Chicago Spanking Review Special Series

The Humorama Spanking Cartoons!

#126 - Lou Magila Happy Birthday Spanking

From Gaze (Dec. 1961). Scanned and posted by the Web-Ed on 02/08/2013 (click to double-size).

We have another birthday-themed spanking cartoon to follow last time's Triple Value Birthday Spanking, but before presenting it we feel we should introduce the artist. "Screwy" Louie Magila (the nickname bestowed by Jim Linderman over at Vintage Sleaze) had to be the strangest artist ever published by Abe Goodman at Humorama, and he was in just about every digest, or so it seemed. (Linderman shares some further thoughts on Magila here)

Magila decided to save a lot of figure-drawing by simply using a partial or complete photograph of some model, then filling in a few details around her. Sometimes he would draw a maze, or a rooftop, or as we see here, a doorknob, but one thing was guaranteed: whatever he drew would make no sense at all! Why on earth, for instance, would anyone seriously consider cutting out the doll's picture here and gluing it onto a "dollknob"? At least he chose a glamorous-looking model on this occasion - sometimes we weren't so lucky.

Supposed "construction projects" of this type were a Magila trademark, and figure in his one spanking cartoon (below) in which he at least drew the spanker and spankee himself although he seems to have borrowed freely from other artists.

From Laugh Digest (April 1970). Scanned and posted by the Web-Ed on 02/08/2013 (click to double-size).

The spanking here is decent but not great, and what really grabs your attention is how weird Magila's concept is - would anyone in his right might cut this out and send it as a post card to his girl? Probably only the same type of chap who'd cut and paste the "dollknob" above, especially since the birthday girl looks so unhappy. Magila at least does the OTK positioning well, and gives some welcome definition to the spankee's buttocks, although it wouldn't surprise us if he copied that aspect of his drawing from Felix Andrews or someone like him.

Laugh Digest (April 1970). Scanned and posted by the Web-Ed on 02/08/2013 (click to double-size).

And here just for laughs is the April, 1970 issue of Laugh Digest in which we found this thing. It was probably the cartoon's second appearance, but no earlier publication date has yet been discovered. Unlike the more normal "spankers" which as we've seen often had their gags redone once or even twice, the editor could never have rewritten a gag this strange.

Here is the cartoon rotated so you can more easily read the text. It still doesn't make any sense, however.