Little Annie Fanny
Encyclopedia
Little Annie Fanny was a comic strip
created by Harvey Kurtzman
and Will Elder
for Playboy
in October 1962. The inspiration for the comic strip was Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie
. The comic follows the escapades of Annie Fanny, a tall, blonde, amply breasted
, round buttocked
, curly-haired young female
who seems to find herself in trouble and naked in each episode. The comic ran sporadically from 1962 to 1988. It had a short-lived rebirth in 1998.
, Mr. Kurtzman and Mr. Elder with other colleagues created Trump
and later Humbug
. Both failed. A third attempt at a satirical comic magazine, Help!
featured an episode where the main character, Goodman Beaver, attended a night of debauchery at the Playboy Mansion
with the characters of Archie Comics
. Archie Comics sued and won, but the cartoon caught the eye of Hugh Hefner
. The comic was retooled where the male Candide
type character of Goodman Beaver was transformed into the ultra-bosomy and leggy female, Annie Fanny.
who continually finds herself in various and bizarre situations where lusty men continually attempt to sexually molest or exploit her.
Most storylines would revolve around topical events and popular culture. Thus, a mid-1960s Annie episode would satirize Beatlemania
, whereas a late-1970s installment might place the heroine inside a glittering disco
. Sexual angles in the news, such as streaking
, nudist resorts, or gay liberation
were invariably pounced upon by Kurtzman & Co.
, Jack Davis
, Russ Heath
, and Al Jaffee
(all of whom also worked at Mad), as well as Larry Siegel
, Robert Crumb
and Gilbert Shelton
. Most consisted of the group of artists that had worked together on Trump
, a lavish, short-lived humor publication that had been fleetingly bankrolled by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner
.
Little Annie Fanny initially started as a monthly feature in 1962 and 1963, but quickly fell off, publishing six to seven episodes per in year in the late sixties. By the 1970s, only four to five episodes were published annually in the monthly magazine and only one to two per year in the eighties. Kurtzman ended the strip in 1988, claiming he had run out of story material. The comic attempted a revival in 1998 with art by Ray Lago and Bill Schorr
, but was not popular and was not continued.
In 2000, Mainframe Entertainment
was approached by Playboy to create a CGI animated series based on Little Annie Fanny, but no actual series was produced. As of 2010, it is unknown if the CGI animated series will be made.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
created by Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic books and magazines. Kurtzman often signed his name H. Kurtz, followed by a stick figure Harvey Kurtzman (October 3, 1924, Brooklyn, New York – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and the editor of several comic...
and Will Elder
Will Elder
William Elder was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art, but is best known for a zany cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952....
for Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
in October 1962. The inspiration for the comic strip was Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...
. The comic follows the escapades of Annie Fanny, a tall, blonde, amply breasted
Breast fetishism
Breast fetishism is a type of sexual fetish which involves a sexual interest in female breasts....
, round buttocked
Buttocks
The buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
, curly-haired young female
Female
Female is the sex of an organism, or a part of an organism, which produces non-mobile ova .- Defining characteristics :The ova are defined as the larger gametes in a heterogamous reproduction system, while the smaller, usually motile gamete, the spermatozoon, is produced by the male...
who seems to find herself in trouble and naked in each episode. The comic ran sporadically from 1962 to 1988. It had a short-lived rebirth in 1998.
Creation
After leaving MadMad (magazine)
Mad is an American humor magazine founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines in 1952. Launched as a comic book before it became a magazine, it was widely imitated and influential, impacting not only satirical media but the entire cultural landscape of the 20th century.The last...
, Mr. Kurtzman and Mr. Elder with other colleagues created Trump
Trump (magazine)
Trump was a glossy magazine of satire and humor, mostly in the forms of comic-strip features and short stories. It was edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by Hugh Hefner, with only two issues produced in 1957...
and later Humbug
Humbug (magazine)
Humbug was a humor magazine edited 1957–1958 by Harvey Kurtzman with satirical jabs at movies, television, advertising and various artifacts of popular culture, from cereal boxes to fashion photographs...
