A Chicago Spanking Review

Special Presentation:

Suzie After Spanking

Comics Gallery 1

We've always liked Suzie, an Archie character (that is, she was published by Archie/MLJ) but not part of what we might call the Archie Gang: she was out of high school and there was no indication she had ever lived in Riverdale or attended Riverdale High except for one very strange panel we remember in which Archie made a cameo appearance. One spanking of Suzie had long been known (in PEP Comics #59) while another was recently co-discovered by long-time CSR contributor Bishop Berkely and ourselves (in Suzie #83).

Suzie was a good-looking blonde who screwed up a lot both at home and the office (she had a lot of jobs, much like Bill Ward's Torchy who was probably the inspiration for the character), making her eminently spankable. And fortunately for us, getting spanked was still seen as a humorous development during this time (the Golden Age of comics), so Suzie was subjected to some off-panel spankings where we got a see an after-spanking panel with Suzie still "feeling the heat" as it were. A few of these are ambiguous: you can't tell for sure if Suzie got spanked or just booted in the behind. In general, we like to be optimistic and assume she got the OTK treatment. In one case it was definitely just a boot, and we've included that one to facilitate the discussion and because we're already seen a later page from that story in which we inferred Suzie had gotten spanked. But there are some in which there is no doubt an actual spanking had taken place.

Suzie's back-up feature Ginger also had three apparent off-panel spankings, one of which we put out on the CSR Forum a while back, and we've included them as well.

Our first concern in evaluating these panels is to determine whether we have an actual spanking or merely a kick in the pants, which while fun in a low-class sort of way is in no way as good as a real spanking. We posted the page below last year in Missed Opportunities in Archie Comics over on the CSR Forum: Suzie seeks out the Swami Rivah (a play on "Swanee River") for help in getting a job, and he offers her what she got on her last job. Suzie, still with a sore bottom, answers "Not that, Mr. Swami!" implying that what she got on her last job was a good spanking!

When we got ahold of the complete issue, though, it turned out that she hadn't been spanked at all but only booted (thanks to Bishop Berkley for finding this one):

From PEP Comics #58 (September 1946 - PEP was a quarterly publication at this time). Story and art by Bill Woggon.

We did at least get two nice panels with pain stars radiating from the affected area. What we want to point out is that the panel in which she gets the boot was at that time a commonly-accepted visual shorthand: we understand that the character is getting the boot even as we realize that a kick is not going to lift someone up in the air that way, nor would it take place just at the doorway. It was a standard gag, much like something you might have seen in Burlesque but taking advantage of the comics medium's ability to exaggerate.

Now let's look at this panel from Suzie #52 (Winter 1946). Notice the key visual elements of the kicking boot and the boot-ee flying through the air are missing, although there is a doorway. We interpret this to mean that Suzie has been spanked, not kicked, by her employer.

Below is the entire page. Basically, Suzie's screw-ups have resulted in a lot of painful physical comedy for her boss, and so she's out of work once again, and with a sore bottom, too! The art is by Al Fagaly, who did many Suzie covers and also worked at Timely/Marvel.

Art by Al Fagaly.

Very similar is this scene from Suzie #58 a year later:

From Suzie #58 (August 1947; co-discovered by Bishop Berkley). The writer and artist are unknown.

Our next example is more ambiguous, but it still could represent a spanking. Suzie's boyfriend Ferdie and his Uncle have tried to help Suzie win a contest, but as usual things have gone awry and the judges don't recognize her. Out she goes - after getting a good spanking, we hope.

From Suzie #61 (February 1948). The writer and artist are unknown.

Let's switch over to one of Suzie's back-up features, Ginger. Unlike Suzie, Ginger was still in high school, but except for that the characters were similar with Ginger's antics sometimes getting her spanked. In the following example from Suzie #59 (October 1947), Ginger wastes Pierre's time looking at dresses she can't afford to buy:

Pierre flips his wig - literally. Looks like it's spanking time! From Suzie #59 (October 1947).

From Suzie #59 (October 1947). Once again, the writer and artist are unknown.

