Arnold
Tash Jayasinghe
CibbuanoLittle Annie Fanny
November 12th 2008 21:43
Little Annie Fanny was a full-colour comic strip by Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder for Playbot Magazine; it ran from 1962 to 1988, and was one of the highest quality strips to appear in the magazine.
Annie Fanny was the strip's central character, a blonde, blue-eyed, buxom woman with an innocent, gullible mind and a propensity for finding herself naked.
I recently bought vol. 1 of the series, a nice, hefty paperback book with gorgeous colour reproduction of the comic strip. Kurtzman and Elder outdid themselves on this project, putting in long hours to finish the strip, and it shows. I can't think of another strip that put this much work into every issue - Calvin & Hobbes comes close, as does Bloom Country, but both of those strips, though beautiful to look at, pale in comparison to the Little Annie Fanny episodes.
Sadly, though, I didn't enjoy the book, as it felt hollow and unsatisfying. The style of the strip is gorgeous, but Annie, herself, is a Barbie-doll figure, with gigantic, fake-looking breasts, and a tiny waist. There's nothing really appealing about her figure, as she seems like one of the plastic mannequins that appear in Playboy Magazine - oh, wait, I see the appeal.
The writing is merely adequate, though... it never really gets funny, at least, not for me, and the episodes are independent of each other, with hardly any reoccuring themes or plotline. I suppose this is what happens when you expect too much from your comics - I guess I'm just disaapointed that, with this much work and production quality, that the writing doesn't live up to my standards.
Still, it's a ribald comic, which is always enjoyable, and it's satirical, too, poking fun at pop culture and music. There's enough enjoyment in Little Annie Fanny to pleasure comic book fans, but, ultimately, it falls from the top shelf.
Annie Fanny was the strip's central character, a blonde, blue-eyed, buxom woman with an innocent, gullible mind and a propensity for finding herself naked.
I recently bought vol. 1 of the series, a nice, hefty paperback book with gorgeous colour reproduction of the comic strip. Kurtzman and Elder outdid themselves on this project, putting in long hours to finish the strip, and it shows. I can't think of another strip that put this much work into every issue - Calvin & Hobbes comes close, as does Bloom Country, but both of those strips, though beautiful to look at, pale in comparison to the Little Annie Fanny episodes.
Sadly, though, I didn't enjoy the book, as it felt hollow and unsatisfying. The style of the strip is gorgeous, but Annie, herself, is a Barbie-doll figure, with gigantic, fake-looking breasts, and a tiny waist. There's nothing really appealing about her figure, as she seems like one of the plastic mannequins that appear in Playboy Magazine - oh, wait, I see the appeal.
The writing is merely adequate, though... it never really gets funny, at least, not for me, and the episodes are independent of each other, with hardly any reoccuring themes or plotline. I suppose this is what happens when you expect too much from your comics - I guess I'm just disaapointed that, with this much work and production quality, that the writing doesn't live up to my standards.
Still, it's a ribald comic, which is always enjoyable, and it's satirical, too, poking fun at pop culture and music. There's enough enjoyment in Little Annie Fanny to pleasure comic book fans, but, ultimately, it falls from the top shelf.
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