Somewhere we mentioned that early American comic strips tended to be "slice of life" - life as it was at the beginning of the twentieth century (Out Our Way, Gasoline Alley). One advance beyond that point was to take advantage of the artist's ability (if he had it) to draw imaginative, humorous caricatures such as we have seen in Popeye and Polly and Her Pals. But another approach that appeared early in comics history was to employ colorful characters who were "larger than life" instead of "slice of life". Barney Google was one such strip, and Moon Mullins, which we look at now, is another and may have been modeled on it.
Moon (short for "Moonshine", real name unknown) Mullins was apparently intended to be either a drinker or a bootlegger, although his first episode (June 19, 1923) revolved around boxing, not bootlegging. Moon quickly moved to a strange town and took up residence in a rooming house run by Emmy Schmalz, where he was to remain for something like the next fifty years. The rooming house provided Moon's supporting cast of characters: Emmy, Mamie the cook (our spankee here), her husband Willie, Lord Plushbottom, and Moon's little brother Kayo, who becomes our somewhat unlikely spanker here.
This is another discovery of CSR Chief Strip Researcher
Sweetspot.
(By the way, we will see a somewhat similar spanking from, yes, Barney Google later this year). Our scene
takes place in Kayo's imagination, where he dreams of being big enough to spank Mamie. This may have been
in response to getting spanked by her (note the missing first panel) - we can't find any of Sweetspot's notes
on this one and of course we wouldn't present such a scene if it did exist - or it may have been triggered
by something else. But boys spanking grown women? Absolutely! 
Kayo dreams of himself spanking Mamie in Moon Mullins, September 1, 1940, by Frank Willard assisted by Ferd Johnson. Scan by Sweetspot, edited by Web-Ed. © Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate.
The spanking panel. Scan by Sweetspot. Posted by the Web-Ed on 06/15/2018. © Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate.
It looks to be a fairly vigorous spanking, although Kayo doesn't seem to have imagined himself at grown-up size so he has a struggle to fit Mamie over his knee.
Ferd Johnson took over for Frank Willard when the latter retired, and stuck with the strip all the way until its end in 1991 which may well be some kind of record for longevity. Any other spankings in Moon Mullins? None are known at the present time, and the basic set-up would seem rather unconducive to OTK action, but sixty-eight years is a long time and there just might be something still out there. We'll see.
