I thoroughly enjoyed “I Was Seven in 75”! One of my favorite old nudist comic artists was Gene Packwood, who did many single panel comics for old US magazines, and had a few popular recurring characters such as “Sunny”. Gene was not a nudist himself but his dad was Norval Packwood who was executive secretary of the American Sunbathing Association for over a decade in the 50s/60s.
I never made the connection between the two Packwoods. Never seen Packwood's "Sunny" comic but I have seen his "Angel" comic. I like the art style and its four panel dual tone layout. However with the way the artist writes the strips and how his characters are "proportions" it wouldn't be too out of place in another magazine like Playboy.
I would agree with that, a likely a side-effect of him being a non-nudist, but also his different comics reflected the publications they were consigned to—they weren't always buxom women— but increasingly they became that in the 60s as the magazines grew more provocative. Aside from the nudism stuff, he also had a whole other path drawing military comics about his time in the Korean war with the Marines. Those comics, about a character named Leatherhead, are quite wonderful in their own right.
I actually found Gene's home address a couple years ago and sent him a paper letter... he hadn't gotten one of those in many years, and he was kind to write back by hand. I keep his letter in my copy of "Leatherhead in Korea".
Monkey Food: The Complete "I Was Seven in '75" Collection can also be read on the internet archive's digital library.
https://archive.org/details/monkeyfoodcomple0000forn
I thoroughly enjoyed “I Was Seven in 75”! One of my favorite old nudist comic artists was Gene Packwood, who did many single panel comics for old US magazines, and had a few popular recurring characters such as “Sunny”. Gene was not a nudist himself but his dad was Norval Packwood who was executive secretary of the American Sunbathing Association for over a decade in the 50s/60s.
I never made the connection between the two Packwoods. Never seen Packwood's "Sunny" comic but I have seen his "Angel" comic. I like the art style and its four panel dual tone layout. However with the way the artist writes the strips and how his characters are "proportions" it wouldn't be too out of place in another magazine like Playboy.
I would agree with that, a likely a side-effect of him being a non-nudist, but also his different comics reflected the publications they were consigned to—they weren't always buxom women— but increasingly they became that in the 60s as the magazines grew more provocative. Aside from the nudism stuff, he also had a whole other path drawing military comics about his time in the Korean war with the Marines. Those comics, about a character named Leatherhead, are quite wonderful in their own right.
I actually found Gene's home address a couple years ago and sent him a paper letter... he hadn't gotten one of those in many years, and he was kind to write back by hand. I keep his letter in my copy of "Leatherhead in Korea".
Gene is still alive, 94 years old living in Florida!