowadays with a similar advertising page load is Vogue.

Also apparent: Playboy in April of 1972 was rated 'R'. No Private Parts on display. The young woman profiled below, Tiffany Bolling, was 25 at the time (at present, she is 76 and presumably in good health).

In the Letters pages, we have a missive from the inestimable Al Goldstein:

Much more sobering is a letter to the Playboy Forum from a soldier in Vietnam reminding the country that Americans were fighting and dying there well into 1972 (on March 30, North Vietnam launched its massive 'Easter Offensive' against South Vietnam):

The magazine is crammed with cheesey cartoons.

The April issue is a reminder that Playboy was a major outlet for both nonfiction and fiction pieces. An ongoing serialization of Michael Crichton's novel The Terminal Man is a prominent feature in this issue. There also is a California noir short story, 'One Way to Bolinas' by Herbert Gold (b. 1924), who was a very successful novelist and essayist in the postwar era. 

The quaint verb 'ball' (i.e., to have sex) is much in use in the pages of this 1972 issue.

There is a portfolio of 'erotic art', which is in fact a portfolio of paintings by Mel Ramos, who at that time was a star of the Pop Art movement.

There you have it. Fifty years ago men did indeed look at nudies, of course. But they also read for pleasure, consuming fiction and nonfiction content with a scope and diversity that is quite formidable when seen in the light of today's post-literate culture. 

James Bama: American Realist

James Bama: American Realist

Flesk Publications, October 2006

James Bama: American Realist (160 pp.) was published by Flesk in October, 2006. Flesk is best known as the publisher of the Spectrum series devoted to sci-fi and fantasy art.

The book is out of print, and copies that come up for sale have steep asking prices, often in excess of $100. I was fortunate to pick it up when it first was published, for $35.

James Bama passed away on April 24 at age 96. His longevity may have been due to the fact that he was a devotee of personal fitness (he was a weightlifter in his younger days, and was doing 100 pushups and 100 situps a day well into his 80s). 

This book provides a chronological overview of his career from the early 1950s, when he began working as an commercial artist at the Charles E. Cooper studio in New York City, and through the 1990s, when he focused on studio art inspired by the culture and landscapes of the American West.

One thing that clearly emerges from James Bama: American Realist is that Bama had a tremendous work ethic (in his younger days he would stay in the studio all weekend, sleeping on the couch and working on multiple compositions), one that saw him producing volumes of high-quality pieces on a weekly basis throughout most of his career in commercial art. At the height of his commercial art career, Bama was capable of producing a painting for the cover of a men's magazine, or paperback book, within 10 - 14 days.

Trying to assemble and analyze even a portion of this output is challenging, but editor Kane does a reasonably good job in selecting pieces that are most representative of Bama's commercial and studio works.

James Bama: American Realist offers the reader portfolios of Bama's compositions for the men's 'sweat' magazine market, the paperback book market, and advertisements and packaging for Aurora's plastic model kits of famous monsters, a franchise that has passed into Baby Boomer legend.

A lengthy interview with Bama, conducted in 2013 by men's magazine curator Bob Deis, is available here. 

Bama's most famous works, all 62 covers for the Doc Savage novels from Bantam books, are presented in the book, some as full-page reproductions.

The closing pages of the book are dedicated to the western art that Bama produced following his departure from the commercial art world.

The 'deluxe' signed edition of the book came with a DVD containing an 80 minute documentary of Bama by Paul Jilbert; unfortunately, the DVD has not been uploaded to YouTube.

The verdict ? Obviously, anyone who is a fan of the Doc Savage franchise, commercial art, and graphic art will want to have a copy of James Bama: American Realist in their possession, which makes the book's rarity and expense all the more doleful...............

Book Review: Bander Snatch

Book Review:  'Bander Snatch'

2 / 5 Stars

‘Bander Snatch’ (242 pp.) was published by Bantam Books in June, 1979. The cover artist is uncredited.