. Both failed. A third attempt at a satirical comic magazine, Help!
Help! (magazine)
Help! was an American magazine published by James Warren. It wasHarvey Kurtzman's longest-running magazine project after leaving Mad and EC Publications, and during its five years of operation it was always chronically underfunded, yet innovative...
featured an episode where the main character, Goodman Beaver, attended a night of debauchery at the Playboy Mansion
Playboy Mansion
The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...
with the characters of Archie Comics
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
. Archie Comics sued and won, but the cartoon caught the eye of Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
. The comic was retooled where the male Candide
Candide
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best ; Candide: or, The Optimist ; and Candide: or, Optimism...
type character of Goodman Beaver was transformed into the ultra-bosomy and leggy female, Annie Fanny.
Synopsis
The concept is that the title character is a busty and naïve waifWaif
A waif is a living creature removed, by hardship, loss or other helpless circumstance, from his original surroundings...
who continually finds herself in various and bizarre situations where lusty men continually attempt to sexually molest or exploit her.
Most storylines would revolve around topical events and popular culture. Thus, a mid-1960s Annie episode would satirize Beatlemania
Beatlemania
Beatlemania is a term that originated during the 1960s to describe the intense fan frenzy directed toward The Beatles during the early years of their success...
, whereas a late-1970s installment might place the heroine inside a glittering disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
. Sexual angles in the news, such as streaking
Streaking
Streaking is the act of running nude through a public place.-History:On 5 July 1799, a Friday evening at 7 o'clock, a naked man was arrested at the Mansion House, London, and sent to the Poultry Compter...
, nudist resorts, or gay liberation
Gay Liberation
Gay liberation is the name used to describe the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement of the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s in North America, Western Europe, and Australia and New Zealand...
were invariably pounced upon by Kurtzman & Co.
Publication history
Little Annie Fanny made its publication debut in Playboy issue of October, 1962. The strip boasted lavish production values and fully painted panels of great detail, and as such the first fully painted feature in American comics. It was a great success, but very time-consuming for Kurtzman. The amount of work required a steady rotation of assistants. Kurtzman's primary collaborator was fellow Mad Magazine alumnus Elder, but over the years, artwork was also provided by Frank FrazettaFrank Frazetta
Frank Frazetta was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for work in comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers and other media...
, Jack Davis
Jack Davis (cartoonist)
Jack Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art and numerous comic book stories...
, Russ Heath
Russ Heath
Russell Heath, Jr. is an American artist best known for his comic book work — particularly his DC Comics war stories for several decades and his 1960s art for Playboy magazine's Little Annie Fanny featurettes — and for his commercial art, two pieces of which, depicting Roman and...
, and Al Jaffee
Al Jaffee
Abraham Jaffee , known as Al Jaffee, is an American cartoonist. He is notable for his work in the satirical magazine Mad, including his trademark feature, the Mad Fold-in. As of 2010, Jaffee remains a regular in the magazine after 55 years and is its longest-running contributor...
(all of whom also worked at Mad), as well as Larry Siegel
Larry Siegel
Larry Siegel is a comedy writer who was one of the "Usual Gang of Idiots" at Mad from 1958 to 1990.At Mad, Siegel had an aggressive writing style that did not shy away from being occasionally provocative or inflammatory to make a point. He was fond of attacking purveyors of bad taste, such as...
, Robert Crumb
Robert Crumb
Robert Dennis Crumb —known as Robert Crumb and R. Crumb—is an American artist, illustrator, and musician recognized for the distinctive style of his drawings and his critical, satirical, subversive view of the American mainstream.Crumb was a founder of the underground comix movement and is regarded...
and Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He is the creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Wonder Wart-Hog, Philbert Desanex, Not Quite Dead, and the cover art to The Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street.He graduated from Lamar High...
