(ILLO = Publishing shorthand for “illustration.”)
The illos. on this page accompanied short stories in Mandate, Honcho, or Playguy, with the exception of the three-page Gregory Maskwa art feature. Each one was germane to the particular fiction it illustrated, but each one also stands alone. This I didn’t fully realize until I scanned them for this Substack bonus. Color, draftsmanship, design — here and elsewhere, the best illustrations speak for themselves
I did not often interact with our illustrators. That was the province of art directors Clif and Tony. On the other hand, there was cross-pollination to an extent between art department and editorial in the matter of non-photographic illustration. From time to time, an illustrator — perhaps he was new to us, or maybe a regular — would bring in his portfolio. If the art was suitable for our magazines, Clif and Tony would call me to look at his work and together we would accept one or more of the illustrations. These would be copied and the copies — Velox or color separation — kept on hand, sometimes for months or even a year or more, until we had a match-up of story and picture.
At other times, when the art directors were eager to use a particular illustration immediately, I would search the unpublished stories I had on hand. If I found nothing suitable to the illustration, I would assign a story to an associate editor or commission it from a free lancer. In the latter case, I would of course send a photocopy of the illustration and ask him to match story line and image.
I say “him” because our fiction writers were invariably men…except in one instance. I wish I could remember the pseudonym, but I can’t. So I’ll approximate it: Matt Thompson. This writer turned out super hot fiction that veered toward S&M. Too raw for Mandate, it always landed in Honcho. One day, after half a dozen of these stories had appeared, I got a phone call.
Renay, our receptionist, buzzed me. “Sam, Matt Thompson for you on line three.” An unmistakeable female voice said, “Hi, this is Matt Thompson.”
After a moment of recovery, I yelped with laughter. “Where did you learn all those dirty words?” I demanded.
Her name was Jeannette, and she belonged to that small sorority of straight women who dote on gay male erotica. The number of sorority sisters who also write it must be minuscule, but Jeannette/Matt continued as one of my most inventive foul-mouthed wordsmiths!
Since I didn’t work as closely with illustrators as with photographers and writers, I have no biographical anecdotes for the captions below; just the artist’s name — or pseudonym. But I reiterate…art speaks for itself.