First (?!) PLAYBOY Cartoon to be Auctioned

"Jeannie -- what's the past tense of 'virgin'?"

Hugh Hefner, via Heritage Galleries & Auctioneers, will be auctioning a cartoon from PLAYBOY #1. The cartoon, reproduced above, is by Ben Denison. Click to get a huge, giant size.

From the press release:

"It's impossible to overstate the importance of Playboy magazine to the modern cartoon field," says Ed Jaster, Heritage Auctions Vice President, "and Ben Denison's was the very first cartoon commissioned and published by Hefner in the pages of Playboy #1, the December 1953 debut often dubbed the 'Marilyn Monroe issue.' This was the cartoon that set the stage for all that followed, and as such, it holds a hallowed place both in Playboy lore and cartoon history."

Thanks to Tom Spurgeon at Comics Reporter!