. Most consisted of the group of artists that had worked together on Trump
Trump (magazine)
Trump was a glossy magazine of satire and humor, mostly in the forms of comic-strip features and short stories. It was edited by Harvey Kurtzman and published by Hugh Hefner, with only two issues produced in 1957...
, a lavish, short-lived humor publication that had been fleetingly bankrolled by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
.
Little Annie Fanny initially started as a monthly feature in 1962 and 1963, but quickly fell off, publishing six to seven episodes per in year in the late sixties. By the 1970s, only four to five episodes were published annually in the monthly magazine and only one to two per year in the eighties. Kurtzman ended the strip in 1988, claiming he had run out of story material. The comic attempted a revival in 1998 with art by Ray Lago and Bill Schorr
Bill Schorr
Bill Schorr is an American cartoonist of syndicated editorial cartoons and comic strips.Schorr retired in March 2009 but came out of retirement by August of the same year.-Comic strips:...
, but was not popular and was not continued.
Episodes
| Date | Title |
|---|---|
| 1962 | |
| October | Madison Avenue |
| November | Playing Doctor |
| December | Christmas Office Party |
| 1963 | |
| January | Sugardaddy Bigbucks |
| March | Films, Italian Style |
| April | The Unhappy Comic |
| May | Kennedy Jokes |
| July | Fifty Mile Hike |
| September | The Artist |
| November | The Talent Contest |
| December | Yuletide One-Upmanship |
| 1964 | |
| January | The Set Jets to South America |
| April | Annie Joins the Peace Corps Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping... |
| July | Alone on a Desert Isle |
| September | Lost at Sea |
| October | Gun Fun |
| December | Astronaut Annie |
| 1965 | |
| January | From Annie with Love |
| February | Thunderballing |
| May | The Topless Suit Case |
| July | The Surfers |
| October | Seven Days with Mae |
| December | Annie Meets the Bleatles |
| 1966 | |
| January | Battbarton's Holiday Spirit |
| March | On the Brooklyn B.M.T |
| May | Annie in TV Wasteland |
| July | Annie Under the Sheets |
| September | Euphoria-in-the-Pines Resort |
| October | Hoopadedoo Show |
| December | Greenback Busters |
| 1967 | |
| January | High Camp |
| May | Las Vegas Kidnapping |
| August | Americans in Paris |
| September | The Ultimate Kick |
| December | Booby Doll |
| 1968 | |
| January | The Master-tester Institute |
| March | Unionized Cruise Ship |
| June | Annie at the Olympics 1968 Summer Olympics The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country... |
| December | The Real Howard Hews Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world... |
| 1969 | |
| February | Discotheques |
| April | Annie the Actress |
| July | See-Through Dress |
| October | Living Theatre |
| December | Astrology |
| 1970 | |
| January | Marijuana |
| May | Nude Therapy |
| July | Underground Press |
| September | Women's Lib |
| October | Unisex |
| December | Aphrodisiacs |
| 1971 | |
| January | Hippie Commune |
| April | This Exploits Women |
| June | Burglar Alarm |
| September | Health Spa |
| December | Body Language |
| 1972 | |
| June | Swingers |
| September | Violence in America |
| November | Ralph Raider |
| 1973 | |
| January | Bachelor Pad |
| June | Watchdog |
| August | Bobby Fishey |
| November | Henry Kissingbug |
| 1974 | |
| January | Mafia |
| June | Freak Rock |
| December | Singles Apartments |
| 1975 | |
| March | Acupunture |
| May | St. Tropez |
| August | Ecology |
| 1976 | |
| January | The Gay Scene |
| August | Tennis |
| December | Headstone, Part I |
| 1977 | |
| January | Headstone, Part II |
| April | Disco Music |
| August | Sex Shop |
| December | Muscle Builders, Part I |
| 1978 | |
| January | Muscle Builders, Part II |
| March | C.B. Radio |
| May | Van-In |
| August | Jogging |
