Chester Brown, the cartoonist, in 2009

The Playboy is a graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown (pictured), serialized in 1990 in his comic book Yummy Fur and collected in different revised book editions in 1992 and 2013. It deals with Brown's guilt and anxiety over his obsessive masturbation to Playboy Playmate models; out of fear of being caught, he repeatedly rids himself of copies of the magazine, only to retrieve them later. His conflicting emotions follow him into adulthood until he purges them by revealing himself through his comics. The free, organic arrangement of odd-shaped panels of simple, expressive artwork contrasts with his more detailed grid-like pages in his 1980s work, such as Ed the Happy Clown. The Playboy forms part of Brown's autobiographical period during the early 1990s, and was the first book-length work he planned as a complete story. It has attracted praise for its revealing honesty, and criticism from those who saw it as glorifying pornography. (Full article...)

Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza

• ... that actress Katharine Hepburn threatened to remove her name from a garden in Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza (pictured) when New York City officials said they would not widen the plaza?
• ... that several composers wrote coloratura arias specifically for the voice of Italian opera singer Maria Giustina Turcotti?
• ... that despite Missourians voting for Henry Clay, Missouri representative John Scott voted for John Quincy Adams?
• ... that Curtis Aiken set the New York State Public High School Athletic Association single-season boys' basketball scoring record?
• ... that Deng Xiaoping called his actions during the Baise Uprising "one of the worst mistakes" of his life?
• ... that
  2023 Sudan conflict
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• ... that confectioner William Westerfeld hired architect Henry Geilfuss to design his home in San Francisco, and then died in it?
• ... that the ancient Romans kept leopards in captivity to be used in the executions of criminals?