Chicago Spanking Review

Miss Buxley

---> Doc Cylon Gallery

Miss Buxley, or a reasonable facsimile, from the Beetle Bailey strip. Original art © Julius Zimmerman, colors by Doctor Cylon. Posted by the Web-Ed on 03/29/2019.

We mentioned last time that the late Julius Zimmerman and Doctor Cylon were totally simpatico when it came to the artistic depiction of the female figure, and we see another perfect example here. The subject is obviously Miss Buxley from the Beetle Bailey strip, raising her slip and bending over to reveal a lovely target for the paddle or cane. Zimmerman named this one "Ten-Hut" ("Atten-shun!" for the benefit of any confirmed civilians out there) as part of a funny but pornographic joke involving Beetle, who is in the original drawing, coming to attention and "saluting" in a most unconventional manner at the sight Miss Buxley presents here. We cannot present Zimmerman's original here, but anyone who wants to see it may contact us by email and we'll probably get to it in about six months.

Zimmerman's drawing is an interesting composite of Miss Buxley's head as Mort Walker (1923 - 2018) always drew it and her body as Zimmerman pretty much always envisions the female form . He exaggerates her bosom less than he usually does, which is an improvement, and gives her a full, symmetrical behind. Doctor Cylon adds pitch-perfect coloring that complements Zimmerman's original lines without obscuring them in the slightest, producing another excellent collaboration.

Miss Buxley is © King Features Syndicate.

We've spoken a bit about the Beetle Bailey strip recently (see Beetle Bailey Spanking #1, but it's worth taking a closer look at Miss Buxley. She was introduced into the strip in 1971, and like every other character was a humorous caricature. Just as Beetle was lazy, so Miss Buxley was the sexy secretary (see the example at left). As time went on, humorless feminists, having nothing better to do, begin to complain that she was "sexist". What does this mean, exactly? No definition was ever offered, but then feminists and Social Justice Warriors generally are not known for clear thinking.

The fact is that Miss Buxley is a stereotype, as caricatures will always be, and no more objectionable than the bumbling General Halftrack or the slave-driving Sgt. Snorkel. But the hysterical screeching reached such a pitch that eventually Walker was forced to respond (we read his 1982 book, but couldn't locate our old copy before press time). We remember reading one account in The Comics Journal (probably in the early 80s) in which a feminist related being sexually harassed at some event (it may have been a company picnic). We felt sorry for her; the guy was clearly a jerk. But instead of putting the blame where it belonged - on this one guy - this woman was insisting that Miss Buxley and similar portrayals of women in comics was at fault, which was patently absurd.

Beetle Bailey November 17, 1971 - Miss Buxley's first appearance. © King Features Syndicate.

In the end, the crazy feminists won and we normal people lost - Walker changed Miss Buxley's appearance and eventually even sent Gen. Halftrack to sensitivity training. If this reminds you of how the communist Soviet Union treated its artists, then you understand something about the American Left.

I have given this rather short summary not merely to indict political interference with the arts, worthy as that might be, but to explain one reason why there never were and never will be any episodes of Beetle Bailey in which Miss Buxley gets spanked. (And even in good times, where feminists would be ignored, it would have been hard to work such a scene into the strip, although something along the lines of Bo Brown's Miss Gulick's Birthday Spanking could have been attempted). A commission is always a possibility: In 2009 when the CSR Bulletin Board was brand-spanking new, we and Jim C. devised a poll on which comic strip female readers would most like to see spanked. Miss Buxley tied for third place (with Moonbeam McSwine of Li'l Abner) "behind" only Brenda Starr and the Jackson Twins.