Science Fiction has been around a long time, but its penetration into media other than prose began in
earnest in the 1950's. These alternative media included movies, television, and of course comics with
those of the EC "New Trend" line being perhaps the best examples. And yet spankings in sci-fi
comics were extremely rare - in fact the only one we can think of is in Planet Comics #56 (Sept. 1948),
and it isn't posted within CSR because it's a man spanking a boy.
Perhaps
Stuart Taylor might
qualify as a sci-fi strip, but in any event we can say that science-fiction comics spankings are
few and far between, a fact that did not deter CSR Chief Strip Researcher
Sweetspot
from finding the one we're about to see here.
Twin Earths (1952 - 1963) was hardly the first time a duplicate earth orbiting forever unseen on the other side of the sun had been postulated, nor would it be the last - for example, Marvel Comics had Counter-Earth, where there were no superheroes (its Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom, and Robert Bruce Banner are merely scientists without alter-egos, while its Peter Parker died from the bite of a radioactive spider instead of being transformed into Spider-Man - see Marvel Premiere #2) - but it does seem that the idea was pretty well-developed within the strip. Earth's twin was governed by women, but we can't say whether the spanking scene was in any way an expression of a "Men's Liberation" movement (we'd like to think so!) because we're not exactly sure what's going on. The best we've been able to do is establish that it occurred during strip D44 - Moon Shot, which ran from 7-3-1961 to 8-26-1961. Let's take a look at it now (all scans by Sweetspot).
Back-seat driving earns a warm-seat spanking in Twin Earths, August 25, 1961. © United Feature Syndicate
Our pretty spankee finds it's hard to rub away the sting through her spacesuit in Twin Earths, August 26, 1961. © United Feature Syndicate
The spanking scene! © United Feature Syndicate
After the spanking. © United Feature Syndicate. Posted by the Web-Ed on 10/12/2018.
Judged purely as a spanking, we think this one is excellent: very good composition in which the spanking occupies most of the panel, fine OTK positioning, a rugged, masculine spanker, and a very pretty spankee with her bottom as well-presented as it could be through a spacesuit. The script and art are both by Alden McWilliams still working under the signature of Oscar Lebek for some reason. Lebek had been the strip's writer until 1957, but it's unusual for the writer to get top billing and more unusual that he would get sole billing. He was an editor at Dell comics so perhaps he knew someone at United Feature Syndicate, or perhaps McWilliams, a veteran of the comics industry, was used to the shoddy treatment customary there and accepted it in return for what was presumably pretty good pay.
McWilliams worked as an assistant on Tim Tyler's Luck and Rip Kirby, but as far as we
know didn't do any writing on either strip and so could not have scripted any spankings in them.
He did a bang-up job here, though! 
Sweetspot later dug up some more information on what led up to the spanking:
"Captain 'Cookie' Cook's fiancée was originally to be the third member of the moon expedition but was replaced by Chris Cannon because of Cannon's previous experiences in space flight. Cookie had hoped to be the first woman to be married in space or perhaps even on the moon. Performing the wedding would have been the commander of 'Rover' Major Red Fox. Eventually Cookie is to blame for the injuries that cause Red to yield command of the mission to Chris - against orders she enters an unstable rocket from a previous, (to capture the photos of the year) but failed, mission causing Red's hip to be crushed beneath some rocket parts. The beautiful Cookie Cook, both geologist and physician, must settle for being the first 'astronette' in space [although in fact the women of Terra have been moving between planets for decades]. The timeline here seems to be that this story is taking place in the mid-1970s and that the Rover is fueled by nuclear power. Chris is happily married to a Terraian woman [her identity is secret on Earth] so this spanking is not at all romantic or could lead to romance."
July 27, 1961. Chris warns Cookie she's due for a spanking. © United Feature Syndicate. Posted by the Web-Ed on 11/02/2018.
