Okay, now they've gone too far. Cartoonists who draw for Playboy are circulating the word that the magazine, which just dropped photos of naked women, is getting rid of the gag cartoons, as well. This is troubling because, first of all, it was one of the two best markets for such material, The New Yorker being the other. There are still approximately 72,730,522 places where one can see photos of nude ladies but the number of places to read good gag cartoons just got cut down to almost nothing.
Whether you liked the cartoons in Playboy or not, the magazine had a commitment to them that made cartoonists wish every editor or publisher was Hugh Hefner. Hef was a wanna-be cartoonist himself and even drew a few for the early issues. He soon realized he wasn't good enough to meet his own standards so he hired folks who were. He paid them well and gave their work lots of room and in many cases, first-class reproduction. The guys in The New Yorker didn't get full pages or, often, the chance to paint their work in full color.
I can guess why Playboy's doing this. It saves money, plus they're now following the model of contemporary men's magazines…and those don't run a lot of cartoons. What a shame.