Discovery of the Golden Age of Comics

I started reading Playboy when I was 13. Yes, really—reading it. Oh sure, the pictorials were eye openers and cleared up a lot of mysteries for me, but I was reading John Updike and Ian Fleming and enjoying Shel Silverstein's journal drawings of Fire Island. I loved the James Bond serials, and because of that, went out to buy the paperback 007 novels. I truly was a 'mature reader' at 13. 

But I still loved the comics of course, and the October '65 issue of Playboy had an article about the golden age of comics by Jules Feiffer. Which showed me what I had been missing (besides what the pictorials were showing me). It was the first time I had seen the golden age heroes. Iconic panels of the heroes were printed in full bright colors, with a great text by Feiffer. It was promoting a book that I just had to have.

The first Playboy I ever bought—right off the newsstand at my local drugstore. I must have looked old for my age, or else the clerk didn't give a $#*@. Playboy covers in the 60's were lovely—very well designed and executed, with the bunny logo being artfully incorporated in each cover. They were sexy and classy. Art Paul was a fabulous art director. In the 70s he gave me a nice motivational interview, but never gave me a job. C'est la vie. 

Fleming, Ian Fleming.

Probably the best playmate of the year ever.

An interview with Peter O'toole. Very cool.

This is the issue that introduced the golden age of heroes to me. Jules Feiffer was a terrific contributor of text and cartoons with his own inimitable style. I had all of his books of cartoons, like Sick, Sick, Sick and all the diatribes of Bernard Merganthaler—was that his name? I'm winging this from memory, having divested myself of those books decades ago.