The Coolest White Sox Cartoonist Ever. (a book rec.)

Hey.  Check it out.  I'm writing a FanPost.

I usually exit the local library with a book about baseball or an old classic that I was supposed to enjoy in high school.  Not this time.  No sir.  Playboy's Silverstein Around the World caught my attention this time.  Sure, a book featuring cartoons and photos of 1960's natural boobies isn't exactly something to make my wife say, "Who is this new beast?  There must be something there that wasn't there before."  But, I discovered something inside this book that really tickled my cartoon geek White Sox fan fancy.

Before Shel Silverstein became one of the most celebrated children's writers, his most popular work was in Playboy.  I knew this before picking up the book.  What I didn't know was that Silverstein grew up in Chicago as an avid White Sox fan.  He also worked as a vendor in Comiskey Park.  Silverstein eventually caught on with Chicago-based Playboy, and Hugh Heffner sent him around the world to create an illustrated journal. This book is the compilation of those features, printed as they first appeared in the magazines.  It looks fantastic, naturally.  It's 50's and 60's Playboy.  Shel traveled to Japan, Moscow, London, Paris, Africa, Greenwich Village, and Haight-Ashbury.  All of those places are nice, but buried in these cartoons and boobies from around the world is Silverstein's week-long stay with the 1962 White Sox in Spring Training.  He essentially joins the Sox for a week and captures it all in comic form.   

I recommend you find this book.  Sorry about the extra words.  I was excited.  I want everyone to know how cool it is to draw White Sox cartoons.  Seriously.  It's cool.