PIN-UP ART OF HUMORAMA GN (MR)

During the 1950s, Abe Goodman-brother of Marvel Comics' publisher Martin Goodman-was the largest buyer of cartoons in the world.  Publishing out of New York City under the Humorama banner, Goodman churned out scores of cheap digest-sized magazines boasting inventive titles like Romp, Stare and Joker that featured hackneyed jokes, cheesecake photos and the publications' bread and butter, single panel pin-up cartoons.Whiles the digests were often a dumping ground for cartoonists past their prime and for unused inventory that was too risqu to be sold elsewhere, they were also a proving ground for neophyte gag cartoonist or a welcomed alternative to the daily grind of comic book sweatshops. And nowhere was this more evident than in the 1950s and 1960s when the digests featured the likes of Playboy's Jack Cole, Archie's Dan DeCarlo and glamour girl legend Bill Ward. In addition to these three pin-up cartooning luminaries, other notable who contributed to the pages of the Humorama digests included longtime illustrator Jefferson Machamer; Basil Wolverton, who influenced a generation of underground cartoonists; Mad's Dave Berg ("The Lighter Side"); and future syndicated cartoonists George Crenshaw ("Belvedere"), Bill Hoest ("The Lockhorns") and Brad Anderson ("Marmaduke").With this latest volume in its popular pin-up series, Fantagraphics continues its commitment to showcasing the best of the classic pin-up cartoon artists.  Drawing from private collections of original art and thousands of Humorama digests, editor Alex Chun has once again selected the best of these long out-of-print images.