the idealized images in pornography distort societal norms and expectations of beauty; one example cited is a scene in which Brown says he could only maintain an erection with one girlfriend if he fantasized about his favourite Playmates. Brown has objected to this interpretation—rather, he sees it as a flaw in the work, in that it does not provide enough context for what he intended to communicate: that he had gotten into a relationship with a woman whom he did not find sexually attractive, and that if Playboy did not exist he would have fantasized about other images of women. Critic Darcy Sullivan saw the book as presenting how Brown's Playboy obsession affects his ability to relate to women. Sullivan called The Playboy stories "[t]he most honest sex in comics" of the early 1990s, "and the most damning exposé of pornography" as it deals "with nothing more than Brown's relationship with Playboy". He praises how quickly Brown matured as a storyteller over the course of The Playboy, and for the believability of scenes which may or may not have happened as Brown depicted them. While seeming to acknowledge feminist concerns, Brown depicts himself as "a victim of his urges", and that "Playboy has kept him mentally separate". Sullivan asserts the book shows that pornography does not merely satisfy a need, but fosters an addiction. Brown's comics raise questions, rather than trying to answer them, an approach Sullivan compared favourably to that of Joe Matt's less subtle body of work, which also details a pornography obsession: he wrote that Matt's comics analyze and rationalize his obsession, while Brown's reveal. Publication Brown had run into problems doing autobiographical stories of his contemporary life, as his story interconnected with the stories of those around him—the friends he portrayed did not always agree with the way he pictured them. He portrays his friend Kris's negative reaction in "Showing Helder" to his depiction of her in "Helder". Brown turned to tales of his teenage years, as he had lost contact with most of those he knew from that time. Brown stated that he intended a longer story encompassing what ended up in The Playboy and the following graphic novel, I Never Liked You (1994), but when planning it he found it was too complex. He said he had a clear idea of the stories from his life that he would use, and the general shape