Kevin O'Donnell, Jr. (1950-2012) was a U.S. writer who produced more than fifty short stories from 1973 - 1998. In addition to 'Bander Snatch', he wrote the novels 'Mayflies' (1979), 'War of Omission' (1982), 'ORA: CLE' (1984), and 'The Shelter' (1987).

The novel is set circa 2130, in a dystopian USA where all the low socioeconomic status people have forcibly been relocated to an enormous pier extending from Ashtabula, Ohio out into Lake Erie. Known as The Jungle, the pier is essentially a giant slum, self-governed by gangs led by so-called 'Jungle Lords'. These Lords have a fractious, but rewarding, relationship with the federal authorities who arrange for the delivery of necessities to The Jungle.

The eponymous Bander is a 22 year-old Jungle Lord who, despite his youth, is a savvy and calculating ruler of the blocks comprising Township 25. Relying on his team of ‘Zulu’ lieutenants to carry out his orders, Bander is seeing success in his campaign to wrest greater control of The Jungle from his bitter rival, the Lord known as Catkiller.

As the novel opens, things are getting complicated for Bander Snatch and his Zulus. Bander’s girlfriend has disappeared, and the dissimulating federal authorities claim to know nothing of her whereabouts. Using all his skills in Jungle-bred spycraft, Bander discovers that said girlfriend is being housed in a government facility……a secretive facility whose function is unknown, but presumably not benign. 

Bander Snatch soon will find himself an unwilling participant in a federal project to transport a human being to a planet inhabited by a race of aliens who communicate through telepathy. 

Aliens who have a habit of summarily killing people who they find lacking in the niceties of telepathic ‘speech’……..

‘Bander Snatch’ is a two-star novel. While the opening chapters, set in the ruins of The Jungle, are engaging, the middle section of the book, which deals with the theme of First Contact, has a labored quality that is too replete with meandering internal monologues, and stretches of figurative prose (reliant on the frequent use of hyphens) designed to represent telepathic exchanges between our hero and the aliens. 

The closing chapters of ‘Bander Snatch’ return to the environs of Ashtabula and The Jungle, but here the narrative takes an uncertain journey into satire, with an emphasis on the plight of citizens confronted by the uncaring and inept bureaucracy of modern times. 

The verdict ? ‘Bander Snatch’ is at best a workmanlike example of 1970s science fiction. It's worth searching out if you are are a devotee of the genre's  'ESP' trope, but all other sci-fi fans can safely pass on this title.

Elli and Jacno Hand in Hand

Elli and Jacno
Main dans la main

1980

During the 1980s, Lou Stathis was the self-anointed ‘rok’ critic for Heavy Metal magazine. He specialized in being pretentious, often by referencing obscure bands operating outside the mainstream of rock music. 

I don't believe Stathis ever mentioned ‘Elli and Jacno’ in one of his Heavy Metal columns. But they certainly belonged to the techno-pop, New Wave ecology that Stathis liked to fawn over.

Elli Medeiros was a Uruguayan national who moved to France to seek a career as a singer. In 1976 she joined a French punk band called ‘Stinky Toys’, whose keyboard player was a Frenchman named Denis Quillard, who went by the stage name ‘Jacno’. When Stinky Toys broke up in 1979, Medeiros and Quillard formed ‘Elli and Jacno’, a synth-pop duo that had success in Europe and released four albums over the interval from 1980 to 1984.

Their 1980 album, Tout va sauter (‘Everything Will Blow’), featured the song Main dans la main (‘Hand in Hand’). There are several video clips of the song on YouTube. 

These songs from Elli and Jacno are very listenable examples of early 80s EuroPop. Also worth a listen is another minimalist synth-pop tune called Tic Tac Tic.

With her vinyl / leather short skirts and long brown locks, the photogenic Elli was the inheritor of the style and appearance of classic French female vocalists like Francoise Hardy and Jane Birkin. Indeed, despite the passage of 40 years, Elli remains the exemplar of the New Wave chick........!

