Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons (Slipcased) (Vol. 1-3) (Fantagraphics)

A sumptuous three-volume boxed set of Gahan Wilson's cartoons for "Playboy" magazine, with an introduction by Hugh Hefner. When Hefner was launching Playboy and trying to build up a stable of cartoonists (Hef himself was a frustrated cartoonist at heart), Charles Addams was one of his dream acquisitions, but was unavailable. Gahan Wilson was, as it turns out, a more than acceptable substitute, with a gift for macabre humor and artwork that exceeded Addams', in my opinion. I think my favorite panel, and the most representative of Wilson's macabre (that word again) humor is on pg. 281 of Book One: the parents are standing behind a little girl, burying the latest of several pets in the family's pet cemetery, an odd little smile on her show more face. The father is saying to the mother: "It's a good thing Effie likes these little funerals, she's had such awful luck with her pets." show less

This incredible boxed set of three gorgeous hardcovers celebrates one of art's funniest and most disturbing cartoonists. Printed on archival-quality paper in both color and black & white, the handsome set includes not only all the legendary artist's cartoons, prose fiction and text-and-art features from Playboy, but also many of his strips from The New Yorker, Punch, The National Lampoon, and many other magazines. Gahan Wilson: 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons is the most comprehensive and attractive Wilson book ever produced.