Unknown models on the cover of Sweethearts #70 (December 1948). Published by Fawcett. Posted by the Web-Ed on 02/24/2017.
We discussed Fawcett's romance title Sweethearts at exhaustive length last time, so we'll just say now that this story, "The Vengeful Heart," is a little unusual in certain ways. First, the spanking fails at first to teach the spankee, Helene, a good lesson. In fact her humiliation leaves her determined to get revenge on the spanker, Keith, setting her up for later heartbreak. Second, the spanking is witnessed by an unlikely number of people given that it takes place on a front porch. Third, the spanking is later commented on by by two boys riding by on their bikes who taunt Helene about it, and fourth, she later brings up the spanking in conversation with Keith.
Thus the spanking here is perhaps more central to the storyline than we see in most romance comics. Often the spankee gets her deserved comeuppance and quickly reforms, but not in this case - Helene lets her humiliation (and spanking as humiliation rather than simply punishment is a prominently-featured idea here) get the better of her judgment, with near-disastrous consequences.
This one was co-discovered by ourselves and Bishop Berkley using the available digital scans of the book.
Keith places Helene in the time-honored OTK position and lets her have it: "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" From Sweethearts #70 (December 1948, artist and writer unknown). Posted by the Web-Ed on 02/17/2017.
Just as last time this is a full-length story of nine pages, and since we're going to see all of them we'll take an advance peek at the spanking, which occurs about half-way through.
The OTK position is fair, with Helene's behind swung up within easy reach. Keith extends one leg to gain clearance past the front of the loveseat, which is o.k. but reminds us that the plain old chair is still the best furniture type for the spanker to be seated on. She's obvious struggling in vain, which is nice. One problem is that Helene's face is not visible.
The spanking scene is redrawn in a later panel which we'll view once we've seen the whole story.
Our spankee-to-be, Helene, wearing a bikini which is a little strange since after this rather expressionistic splash panel she is always shown wearing a dress. But a girl who regards other people as her playthings, as suggested by this panel, certainly deserves to be spanked! (Note the triple-tailed aircraft probably modeled on the Lockheed Constellation, a popular passenger airplane design at this time).
Our story begins with Helene slapping her date Phil for no particularly good reason. That would have been grounds for a spanking right there, and while it didn't happen, poor Phil will get his satisfaction later on as we'll see. Meanwhile, Helene quickly forgets about Phil and starts thinking about Keith:
Keith and Helene take a romantic walk together as he tells her about his future hopes of landing a good job. All he needs is a good reference from her father:
But just as everything seems to be going great, Keith doesn't try to kiss her goodnight, probably out of a reluctance to seem too forward, and Helene quite unreasonably (in view of her reaction when Phil tried to kiss her) takes offense and slaps him! But unlike Phil, Keith doesn't hesitate to turn her OTK:
Speaking of ol' Phil, by an incredible coincidence he just happens to be driving by in a car with
a couple of other guys, and they witness the spanking along with three pedestrians! (Helene
must live on a very busy street 
). Phil gets satisfaction for being
unfairly slapped and can't resist crowing a little: "It's too good to be true! I hope he gives
her a few good ones for me!"
So Helene gets her comeuppance at last, but she fails to learn from the experience and instead plots revenge. "How could I make Keith pay for my humiliation?" It's nice to know the spanking was so effective.
She gets her chance when a letter arrives from Keith's prospective employer. Forging a bad reference in her father's name, she feels a last-minute pang of conscience as she's about to mail the letter. But then two boys, who either witnessed her spanking (was the whole town there?) or heard about it can't resist taunting her: "Keith put her across his knee, and WHAM!"
Remembering her humiliation at being spanked, she takes the fateful step of mailing the letter:
Keith loses out on the job opportunity. Helene sees him again, and during a canoe ride begins to regret her conduct:
She confesses her black deed: "After you spanked me, I thought I hated you!" (Another reference to the spanking!) He leaves, trying to figure out what to do next:
She confesses again, this time to her father (he should have spanked her, too!), and goes to see the employer. And she mentions the humiliation of being spanked once again: "The humiliation of what father suggested was worse than a hundred public spankings..."
"A hundred public spankings" - what a great idea! Anyway, it all works out when Keith returns and
she tells him, "How childish and spoiled I've been!" He forgives her, but should have given her
another spanking anyway just to make sure all her feelings of guilt got purged 
!
This was a rather good story with a nice emphasis on the spanking and repeated references to it. We wish we had some idea who the writer and artist were.
Here's a close-up of the second spanking panel, the one in which Phil gets to see Helene spanked, something he could have done himself.
We've enlarged the spanking itself. It's not badly drawn, considering its small size in the panel.
And just for fun, let's enjoy Helene's humiliation as two boys rub in the fact that she got a spanking! Humiliating the spankee, as we have observed in the past, is the essence of spanking.
