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Visitors to the MLK Library’s Washingtoniana room have the opportunity to uncover many unsavory details of Washington City Paper’s past: Our rag was called 1981 in its first year, Andrei Codrescu once had a regular column (it was awful), and we published poetry. One of the things we’d be happy for you to uncover, however, is our publication of Bill Plympton’s syndicated cartoons. Before he went on to greater fame as an animator in the late ’80s, Plympton was known for his scratchy, absurdist strips. He also catered to the “blue” market, drawing panels now collected in The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton. Sadly, these prove disappointing, the bulk of them being both unsexy and unfunny. Badly dated, they reinforce the conviction that the titillation of pornography depends on a context of naughtiness, a commodity ever in retreat. The book’s title itself, though, happily traffics in the frisson of taboo, and luckily isn’t altogether honest, either. The volume includes a variety of relatively “clean” strips (detail pictured) that are fundamentally more anarchic than those offering a time-capsule view of an age in which unholstered breasts represented the boon of a free society. But even the more time-worn strips are sure to be of interest to Plympton enthusiasts familiar with such animated masterpieces as 1988’s Your Face: Already evident in his early drawings are Plympton’s conceptions of human flesh as infinitely malleable and human features as mere Colorforms to be disposed at will about an exquisite corpse. Plympton discusses and signs copies from 6-9 p.m. at Animation Sensations, 2914 M St. NW. FREE. (202) 337-5024. (Glenn Dixon)