The Appletons: The Mime

The Appletons: The Mime
by B. K. Taylor
from National Lampoon 1989

reprinted in I Think He's Crazy, Fantagraphics, 2020

From 1975 to 1990, B. K. 'Bob' Taylor provided three recurring comic strips to the National Lampoon: 'The Appletons', 'Timberland Tales', and 'Uncle Kunta'.

Taylor's skilled draftsmanship was always an integral part of his work for the Lampoon.

Here's a 1989 entry for 'The Appletons', featuring a mime. I hate mimes, so I'm happy with the outcome of this adventure..........

Surf, Skate, and Rock Art of Jim Phillips

Surf, Skate, and Rock Art of Jim Phillips

Schiffer, 2004

'Surf, Skate, and Rock Art of Jim Phillips' (208 pp.) was published by Schiffer in 2004. Like another trade paperback from Schiffer that I own, 'It Must Be Art: Big O Poster Artists of the 1960s and 70s', 'Surf' is very well-made, with a thick cardboard stock cover, sewn binding, thick, sturdy pages, and high-res reproductions of the profiled artwork.

Jim Phillips was born on October 24, 1944, in San Jose and grew up in Santa Cruz, a block from the beach. This was the Santa Cruz of California myth and legend, where beaches were deserted five days a week, where '....you could go out at Pleasure Point and not see another surfer all day', in the words of Phillips's friend, and fellow Santa Cruz native, Rich Novak. 

Phillips learned to surf on the longboards of the 1950s and failed to graduate high school due to the presence of the waves, beckoning to him on his daily commute to school. It was in high school that Phillips began to hone his skills as an artist, and while working as a 'glasser' in local surf shops in the early 60s, he began painting his friends' cars and submitting cartoons to surfing magazines.

In 1965 Phillips enrolled in the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and became involved in the burgeoning rock concert scene in the Bay area, providing posters, and working as a technician for the light shows accompanying concerts. The decade saw Phillips embarking on a peripatetic lifestyle that introduced him to different people and places, including a meeting with Rick Griffin, the artist who most shared with Phillips the 'California' sensibility towards graphic art, in 1967.

In the Fall of 1969 Phillips resettled in Santa Cruz, where he remains to this day, and began a career in commercial art, starting with surfboards, and then segueing into skateboards for local company Santa Cruz Skateboards / NHS. By the late 70s, Phillips yearly was churning out hundreds of graphics for decks, stickers, logos, catalogs, and advertising for NHS, as well as commercial art for area businesses and publications. During the 1980s Phillips gained fame (but sadly, not fortune) while supplying iconic art and graphics for NHS, by then one of the top skateboard manufacturers in the world, all the while continuing to earn commissions for rock posters.

By the early 1990s, Phillips had become disenchanted with working for the skateboard industry and he retooled his portfolio, remaining a go-to artist for posters, but also expanding into digitally produced art for print media, and art for tee shirts. 

One thing that emerges from the pages of 'Surf, Skate, and Rock Art' is that Phillips, had he so desired, could've been a major player in the comix scene unfolding during the late 60s and on into the 90s. He certainly had the artistic ability, which, when paired with his affection for the drawing styles of the 1950s, allowed him to do some interesting things those few times he did turn his attention to that genre of sequential art:

On into the 2000s, Phillips concentrated more on studio art and the collector's market, while his reputation as an innovative artist whose graphics helped define the modern skateboarding era continued to grow. 

Now retired and dedicated to painting studio pieces, Phillips is a Santa Cruz / Northern California institution and his legacy is perpetuated by his son, Jimbo Phillips, and grandson, Colby Phillips.

Growing up in upstate New York, and being a bit too old to experience the whole skateboard culture when it emerged in the mid-1970s, I found quite a supply of goodness unknown to me in the pages of 'Surf, Skate, and Rock Art'. 

Many of the deck,  advertisement, and sticker graphics composed by Phillips and his team of younger artists will readily appeal to anyone who is a fan of commercial art with a 'lowbrow' sensibility. 

