Posted by the Web-Ed on 12/31/2010.
We've held back on this one for a long time while trying to identify it. The light-haired spanker bears a resemblance to Steve Canyon, but there appears to be a signature at the lower right-hand corner, and it isn't Milton Caniff's. We're embarrassed to admit we can't tell for sure whether the style of the art is consistent with Caniff, a giant in the comic strip world and an man who influenced an entire generation of artists at least. We hate to make excuses, but the reproduction is of low quality, probably a xerox copy of a microfilm or microfiche scan, making identification of the spanker difficult. The riding boots are a clue, but this guy could be Aquaman for all we know!
Whoever drew it, it's a fine spanking with good OTK positioning, emphatic hand motion, and struggling spankee whose protests and fist-waving do nothing at all to lessen the sting being imparted to the target area!
09/05/2014 Update: We have now identified this panel and updated the title of this page - it used to be called "Unknown Spanking" - see below for the whole story.
Cover of Crack Comics #28 (March 1943). Art by Alfred Andriola. Published by Quality. Posted by the Web-Ed on 09/05/2014 (click to double-size).
It took us a while, but we finally discovered the source of this panel during our regular monthly searches of Golden Age comics: Crack Comics #28 (March 1943). The spanker-hero, Captain Triumph, is featured on the cover and in the lead story. Created by cover artist Alfred Andriola, Captain Triumph was at this time a very new hero, having made his debut only one month before in the previous issue. The cover basically tells you what you need to know about his origin: when Lance Gallant is joined by the spirit of his deceased brother Michael, they combine to form a super-being, Captain Triumph!
Our spankee-to-be, bad girl Miss Cairo.
Now let's meet our spankee-to-be, Miss Cairo. As the head of a criminal gang, she's stolen an advanced weapon and is threatening the Governor with trouble if he doesn't do as she says. Clearly, she's a very bad girl in need of severe punishment. Fortunately, Captain Triumph is on the case!
Page 12 of Crack Comics #28. With her gang routed, Cairo attempts to flee, but the long arm of the law, or at least the long arm of Captain Triumph, grabs her before she can escape. She's in trouble now!
It's the triumph of Captain Triumph as bad girl Cairo gets what's coming to her! Notice that two panels after the spanking, she looks very quiet and subdued - spanking really works miracles when it comes to adjusting the attitude of bad or just plain stubborn females.
The all-important spanking panel.
Alfred Andriola did the interior art as well as the cover, and he did a fine job, something that couldn't be appreciated when all we had was that photocopy. CT has got Cairo pretty well draped over his lap, and the lines radiating from Cairo's behind indicate that she's receiving a good sting. No use waving your arms around and making demands, Cairo my dear - you're getting your fanny warmed, and there's nothing you can do about it!
This is the only spanking given by Captain Triumph, who continued in Crack Comics right to the end (issue #62 in September, 1949, and we've checked them all). It's actually something of a tribute to the character that he lasted that long, since by the time of his creation in 1943 superhero comics were already beginning to wane, and interest in them really died out after the end of World War II in 1945. The character is now owned by DC, who only used him once in a rotten Teen Titans storyline that we won't bother going into.
Using Photoshop, CSR Resident Artist Dan Rivera corrected the coloring errors caused by the old letterpress method of printing. (Click to double-size).
When Dan Rivera saw this panel, he couldn't resist correcting the coloring errors, which were quite common with old comics because the various color panels (comics were printed with only red, blue, green, and yellow) were not precisely aligned with each other. And we couldn't resist posting his improved version here. Thanks, Dan!
On the CSR Bulletin Board, Jim C. reminded everyone that the artist, Alfred Andriola, is thought to have done at least four spankings in Kerry Drake, something we forgot to mention. While two of these are believed to involve juveniles, two more are of grown women, and we have them in this gallery: Kerry Drake #1 and Kerry Drake #2.
