Psychedelic Kliban

 I've previously published this 1967 psychedelic poster, by Kliban, elsewhere on this blog, but I found a contemporary newspaper article that provides some context.

San Raphael Daily Independent Journal 1968-06-28

Kliban cartoons from "Absolutely No U.S. Personnel Permitted Beyond This Point" (1972)

Kliban was one of the major contributors to this 1972 collection of anti Viet-Nam war cartoons entitled "Absolutely No U.S. Personnel Permitted Beyond This Point". It was published by Delta and names Bill Lee (Editor), Jules Feiffer (Introduction), Ron Wolin (Foreword). The full list of contributors can be seen below.

In contrast to his Cat cartoons, these perhaps demonstrate his political opinions more clearly.

I'm  unsure if any of these cartoons had been published previously, but they represent perhaps the biggest collection of Kliban cartoons in a single publication outside of his later books.

In my opinion, not all these cartoons are up the high artistic standard of his typical published material, and stylistically a couple seem to be earlier works. I guess the subject matter may have prevented then from being published elsewhere until this collection presented an opportunity for their publication.  

Front Cover

Rear cover

Kliban cartoon from Look magazine 1963-02-12

 

Kliban's first professional cartoon

I'm not quite certain where or when Kliban's first professional cartoon was published but it was re-produced in the book "Jumping up and down, throwing bags of water on people" by Mark Jacobs.

This cartoon doesn't fit with cartoon themes that normally appear in Playboy, so I'm inclined to think it appeared elsewhere.

Here it is:

Kliban's first professional cartoon 

Kliban apparently became a Playboy cartoonist in 1962, but I've not established in which issue, or if his first Playboy cartoon appeared in one of their other publications (i.e. not the famous men's magazine).  The earliest copyright notice in the two Playboy anthologies of Kliban's cartoons is dated to 1964. Don Novello writing in the introduction to Kliban's posthumous book (Advanced Cartooning) says that Kliban was paid $25 for his first Playboy cartoon. Perhaps, his first paid work was accepted in 1962, but perhaps it didn't appear in-print until later? Please leave comments if you can elaborate on this.

Kliban cartoon - The Realist, June 1966, Issue 67A,

The Realist, Issue 67A, June 1966

Wanted : Kliban Nexus 1965

Kliban was a regular contributor to "Nexus - The San Francisco Literary" edited by Jerome Kulek. The earliest illustration, that I'm aware of, appears as the cover of the Spring 1964 issue and the last dates from Dec 1965. Unfortunately, I've not been able to locate any of the cartoons from these publications. If you have  examples, please post in the comments.

Here are copies of the covers to the issues that I know contain his cartoons:

Nexus 9 (Volume 2, Number 2; March - April 1965)

Nexus 10 (Volume 2, Number 3; May - June 1965)

Nexus 12 (Volume 2, Number 5; September - October 1965)

Nexus 12 (Volume 2, Number 5; September - October 1965) Contributors

Nexus 13 (Volume 2, Number 6; November - December 1965)

Kliban - Nexus Cover 1964

An early cover image from Nexus - The San Francisco Literary Magazine - Volume 1 Number # 5 from Spring 1964

Nexus - The San Francisco Literary Magazine - Volume 1 One I Number # 5 Five V - Spring 1964

Kliban contibuted cartoons to latter editions, but I've not seen any.