Swank Magazine, March 1975
Ah, irony.
All these great detectives in this outstanding Gray Morrow illustration, and what I needed the most was some actual detective work to figure out where the piece was published.
Despite the fact it looked like it could have appeared in any number of comic humor mags (Mad, Cracked, Sick, Crazy, et al) those pubs only featured black and white articles. And it didn’t fit with the vibe at National Lampoon. Also, the composition / design suggested a more conventional 2-page editorial spread, but it was too large and busy for TV Guide
After some relentless digging and some occasionally frustrating dead ends, I confirmed that the piece appeared in the March 1975 issue of Swank Magazine, an adult mag whose content often made Playboy seem like Reader’s Digest.
It’s a wonderful piece of nostalgia and a great DPS.
And, for better or worse, I’m old enough to have immediately recognized most of the cops here, without additional detective work.
Fun fact: I don’t own a physical copy of the mag yet, hence the lack of an image of the published piece to include with this post. It seems to be available for sale in a few places on-line, but they appear to be sketchy, and you can guess what might happen if give my credit card number and other personal info to an adult website.
