Rogue (magazine) no four-color reproduction, or full-page cartoons, and certainly no centerfold. Hamling was the editor and publisher, his wife, Frances, was executive editor; and Frank M. Robinson was the first managing editor. Henry Botts, a friend of Hamling's, became the first associate editor. Lead fiction was by a hot science fiction author, Harlan Ellison who became associate editor with the third issue (April 1956). The first issue of "Rogue" was published in November 1955, with a December release date. Following Hefner's successful lead with the first issue of "Playboy", that first issue of "Rogue" contained "A New Aspect of Marilyn Monroe,"
Rogue (magazine) friend Hugh Hefner coming to me in 1953 to propose an idea for a magazine to be called "Playboy". Hef was talented but poor and his passion had been fantasy. He was a struggling cartoonist and had been working in a clerical capacity at "Esquire". I had been buying fantasy cartoons from him for several years (they were so bad I never published them but he needed the money and to this day we have a running routine where I threaten to issue them as a nostalgic bonanza but defer to his pleadings of personal embarrassment) and one evening he