The first Black Illustrator, E. Simms Campbell, paints a complex comic narrative featuring an opulent harem with 14 wives/concubines. The artist caters to a man's fantasy by placing the male subject in the middle of a 360-degree ring of well-endowed beauties. Almost all of the women are chomping at the bit to see if she will be the lucky winner. Each portrait is painstakingly rendered to flaunt its well-endowed feminine charms with gravity defying breasts. In the center of it all is the male protagonist, vicariously representing the viewer. He is depicted playing spin-the-bottle to see who will be his next lover of the moment. Visually, it's a delight to look at. Technically, it's masterfully designed, with curving shapes, bathed in soft light, and a mouthwatering purple color scheme. It may be one of Campbell's most ambitious efforts because it successfully conceives and executes a large scene populated with 16 people. As with all vintage cartoons, the jokes may not always hold up. In fact, the cartoon works just as well with out the text caption but it's the beauty of the artwork and its place in art history that elevate this narrative art to equal standing with much of the fine art hanging in today's museums. Deep Down He's Just a Goddamn Kid, Playboy cartoon, November 1963 Watercolor and pencil on board 16-3/4 x 13 inches (42.5 x 33.0 cm) Signed upper left: E Simms Campbell Elmer Simms Campbell created the present work for the November 1963 issue of Playboy which was published on page 117 with the inscribed caption: "Deep Down He's Just a Goddamn Kid." The work also appears on page 17 of Playboy -- 50 Years: The Cartoons (Chronicle Books, 2004).