Here's the final panel. It bears a remarkable similarity to the after-spanking panel (if such it is) from the preceding example with Suzie. After wasting "Pierre's" time that way, Ginger certainly deserved some time over his knee. The door has been slammed shut behind her - was she spanked or merely booted? You decide!

This next example has already appeared on the CSR Forum - follow the link above to see the whole story. We'll just reproduce the last page here. Ginger the practical joker has played one practical joke too many, and gets spanked by her father! No ambiguity here - this is most definitely a spanking.

From Suzie #64 (August 1948). Writer and artist unknown. Co-discovered by Bishop Berkley.

The last example we have featurning Ginger (for now) is perhaps the best in that there is absolutely no doubt she got a spanking - and a good one, at that! The story is called "Nightmare," referring to a dream her father has after being clonked on the head with a softball and not to Ginger's experience getting spanked. It is taken from Suzie #67 (February 1949, writer and artist unknown).

Our story opens with Ginger needing money and her father saying "No!" - at least until he learns it's to buy a uniform for her high school sorority's softball team. He agrees to come up with the cash if Ginger and the girls can prove to him they know how to play the game.

By the way, the fact that this is a high school sorority instead of a college one is of some interest. Here in Illinois, public high school fraternities and sororities are against the law and will get a student suspended, but apparently the legislators in Ginger's state are more flexible - or more interested in sorority paddling, which we could understand but unfortunately doesn't take place in this story.

Ginger's dad decides to pitch to the girls in batting practice, but alas it's been a long time since his playing days and his body isn't up to the rigors any more. On top of that, Ginger hits a foul ball that clonks him on the head, knocking him unconcscious.

He has a rather long nightmare - so long it really looks like a lot of filler since this simple story needs to go on for seven pages. (We've left out two pages here and one earlier to save time.) When he recovers consciousness, Ginger tells him the other girls will let her stay on the team, but only if he plays for the other side. This adding of insult to injury is just too much, and it's spanking-time for poor Ginger. It takes place off-panel, but the final panel of the story leaves no doubt as to what happened:

It's not often that the spankee in a comic book has to strap a pillow to her behind, but that's what happens here in Suzie #67 (February 1949). Note that Ginger declines to sit down despite the pillow!

Let's get back to Suzie now with another quite unambiguous example - there's no doubt she gets spanked by her father. The plot is so simple we need to see only the final four panels of the story: Suzie wants money to buy a new coat (very similar to Ginger wanting money to buy a new uniform just above), but her father says they need the money to get the house painted. Suzie gets him to agree that if she gets her two boyfriends, Ferdie (no apparent last name) and Gregory Van Dripp, to paint the house he'll buy her the coat. Well, Greg and Ferdie paint the house all right, but in two different colors! The coat goes back to the store, but as Suzie tells Ferdie, "Daddy made things plenty warm for me!"

From Suzie #97 (February 1954). Artist and writer unknown. Discovered by Bishop Berkley.

Our final example, at least for now, was discovered by Robin, who has been a tremendous help with CSR's Archie-related material over the years. However, he had only this apparent after-spanking panel and didn't know where it came from - a situation that has often plagued those of us who research these things. We're grateful when someone puts a spanking scene of any kind out on the internet, but would it be too much to ask that they identify the source material?

After a difficult search (the kind that entails getting actual comics and not simply their digital scans), we were able to identify the unlikely source as Jughead #8 (October 1951). It's only a two-page story, so we'll see it in full.

Cover art by Bill Vigoda. Scanned and posted by the Web-Ed on 09/09/2016.

Once again, Suzie is left with a sore bottom, and we must say it's well-deserved here. The art is by Samm Schwartz; unfortunately the writer is unknown as it would be interesting to know if he'd scripted any other spankings.

So Suzie got spanked by her next-door neighbor! That's something you don't see every day. It's a great idea, but it would have been improved by (1) the neighbor being male, and (2) the spanking being on-panel where we could see it. And Suzie is wearing white shorts, too!