Master cartoonist Lawrence Lariar was by no means a sleaze artist, but as you can see even the masters fell under the shocking spell of the Kinsey Report. Plus, Larry WAS known to draw a nice leg or two when needed...but his real claim to fame was the incredible wide and diverse body of work created under legitimate auspices. So well known and thought of, he edited the anthology "Best Cartoon of the Year" series for years and was cartoon editor for Parade Magazine (hardly the place to look for boob jokes)
Likely one of the few, if only, artists I'll profile who earned a New York Times Obit (1981) he also wrote mysteries under several pseudonyms, including Adam Knight (a sleazy name in any circle) The Kinsey Connection comes about from a novelty book Lawrence edited titled "OH! Dr. Kinsey!" which consisted of "a photographic reaction to the Kinsey Report" which purported to show stunned women reading about what I guess they were already doing.
Hilarious.
An outstanding spread of his books appears HERE as well as a photo of the cartoonist himself, looking tough as nails, likely in his Adam Knight mode. Also fascinating is that, like Jefferson Machamer and others profiled here earlier, he published a book sharing what he knew! Such generosity makes that kid in 4th grade who hid his airplane drawings from me with his shoulder seem greedy.
Original Lawrence Lariar (Detail) cartoon (No Date, circa 1950?) Collection Jim Linderman
