The Pin-up Art of Dan DeCarlo

Dan DeCarlo's girlie gag strips manage the impressive task of balancing the saucy with the silly, and by (mostly) avoiding outright nudity and explicitly sexual situations, his gags end up being more charming and less prurient. His drawings of women are always voluptuous, and his renderings of men considerably less so, giving a certain power and dignity to his females. In the end, that's what makes these strips worth reading today - despite their cheeky objectification of women, these panels depict men as even bigger schmucks, and the careful balance so essential to the war between the sexes is elegantly maintained. ( )