(1960). Kurtzman continued to correspond with Hefner and Playboy executive editor Ray Russell, who was interested in Kurtzman's idea of a comic strip suitable for the magazine's audience and suggested "satire ... as an excuse or rationale for a slick magazine to be publishing a comic strip." Although single-panel cartoons were an established part of the magazine, a comic strip was unprecedented and had to be justified. Kurtzman submitted some Goodman Beaver strips and was surprised to receive a favorable response from Hefner, who liked the "fresh and eager" character. He especially enjoyed "Goodman Goes Playboy", which featured a boisterous romp in Hefner's mansion. Hefner nevertheless insisted that the material was not right for his magazine, but requested an explanation of the character with a suggestion: "Maybe there is a way of launching a similar series ... that can somehow be related to Playboy". Kurtzman replied that Goodman Beaver "could be foolish and at the same time wise," and that he "innocently partakes of the bad while espousing the good." He further stated that Beaver's innocent, restive, and charming nature allotted him especial creative freedom. A week later, Kurtzman wrote to Hefner, "What would you think of a girl character ... whom I could apply to my kind of situations?" Six weeks later Hefner replied, "I think your notion of doing a Goodman Beaver strip of two, three, or four pages, but using a sexy girl ... is a bull's eye. We can run it every issue." Production Kurtzman recruited his long-time collaborator Will Elder to work on the strip's illustrations. He suggested to Elder an "outlineless", painted style, then thought the strip would be better suited by an India inked, outlined comic book style with flat color behind it. Hefner, whose opinion prevailed, preferred the more difficult, fully painted, outlineless look. Kurtzman's suggestions for the feature's name included The Perils of Zelda, The Perils of Irma, and Little Mary Mixup; he settled on Little Annie Fanny, its title and logo a parody of Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie. The cartoonist began submitting story ideas for the multi-page comic strip to Hefner for approval. Over the twenty-six years he wrote the character, he was allowed (with Playboy substantial budget) to travel for research, photography, and sketching. He followed this with a preliminary script for Hefner, who revised it. Kurtzman then worked out the story's composition, pacing, and action in thumbnail