Otto Binder - Spanko?

[Ripley]

[Web-Ed's Note: this post by Ripley was in response to the following, which I wrote in "New Finds":

Because all the spankings I found were in the Marvel Family books, I'm beginning to wonder if Otto Binder (who was the unofficial head writer) was perhaps a spanko, or if spanking was just a convenient plotting element for him.

I decided much later (March 2011) to split this question off into its own topic because of further research (see reply below). End of Note:]

If Otto Binder was a spanko, I'd guess he was gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), because it was mostly males getting spanked. But in truth, I doubt he was a spanko nor gay. His stories with Fawcett were meant to cater to, and relate to a less mature audience.

[web-ed]

You're probably right - he wrote his stories for Fawcett with a very young audience in mind, an audience for whom spanking would have been a regular part of daily life.

[web-ed]

Although I'm still inclined to agree with Ripley's conclusion, I have recently uncovered more information and one new spanking as a result of my search for the Holy Grail (Superman spanks Supergirl). Here now is a list of all spanking comics that are currently attributed to Binder:

1. Lois Lane #14
2. Lois Lane #15 (1 issue later!)
3. Marvel Family #49
4. Marvel Family #51
5. Mary Marvel #1
6. Superboy #55
7. Superboy #75
8. Superman #140 (my discovery)
9. Superman #192
10. Whiz Comics#44
11. Whiz Comics #103
12. Wow Comics #19
13. Avengers (novel)

The attributions are not simply my unsupported guesses, either - they come either from the Grand Comics Data Base or DC's own records, with the exception of that Avengers novel I remember reading 40 years ago.

Nor is that all: here is another list of unattributed spankings from various Marvel Family comics. As sometime editor and head writer, Binder could have been responsible for some or even all of these.

1. Master Comics #42
2. Captain Marvel Adventures (Wheaties Giveaway)
3. Captain Marvel Adventures #68
4. Captain Marvel Jr. #101
5. Marvel Family #3
6. Marvel Family #5
7. Marvel Family #20 (probably Binder)
8. Master Comics #80
9. Whiz Comics #17
10. Whiz Comics #32 (probably Binder)

The "probably Binder" notes are my opinion.

We have then at least 13 and possibly as many as 23 spankings written by Otto Binder! If it were anyone else, or if so many of them weren't X/M, I'd have to conclude he was a spanko. But Binder was incredibly prolific - to be less polite, he was something of a hack - so it was natural his writing would be somewhat formulaic and predictable. In this view, one spanking simply multiplied into a dozen as he recycled his plots without there being any hidden agenda. But on the other hand, the regularity with which these spankings appeared, taken in conjunction with that Avengers novel, suggest that spanking scenes came to Binder's mind so readily that we have to wonder if might have been a spanko, albeit one of peculiar tastes.

I'd say the evidence is still inconclusive, and we may never know for sure one way or the other. Now if there were to be a lot of spanking scenes in Binder's science-fiction novels, rendered in loving detail, I think we'd have to reconsider. But I've never read any of Binder's prose except for that one Avengers novel and I don't expect to start now. If anyone has and would like to offer an opinion, please do.

[daneldorado]

web-ed, you wrote:


But on the other hand, the regularity with which these spankings appeared, taken in conjunction with that Avengers novel, suggest that spanking scenes came to Binder's mind so readily that we have to wonder if he might have been one of us.


Please don't suggest such things. I know nothing about Otto Binder other than what you wrote, but the thought that a man who drew primarily pictures of males getting spanked is "one of us" is repugnant in the extreme.

Most of us who visit this site seem to be of a like mind... that is, we like to see ladies getting spanked. Even women like that sort of thing. To me, it is incredibly sexy to see a pretty woman being smacked on her well-rounded tushy for some infraction or other -- or even for no infraction. I've asked this question before, but it bears repeating: If God did not intend for women to get spanked, then WHY did He give them such large, luscious, tempting targets? Conclusion: God likes it when ladies get spanked. It's natural.

Well, didn't mean to get all religious on you all of a sudden. But it's a thought that often occurs to me.

Cheers,
Dan

[web-ed]

No problem, Dan - I considered your point carefully, then went back and rephrased the sentence so that it now reads, "might have been a spanko, albeit one of peculiar tastes." You're right - whatever Binder was, he wasn't like you or me or most of CSR's readers.

Although I have presented F/M and M/M scenes on occasion, and in fact have four more M/M slated for April 1 (which I hope will be the last), I don't care for them myself. In fact, I believe the last such scenes I posted were for Halloween, believing that was the time of year for "the horror of F/M" as I called it somewhere. I still feel duty-bound to present such things if an honest-to-goodness, long-underwear superhero is involved, otherwise they just get documented in the DB. I can't tell you how many M/M scenes I've suppressed this way after they turned up during my Golden Age Search.

Unquestionably, M/F is the king of spanking orientations, the one most popular with both males and females. It is also the most natural orientation, as I have stated before and as I hope to prove with psychological arguments one day soon. The fact remains that other orientations exist, and how each spanking site or blog deals with them depends on their specific purposes. For erotic entertainment, only M/F does it for me and for most of CSR's readers. F/F I find tolerable but bland, although many seem to like it, so I don't hesitate to do F/F posts. F/M is problematical on all levels, and yet even here there are definitely those who desire this kind of material, and I don't want them to feel unwanted for I have a great deal of sympathy for their plight, which I regard as unhappy. And as a psychological theorist, I must account for them (I can, as it happens). M/M is so far out I don't intend to offer any theoretical explanation for its existence, and I only post it (I repeat) because of my own standards (admittedly self-imposed) that regard superhero spanking as such a remarkable phenomenon that it deserves the most intense scrutiny and the brightest light the cultural critic such as myself can throw upon it.

I've written a lot of words here without perhaps saying all that much! But at least I did rewrite that one sentence...!

[daneldorado]

web-ed wrote:


F/F I find tolerable but bland


Truer words were never spoken, my friend. M/F is king, as far as most spankos go, both male and female. M/M is inutterably obscene, F/M repugnant, and F/F is -- as you said -- "tolerable." But "bland."

I must have about two thousand spanking pictures stored on my computer, and I would be surprised if there were more than four (4) F/F pics in there. The vast majority, of course, are pics of a male spanking a female; but occasionally, I will find an F/F scene that attracts me, and so I will download it. One of them is the very strange cartoon of a girl spanking her exact duplicate, saying "Bad Brandy! Bad Brandy!" It's silly, of course, but I like it. But 99 per cent of my collection shows a male spanking a female because -- well, because that's the way God intended it.

He did, didn't He?

Cheers,
Dan

[web-ed]

Yes, He did. Male sexual psychology is basically aggressive and dominating; female sexual psychology is basically submissive. This is inherent in the human species (and is even true among the higher animals), a logical consequence of necessarily differing reproductive strategies; it is not a product of some kind of patriarchal cultural bias as feminist theory would have it. This fact is widely accepted in evolutionary biology but rejected by pseudo-academic disciplines such as "Women's Studies" which currently pollute the atmosphere of our colleges and universities.

Consequently, on purely theoretical grounds alone erotic spanking would be predicted to take the form of male dominant, female submissive, or male spanks female (M/F). Experience confirms theory: spanking parties are mainly M/F, as are spanking pictures, videos, and fiction. The market does not lie; rather, it gives a true picture of what people want, which in this case depends on what they are.

By the way, anyone interested in that F/F picture Dan mentioned can find it right here at CSR in the Doc Cylon Gallery along with the good Doctor's bare-bottom version: Good Brandy Spanks Bad.