396: Assortment of Castaways

And in similar vein to the last of the Anita Bryant cartoons, what can be made of the cartoon’s cliché of the castaways on a desert island? Particularly since these are all from “Playboy” readers would normally expect a little cheeky sexual chasing. Funny things can happen to a man when isolated from civilisation.

“Playboy” March 1965
B. Kliban

A spectacularly early carton from Kliban – the style is much different from his unique surrealism, even the illustrative style is different. No desert island romance here: “masacara” does all the heavy-lifting here so that man and woman trapped on an island expectations are reversed.

“Playboy” May 1970
Cliff Roberts

“Playboy” April 1973
Robert Censoni

The boredom of being trapped, with language more suitable to a love’s tiff.

“Playboy” July 1976
Herb Green

265: Kliban

B. Kliban
“Playboy”, July 1976

Famous for his cats, and cartoons surreal almost to the point of being obtuse, Kliban also did a lot of lavishly coloured sex gag cartoons for “Playboy” in the 1970s. Most of Kliban’s sexually themed gags are a little bizarre, and usually end up making some sort of direct or indirect comment about sexual liberation since his people are just fucking in the strangest ways. Here it’s blatant. Grandpa’s homosexuality, or transvestism (though whether the casual reader is going to make that distinction is another matter) is just another part of ‘70s society. Given the commune ambience, whether being accepted as part of all this is necessarily a good or flattering thing could be a matter deserving more consideration.