The Playboy is a graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown (pictured), serialized in 1990 in his comic book Yummy Fur and collected in different revised book editions in 1992 and 2013. It deals with Brown's guilt and anxiety over his obsessive masturbation to Playboy Playmate models; out of fear of being caught, he repeatedly rids himself of copies of the magazine, only to retrieve them later. His conflicting emotions follow him into adulthood until he purges them by revealing himself through his comics. The free, organic arrangement of odd-shaped panels of simple, expressive artwork contrasts with his more detailed grid-like pages in his 1980s work, such as Ed the Happy Clown. The Playboy forms part of Brown's autobiographical period during the early 1990s, and was the first book-length work he planned as a complete story. It has attracted praise for its revealing honesty, and criticism from those who saw it as glorifying pornography. Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Playboy> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1862: American Civil War: Confederate troops under Stonewall Jackson defeated a Union force at the Battle of Front Royal in Virginia, taking around 700 prisoners. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Front_Royal> 1895: Backed by Samuel J. Tilden, the Astor Library and the Lenox Library agreed to merge and form the New York Public Library. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Public_Library> 1939: The U.S. Navy submarine Squalus sank off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during tests, causing 26 men to drown. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sailfish_%28SS-192%29> 1974: The Airbus A300, the first twin-engined wide-body airliner, went into service with Air France. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A300> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: virid: 1. (literary, poetic) Green, verdant. 2. (literary, poetic, rare) A green colour. [...] <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/virid> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:   I'd like to be remembered as someone who kept the comic novel going for another generation or so. I fear the comic novel is in retreat. A joke is by definition politically incorrect — it assumes a butt, and a certain superiority in the teller. The culture won't put up with that for much longer.   --Martin Amis <https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Amis>