| October | Special Effects |
| 1979 | |
| January | The Ski Lodge |
| April | Topless Bar |
| August | Frisbee Golf |
| November | Pluto's Retreat |
| December | Studio Fifty-Fourplay |
| 1980 | |
| January | Dallas Cowgals Cheerleaders |
| May | Skydiving |
| August | 1980 Democratic National Convention 1980 Democratic National Convention The 1980 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party nominated President Jimmy Carter for President and Vice President Walter Mondale for Vice President... |
| 1981 | |
| January | Male Strippers |
| April | Gilley's Club |
| December | Computers |
| 1982 | |
| January | Isolation Tanks |
| March | Jamaica |
| June | Mud Wrestling |
| October | Annie's Twentieth Anniversary |
| December | Love Boat |
| 1983 | |
| January | Hot Tubbing |
| August | Loveland |
| 1984 | |
| January | Raiders of the Temple of Voom |
| 1985 | |
| January | Opera Diva |
| September | Cohan the Barbarian |
| 1986 | |
| May | Pro Wrestling |
| 1987 | |
| January | Massage School |
| June | Aliens |
| 1988 | |
| January | Jimmy and Tammy |
| September | Woodsy Alvin |
| 1998 | |
| August | The Unnatural Enquirer |
| December | Twas The Night Before Christmas |
Attempted adaptations
The December, 1978 issue of Playboy mentioned a "world-wide search for the actress who will portray Little Annie Fanny in a live-action movie..." but no film was ultimately made.In 2000, Mainframe Entertainment
Mainframe Entertainment
Rainmaker Entertainment, Inc. is a Canadian computer animation and design company based in Vancouver, British Columbia and Los Angeles, California. It produces computer animation TV series and movies. They are best known for producing the first ever CGI animated series ReBoot, as well as the...
was approached by Playboy to create a CGI animated series based on Little Annie Fanny, but no actual series was produced. As of 2010, it is unknown if the CGI animated series will be made.
Links to other comics
- The feature's logo was an imitation of the one used in Sunday installments of Little Orphan Annie. Two of the supporting characters — Sugardaddy Bigbucks and the Wasp — were direct parodies of Daddy Warbucks and his longtime henchman, the Asp.
- In 1969, the British edition of PenthousePenthouse (magazine)Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore. Penthouse is owned by FriendFinder Network. formerly known as General Media, Inc. whose parent company was Penthouse International...
magazine launched the strip Oh, Wicked Wanda which was similar in vein, featuring storylines of a sexual and satirical nature. A character resembling Annie Fanny often appeared: in the opening episode she can be seen chained to a wall, one of her breasts blowing out like a balloon after being pierced by Wanda's lesbian lover Candyfloss.
- In an article in Mad Magazine presenting hypothetical magazines from other planets, a spoof of Playboy includes a cartoon feature: "Little Annie's Seven FanniesButtocksThe buttocks are two rounded portions of the anatomy, located on the posterior of the pelvic region of apes and humans, and many other bipeds or quadrupeds, and comprise a layer of fat superimposed on the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles. Physiologically, the buttocks enable weight to...
"
Book collections
- Playboy's Little Annie Fanny: Volume 1, 1962-1970. Milwaukie, OregonMilwaukie, OregonMilwaukie is a city in Clackamas County, Oregon, United States. A very small portion of the city extends into Multnomah County. The population was 20,291 at the 2010 census. Founded in 1848 on the banks of the Willamette River, the city, known as the Dogwood City of the West, was incorporated in...
: Dark Horse ComicsDark Horse ComicsDark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...
, 2001, ISBN 1-56971-519-X - Playboy's Little Annie Fanny: Volume 2, 1970-1988, Milwaukie, Oregon: Dark Horse Comics, 2001, ISBN 1-56971-520-3