Saturday 30 May 2009

265: Kliban


B. Kliban
“Playboy”, July 1976

Famous for his cats, and cartoons surreal almost to the point of being obtuse, Kliban also did a lot of lavishly coloured sex gag cartoons for “Playboy” in the 1970s. Most of Kliban’s sexually themed gags are a little bizarre, and usually end up making some sort of direct or indirect comment about sexual liberation since his people are just fucking in the strangest ways. Here it’s blatant. Grandpa’s homosexuality, or transvestism (though whether the casual reader is going to make that distinction is another matter) is just another part of ‘70s society. Given the commune ambience, whether being accepted as part of all this is necessarily a good or flattering thing could be a matter deserving more consideration.

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