Threats and Missed Opportunities

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Notice June is standing wonder does that Space ship only have one seat like to know what other Naughty Things bratty June have done to deserve a SPANKING Nice Strip even though no spanking

[web-ed]

Bloke I worked with in the 1960s who was probably born in the 1920s used to talk about someone being "in more trouble than Brick Bradford."

I never knew who Bradford was.

That's interesting, Willjohn. I'm wondering how thorough this strip's distribution was. It seems to me that there was another distributor involved before King Features - a smaller one that dealt with smaller newspapers. Perhaps Brick Bradford never made it to Australia's major newspapers.

[overbarrel49]

Hi web-ed,

After reading this I have only one comment, "GRRRRRRRR"! . What's the matter with these people . Thanks, Phil

[Sweetspot]

The current series on the main-site is all about spanking scenes illustrated by the very accomplished Don Flowers. In addition to the three spanking panels being offered from Diana Dane/Oh! Diana there was also an off-panel spanking that was published in October of 1938. The Danes - Diana and her dad Elmer - plus their loafer friend Dooley were in the habit of vacationing out in the wilderness. On one occasion they brought home a bear cub. In the summer of 1938 they brought home the Beavers - Mr. Beaver and his daughter Beulah Beaver who would eventually be so homesick that they returned to the woods in spite of Diana's best attempts at civilizing them. While living with the Danes Beulah innocently entered into competition for the affection of several of the young men that Diana had her eye on. This made Diana particularly anxious for Beulah to settle down to her studies and stop dating. Though evidently ultimately successful in spanking Beulah that success came at a physical cost to Mr. Beaver. Don Flowers didn't hesitate to show an OTK spanking in his strips but in this case the gag is in the outcome not in the spanking itself so we only get to see a partial result of what happened.
"Poor Beulah's getting a spanking" Diana tells her father

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"Beulah seems a bit subdued since her spankin'" says Elmer Dane.

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[web-ed]

Phil - thanks for posting these. We're obviously on the same wavelength because I was going to post them here next week anyway. (This week was going to be Bringing Up Father, but I didn't get to it yet).

[willjohn]

From memory "Bringing up Father" was a naff strip about a henpecked businessman and his social climbing wife.

[web-ed]

From memory "Bringing up Father" was a naff strip about a henpecked businessman and his social climbing wife.

Indeed it was, Willjohn, at least pretty much - the man's name was Jiggs, who after winning the Irish Sweepstakes still wants to hang around with his old friends, but his social-climbing wife Maggie has some other ideas.

Let's take a look at them now from 1944 and see what they're up to:


March 1, 1944. Scan by Sweetspot. ©King Features Syndicate

Jiggs is certainly henpecked here, but he doesn't threaten the melodramatic Maggie with a spanking as he probably should have. Phil S. has searched through a number of episodes and so far found no spankings, but he did turn up the scan above and one other that may be of some interest.

Now let's see an actual spanking threat, not from Jiggs but from Maggie's older sister! This one took place earlier, in 1935:


January 18, 1935. Scan by Sweetspot. ©King Features Syndicate

So Jiggs gets a little relief courtesy of his sister-in-law.

Bringing Up Father was a very early strip, dating back to 1913, and continued under creator George McManus until he died in 1954, after which time it somehow managed to carry on under other hands until 2000. It was never one of my favorites, but it was certainly an American original.
Since the strip was around for 87 years, it's always possible there was a spanking somewhere, but so far Phil hasn't found one.

[willjohn]

Jiggs & Maggie had a daughter who was astonishingly pretty considering her parents did not have a look between them.

I don't remember her ever being spanked. Jiggs was usually on the end of violence from the bad tempered Maggie.

[web-ed]

Jiggs & Maggie had a daughter who was astonishingly pretty considering her parents did not have a look between them.

I don't remember her ever being spanked. Jiggs was usually on the end of violence from the bad tempered Maggie.

Yes - somebody did a parody many years ago in which Jiggs really got beaten up, but I can't remember now who did it or where it appeared.

[Sweetspot]

Jiggs and Maggie had a young adult daughter named Nora who appeared with her parents in the very first strip back in 1912. George McManus liked to dress Nora up in the latest fashions of the day and used her to stand in juxtaposition to her fashion conscious but fashion-challenged mother. Nora acted with a certain maturity that alluded both of her parents. She was a poor candidate for a spanking since she was often Jigg's valuable ally who tried to alert her father in regards to his wife's manic-depressive behavior. Maggie was still beating on him in the mid-1970s.

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The Bringing Up Father strip was satirized at least twice in Mad Magazine. Once after having taken one beating too many he files for divorce and ends up tossing his money at multiple show girls. In another parody he simply can't take the abuse any more and turns the table on Maggie with a show of psychotic behavior that involves hiring thugs to keep his house in order.

According to an early Jiggs biography, as told by McManus, Jiggs was born in Ireland and immigrated to the U.S. where he married a waitress who served him generous amounts of corn beef and cabbage. He made his money in selling bricks [used in New York street brawls]. In early 1939 he had $500,000 in the bank - could have been when he won the Irish Sweepstakes. McManus described the backbone of the strip as being the humor derived from the incredulousness of this low-brow couple trying to blend into high society [a fish-out-of-water Beverly Hillbillies type story] - Maggie out of her need for acceptance and Jiggs because of his misguided role as being his abuser's enabler. Anyway, Jiggs may have been genuinely in love with Maggie but it also looks like he was just as genuinely afraid of her unpredictable nature.

