Tuesday 17 December 2019

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.




Saturday 14 December 2019

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.

Poems by Tuli Kupferberg (1957)

I came across these poems by Tuli Kupferberg (The Fugs) in the Village Voice. I'm posting them for their rarity. I'm no poetry critic so make your own mind up on their merits..


The Village Voice - Apr 3, 1957

The Village Voice - Jul 31, 1957

The Village Voice - May 8, 1957

The Village Voice - Oct 2, 1957

Kliban - Artwork for Plastic Bertrand 45RPM single (1983)





I'm not a particular fan of Kliban's cat cartoons, but I've included these as Kliban only did one other record sleeve illustration.




Kliban Cartoon - The Realist, Apr 1964. Issue 49

 from The Realist, Apr 1964. Issue 49 - also reprinted in Dec-Jan 1964, Issue 55