Comics aren't just for kids, especially when they contain naked ladies and are published in skin mags! That's what we discovered when investigating this issue of JAGUAR, a mid-60s PLAYBOY wanna-be with lower production values, less interesting articles, and an absolute mania for cashing in on the James Bond spy craze that was then holding the world in its grip. WARNING: this installment of STUPID COMICS is not safe for work, unless you work somewhere that has no problems with poorly-illustrated undressed cartoon ladies dallying with what appears to be Tony The Tiger's poor relation.


Okay, so maybe PLAYBOY gets to publish actual James Bond fiction by Ian Fleming. How will JAGUAR compete?


With their own inept James Bond spoof comic strip starring their fake Esso tiger mascot, of course! That way we can savagely satirize both 007-mania AND the popular "Little Annie Fanny" strip running in PLAYBOY! Because satirizing something Harvey freakin' Kurtzman worked on, that's not stupid at all!


Wow, he's got his own code number and a secret organization whose initials spell out dirty words, and sexy female spy cohorts with suggestive names! This is taking comedy all the way up to the dizzying heights of the humor magazine of your finest two-year colleges. Also, and this is important, Jaguar never shuts up, ever. He makes Tawky Tawny seem like, well, like ordinary non-talking cats, I suppose.


So our mascot spy spoof talking furry thing, he has to track down Hugh Hefner, and accomplishing this involves interviewing sexy women who immediately want to have sex with him.


Like we said.


After cutting a deal with that chalky-pale cartoon mascot for the "Playboy Advisor", Jaguar has infiltrated the lair of the mysterious "H.H.", tastefully decorated in Early Boobie.


Every man's greatest fear - sexually aggressive women! You know gals who come on too strong make men nervous. Also for some reason half the page is in color now. I don't know if this is some kind of artistic choice, or if the deadline came down before every panel got painted, or if somebody in production screwed up but they figured nobody would care.


More half-color off-color action here as the confusing layout and wordy dialog encourage even the most dedicated fan of cheesy James Bond spoofs to give up on the whole thing. I mean, there are color photos of naked women mere pages away! And yet, if you gave up now, you'd miss the awesome revelation of the true identity of "H.H."! It's a boffo gag that wraps up this whole shebang. Wait for it...!


Yeah, that's the gag, Hugh Hefner is actually Malcolm X. Except that really isn't funny at all. Even in 1965 I don't think that would have been funny. Confusing, quizzical, perhaps embellishing the entire story with a gloomy pall of segregation and despair, sure. But funny? Nope.
Apparently JAGUAR featured this anthropomorphic cat-head faux-Bond mascot on every cover. I guess their editoral staff figured trenchcoat-sporting jungle cats were just the thing to sell skin mags. However, the magazine sank without a trace sometime before the free-love hippies ruined everybody's fun, leaving us to ask the important question of, just who drew this thing, anyway? My completely uninformed eye detects the work of Bob Powell (among other artists), who around that time was drawing the teen strip HENRY BREWSTER, which occasionally exhibits similarities in facial expressions...


I know we're clutching at straws here, but check it out- both JAGUAR and HENRY BREWSTER's editoral offices were in the SAME BUILDING- 150 Fifth Avenue New York NY! Coincidence? I think not. So what have we learned? If nothing else, we've learned skin mags should never be mixed with cartoon mascot spy spoofs involving talking cats and Malcom X and/or Bob Powell.

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