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By the mid-'80s the couple took on a more contemporary look and politically correct relationship. Instead of giving Jiggs a black-eye Maggie seems genuinely bemused by her husband's little attempt at humor. Anyway, I think he was kidding

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[web-ed]

Thanks for the additional information on this strip, Phil.

[web-ed]

I can't say I'd ever heard of Doings of the Duffs before Chief of Strip Research Phil S. provided me with this example of a missed opportunity for a spanking. This episode starts off inauspiciously, with Danny trying to avoid a paternal spanking. Mrs. Duff (I suppose that's who she is) interferes and is threatened with a spanking herself - now we're getting somewhere!



Alas, Mrs. Duff is a woman of considerable, er, substance, and almost puts an end to the struggle simply by sitting on Mr. Duff. Fortunately, he tickles his way out of a tight spot, but isn't able to spank her.

I've told this story before, but one time I was faced with the problem of spanking a woman who was simply too large to fit over my lap. What to do? Luck was with me as this was at a spanking party and I recruited another fellow's aid. By sitting in two separate chairs facing each other, we had a double-sized lap to accommodate our very willing spankee, and we applied the spanks (left-handed in my case since two spankers must use opposite hands) with suitable vigor !

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

That a very Hot Story as you and another guy each spanked the large bottom cheek of a big woman bet those cheeks wobble

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Oh was it bare??

[Sweetspot]

Nice story and it just goes to show you that big girls need spanking too. Evidently in the early years of the 20th century the dictatorial President of Turkey believed as such, he decided that his female citizens would meet a certain weight standard or be subject to a "spanking" as an inducement to proper diet.

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Not to many full-figure girl spankings in the comic strips. Although we've already seen the Queen of Sissi spanked by Oaky Doaks and later in the year there's a M/F spanking in Ella Cinders that qualifies that way.

[web-ed]

Oh was it bare??

You bet it was!

[web-ed]

Nice story and it just goes to show you that big girls need spanking too. Evidently in the early years of the 20th century the dictatorial President of Turkey believed as such, he decided that his female citizens would meet a certain weight standard or be subject to a "spanking" as an inducement to proper diet.


Not to many full-figure girl spankings in the comic strips. Although we've already seen the Queen of Sissi spanked by Oaky Doaks and later in the year there's a M/F spanking in Ella Cinders that qualifies that way.

Fascinating, Phil - your research has unearthed another historical first. I had no idea Ataturk (Kemal) used corporal punishment (common in the Muslim world, of course) to keep Turkish women slim. Looks like some of the "Young Turks" might have been "Young Spankos" as well !

[web-ed]

Here's a rather tame example Phil S. discovered during his many researches:


Penny, August 12, 1952. Story and art by Harry Haenigsen. ©Herald Tribune Syndicate

As Phil comments: "Penny is looking pretty smug considering the fact it's her backside where father applies the hairbrush. Really dislike the artwork in this strip."

And in truth the artwork isn't much. Penny seems to accept her father's views on applied psychology (and the gag about spanking as "applied" psychology was already old in 1952, but would continue in use - in fact, we'll see some novelty paddles that employ the theme sometime in the future), which means she's going to be on the receiving end of the hairbrush sooner or later. So far Phil hasn't turned up any actual spanking despite the strip's 27-year run, but we have to wonder if there might not be one out there just waiting to be discovered...

Penny was a fairly early example of the teen-age girl protagonist, but seems inferior to later strips such as Suzie Q. Smith, which we've seen in CSR, and Etta Kett, which we will be seeing in CSR in a couple of weeks. I don't mean to disparage Haenigsen, but others came along with styles that were equally simple yet more expressive, and I can't see anything too special about the writing, either, although it appears to be light-hearted and at least a little fun, which is appropriate for a strip involving teen-agers.

Haenigsen continued with Penny until an injury forced him to stop drawing it. Bill Hoest (The Lockhorns) took over but left in 1970, at which time Haenigsen retired and the strip ended.

[web-ed]

But this time it's from the strip, not the Lois Lane comic book, and it is explicitly a spanking threat!


Superman, June 7, 1951. © DC Comics Inc. Scan by Sweetspot.

Why couldn't Superman have spanked Lois as he did Olivia Hill in a very similar situation? (The question arises this week because we're presenting Sweetspot's new scans of the Olivia Hill spanking - see link).

Most probably the answer is that Wayne Boring had taken over the newspaper strip by this time (1951) from Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who had sued DC over ownership of the character in 1946 and lost, being awarded only a small sum for Superboy, whom the court ruled was a separate character even though he was Superman as a boy. (Lesson: never sign your rights away for any amount of money, people). Boring was anything but as an artist - in fact we're sure he did a good part of the artwork on the Olivia Hill spanking - but apparently he did not have Siegel's decided flair for scripting spankings. At this point, it appears the only spankings in the Superman comic strip occurred when Siegel was writing it.

Boring continued to do the Superman strip for many years and in fact pencilled many stories for the Superman and Action comic books as well until he was summarily let go by DC in 1967 along with a lot of other long-time free-lancers. (Lesson: the corporation you work for has zero loyalty to you and will let you go the moment they find it convenient).

At least we can ponder the Superman/Lois spanking that might have been had Siegel and Shuster never sued DC and instead continued doing the strip.

[Sweetspot]

Web-ed
Is this the Superman threatens Lois Lane comic book scene you're referring to? Yes that's Lois Lane being bottle-fed in Superman's arms. Going against his clearly expressed orders she has tampered with the professor's youth reenergizing machine and ended up being transformed, outwardly anyway, back into an infant.

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I've written an ongoing rant about the catchphrase Papa Spank if you haven't read it yet and it sounds like something you might be interested in check it out here: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=621