PLAYBOY, THE 469
Comics editions of his series Yummy Fur (which began as a self-published mini-comic),
this autobiographical tale demarcated a split between his earlier, slightly surreal work
with characters like Ed the Happy Clown.
Published by Drawn & Quarterly as a 170-page collection in 1992, Th e Playboy
begins in 1975 when Brown is 15, growing up in a suburb of Montreal called Châ-
teauguay. Th e opening panel centers on an illustration of what will later be revealed as
a Playboy centerfold model. Th e second panel takes place in the clouds as Brown’s id,
(represented by a shirtless caricature of the cartoonist with demon wings), is lounging
in thin air. His id appropriately serves not only as the narrator of the story, but also as
an instigator.
As Brown’s devilish id continues its narration, we see the young protagonist
attending a church service. Brown is occupied with fantasies concerning a nude
model he had seen on the cover of Playboy magazine in the convenience store the day
before. After church ends and he has lunch at home with his family, Brown rushes
back to the store to purchase his very fi rst issue of Playboy , trembling, sweaty hands
and all.
Th us begins a vicious cycle. Brown’s near-addiction to pornography starts a binge-
and-purge habit as a young man pursues self-discovery. “Chester managed to avoid the
temptation of buying last month’s Playboy but this month... well here he comes with
something hidden under his shirt.”
Each Playboy magazine Brown purchases, he hides under a plank of wood in a fi eld
or forest. As time passes, Brown rarely fi nds his latest issues left untouched when he
returns, which leads Brown to experience cathartic guilt and the aforementioned Play-
boy purging paranoia. Time passes as Brown graduates high school and attends college
where he continues his pornographic habits. Th is time, however, the purging is in
response to his fi rst real relationship with a woman, so he does not have to lie when
she inquires about his pornography consumption. Th ey break up amicably after several
years and Brown fi nds himself having to fantasize about nude Playboy models in his
second romantic relationship with a woman: “With my next girlfriend I found that in
order to maintain an erection I had to imagine that I was having sex with one of my
favorite playmates.”
Brown comes to the discovery that he prefers masturbation to the actual sex act. At
the end of this comics collection Brown confesses he maintains a four-inch thick stack
of his favorite “photos of naked women,” ultimately coming to terms with his formerly
“guilty” habit and sexuality.
What rings true as a timeless facet in Brown’s work concerning The Playboy is
the nakedness of the story, his ability to allow himself to be the character whose
beliefs and behavior are out of step with his rules, as he tries desperately to figure
it all out. Brown’s autobiographical work, beginning with The Playboy , sparked
a confessional comics renaissance not seen since the hedonistic grandfather of
autobiographical comics, Robert Crumb , began to lay it all out on the table in the
swinging 1960s.
