It’s amazing how comic book writers and artists, back then and even sometimes today, can place various nods of adult pleasures and amusement, such as nod’s to Playboy, and yet this comic was probably released after the Comic book code of 1954 was put into place, and not to many people had taken notice of this. Same goes in animation, when Bob Clampett had purposely put in a few extra “goodies” just for the censors. They’d cut those, and leave in the ones he wanted, such as in the 1942 short ‘A tale of Two Kitties’ the cartoon takes a direct shot at the censorship bureau known as the ‘Hays Office.’ Catstello is atop a ladder trying to reach Tweety. Babbit is at the bottom of the ladder, yelling to his rotund pal, “Give me the bird! Give me the bird!” Catstello turns to the audience and says in his Brooklynese way, “If da Hays Office would only let me… I’d give him ‘da boid’ all right!” (a direct reference to giving Babbit the middle finger).

Oh, and Jerry, I had recently posted the first part of a series of posts about the history of Popeye. If you have the time, could you please read it?

That was a bit bizarre, Yogi reading a Playboy knockoff

I think the mindset back then was there were things that were simply considered for “adults” or “men,” like Playboy, the Esquire of 30+ years ago, cigars, hard liquors, etc. and that’s how even kids accepted them without much further question.

(Until curiosity got a hold of them when they got a little older, anyways!)

Then again, what do you think was the relative age (in bear years of course) of both Yogi and Boo Boo? is Yogi 25 and Boo Boo 15?

“Young and impressionable Boo-Boo”?

I was under the impression that Boo-Boo was a midget bear. Or an under-grown bear.

As for Yogi reading Playbear….I’m sure some of us can relate to that.

Oh, sure — the titillating part is that they show female bears with clothes on.

Young? I thought Boo Boo was the same age as Yogi.

Yeah, the foldout model has clothes on, but Yogi and Boo-boo lounge around naked except for a tie. That must be some sort of Bizarro-world they’re in.

What’s that Porky cartoon where the child he is looking after is reading Esquire Junior (with a raunchy baby on the cover!)?

My Kind of Bear!

It helps dispel rumours between Yogi and BooBoo’s relationship. Wouldn’t a better title of the magazine be: “BareBear”?

That’s not Gene Hazelton art. It’s Pete Alvarado with lettering and inking by Lee Hooper.

Imagine Yogi’s horror?/delight? at seeing Cindy Bear in that mag!

What I wonder about is all the scenes in the cartoons with Yogi & Boo-boo sharing the same bed…