And the rock show posters, done by Phillips for bands famous and not-so-famous, all showcase his ability to bring memorable imagery to a genre of commercial art that continues to gain greater recognition with the passage of time.

For those who like to reminisce about the California that used to be, the legendary California of the pop culture of the 60s, 70s and 80s, the art displayed in the book will inject a powerful dose of nostalgia.

Summing up, anyone with a fondness for graphic art will find 'Surf, Skate, and Rock Art of Jim Phillips' well worth looking into, especially given its very affordable pricing at amazon.

At the Library Sale, April 2022

At the Library Sale, April 2022

Well, it was time again for the semi-annual book sale held by the local library, and I of course made my way to the site (and stepped carefully around the resellers, who tote in crates into which they sling books by the pound), and made my way to the sci-fi area. 

There I was able to pick up a mix of hardcover and softcover titles that may prove to be worthwhile reading......

The Disch short-story collection from 1968 should have a couple of stories that are rewarding. I'm not sure about the Cherryh omnibus. 

As for the paperbacks, 'Edge', 'White Squaw', and 'Apache' all are fine representatives of the transgressive Piccadilly Western / Adult Western genre that flourished during the 70s and early 80s.

According to a laugh-out-loud review of a 'White Squaw' title at The Paperback Warrior blog, 'Of all the series released during the golden age of action/adventure paperbacks, 'White Squaw' is one of the most sordid.' 

That's all the endorsement a Paperback Fanatic needs to snap up such a treasure at the Library Sale !

And the novel by Frisco Hitt (I can't tell if its a pseudonym or a genuine name) looks like a fun entry in the 'Savage Tales of Africa' genre pioneered by such novels as 'The Dark of the Sun' and 'The Dogs of War'. 

All in all, a nice collection, for only a couple of bucks apiece. Always worthwhile to patronize the local library book sale !

Sergeant Slaughter and Camouflage Rocks America

Sergeant Slaughter and Camouflage

Rocks America

Cobra Records, 1985

'MURRICA !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pleased to present this bit of mid-1980s magic and mystery.

Sergeant Slaughter, everyone is behind you

Sergeant Slaughter, you defend our red-white-and-blue

'Cause you love everybody, in this land so much

But if somebody puts down America, they better beware

Of the Cobra Clutch.........! 

Robert Rudolph Remus (b. 1948) grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and served in the Marines. In the 1970s he began a career in professional wrestling, under his own name and later, the moniker 'Super Destroyer Mark II'. But it was in 1980, when he joined the World Wrestling Federation and performed as 'Sergeant Slaughter', that fame came to Robert Remus. 

Wearing a campaign hat and sunglasses, Slaughter initially was a villain, and during the early 80s, pitted against the wholesome, All-American WWF wrestler Bob Backlund in some memorable matches. 

By the time of 1984's 'World War Three', a titanic battle with the Iron Sheikh, Sgt. Slaughter had transitioned into a good-guy persona and the embodiment of American patriotism (although in the 1990s, Slaughter reverted to evil again, and portrayed himself as a Iraqi sympathizer). 

Slaughter's signature wrestling move was the 'Cobra Clutch', which was so powerful and inexorable that no adversary could recover, once Clutched........................

In 1985, Remus recorded a record album, titled Sgt. Slaughter and Camouflage Rocks America (‘Camouflage’ apparently was another wrestler, about whom little information is available). Slaughter's participation was rather limited (he wasn't all that keen on doing the album in the first place). 

On the lead track, 'Cobra Clutch', his contribution was limited to growling the eponymous phrase. 

However cheesey the idea of the album, there is no getting around the fact that some of the tracks on Sgt. Slaughter and Camouflage Rocks America are pretty catchy. I found 'Cobra Clutch', with a great 80s- style guitar riff, to be an Earworm ! 

I invite you to listen and see what you think............and don't blame me if you succumb !