Publication History
Brown ran into problems doing contemporary autobiographical stories, as his story interconnected with the stories of those around him—the friends he portrayed did not always agree with the way they were portrayed (as can been seen in Showing Helder). Brown then decided to turn to his teenage years, as he had lost contact with most of the people he knew from that time.
The story was originally called Disgust when serialized in issues #21-23 of Brown's Yummy Fur comic book, at the time still being published by Vortex. The collection was published by Drawn and Quarterly in somewhat different form after Brown moved publication of Yummy Fur there, and was the first graphic novel D&Q published. At first, Brown intended The Playboy and I Never Liked You to be one story, but found it too complex to handle when he started to plan it out.
Like Brown's other acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel, I Never Liked You, originally was, the panels of The Playboy are set on black pages. In 2002, Brown revised the pages of I Never Liked You, making the pages white, saying, "I like austerity. The white background looks more austere to me." However, he has left The Playboy as it is with the original black pages.
The book was dedicated to "Seth for his example as an artist".
Read more about this topic: The Playboy
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