Chicago Spanking Review Special Series

The Humorama Spanking Cartoons!

#219 - A Spanking Breeze #2

Art by Allen Dale. From the June 1961 issue of Gee-Whiz. Posted by the Web-Ed on 04/24/2020 (Click to double-size).

For the second time a Humorama spanking cartoon revolves around the double meaning of the word "spanking" as in "A spanking breeze" (the first was by Earl Engleman). The only problem is that the artist, Allen Dale (a probable pseudonym inspired by Robin Hood's minstrel Alan-a-Dale) is not quite a match for Engleman here although at least the spanker's arm doesn't look like it's broken. Miss Baker's buttocks are not too well defined and the composition places the couple is a little too far away from the camera, a problem made worse by the cartoon being printed at quarter-size. In his defense he does the OTK position quite well with the spankee's back nicely arched, and he chose a nice viewing angle (we'll overlook that in order to obtain it he had to place the sailboat rather improbably close to the windward shore). Was Dale familiar with Engleman's earlier effort in 1959? We can't yet say.

We don't recall seeing any other cartoons by Dale and are further mystified by the timing: the 1961 appearance of this cartoon, after Humorama's reprint period had begun, is the only one known. Had it been printed once before during the 1955-60 "classic" period in one of the few digests from that era we've been unable to find? Was it even earlier, predating 1955? Or was "Allen Dale" a friend of the editor's who managed to get a new cartoon printed in Gee-Whiz at a time when we think only Bill Ward was still selling to Humorama?

Perhaps time will tell - we haven't given up on further Humorama research just yet.