Threats and Missed Opportunities

[web-ed]

But wait - there's more! For in that very same issue (Patsy and Hedy #22), Patsy's posterior suffered further punishment at a roller skating rink:



I have no idea why, when Patsy rams into the rink from the front, the pain stars are shown next to her rear, although it's certainly funnier that way and she winds up in a nice position bending over the edge of the rink. Whatever the reason, she wasn't out of the woods yet and takes a pratfall on the hard ice while being taunted by Hedy:


Patsy's pratfall, from Patsy and Hedy #22 (December 1953), once again with pencils by Al Jaffee. © Marvel Characters Inc.

At least this time the pain stars being placed where they are makes perfect sense, and Patsy doesn't want to sit down . She must have been pretty sore after all that, and would probably have been better off getting paddled in school!

[hugob00m]

Hi, Web-ed.

Prat-falls and sitting on a tack aren't as fun as spankings... but they have something in common: inflicting pain or discomfort to a lady's nether region. Of course, most of us would rather that she feel the sting of a hand or a paddle than the ache of a hard landing or the stab of a sharp point.

Some good finds.

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

The Three Stooges this a short with a woman having tax shot in her bottom but it didn`t get exciting until Curly Joe whacks her tail a few times with the butt off his riffle! seeing Patsy fall on her bottom is ok but I rather see her getting a firm spanking OTK

[web-ed]

The Three Stooges this a short with a woman having tax shot in her bottom but it didn`t get exciting until Curly Joe whacks her tail a few times with the butt off his riffle! seeing Patsy fall on her bottom is ok but I rather see her getting a firm spanking OTK

Indeed they did, Butch (in "The Rusty Romeos"), and for the benefit of anyone who hasn't seen it I actually did post it back in 2011 over in the Video Section.

[web-ed]

These are certainly trivial, but as I set them aside some time ago I didn't want to fail to post them now. First we have First Love #5:



The rubbing and reference to "where it will do the most good" are nice, but this is certainly forgettable otherwise.

Then we have another teen humor comic, this one called Taffy. I don't remember the plot here, but it really doesn't matter:


Two teen-agers get the boot in Taffy #6.

[web-ed]

This particular boot to the behind is more interesting than the others because it comes very close to being what we're going to call the "penance spanking" that appeared in a number of Golden Age Marvel comics we're going to be seeing soon on the main site. As a matter of fact, we've already seen one of them, namely Venus #2, and we have come to the conclusion they were scripted or at least outlined by none other than Stan Lee !

This example is from one of the several Patsy Walker titles, namely Patsy and Hedy #54 (July 1957). The plot revolves around a dance contest that Patsy wants badly to win, but she's worried because her boyfriend and dance partner Buzz Baxter is no Fred Astaire. Buzz comes up with the idea of painting the dance steps on the dance floor in some kind of paint that is only visible through special glasses.

The scheming Hedy sees how she can sabotage Buzz's plan: she sends her boyfriend Ronnie to paint a bunch of additional footprints on the floor to confuse Buzz. And it seems to work: Buzz leads Patsy through a wild series of dance steps.






(Continued below due to the two-picture limit)

[web-ed]

But as usual, Hedy's rotten scheme backfires on her when the judges rather unbelievably award first prize to Patsy and Buzz for the originality of their routine. Once again hoisted by her own petard, Hedy requests that Ronnie set down one more footprint - on her deserving derriere!


From Patsy and Hedy #54. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Of course Hedy deserved a spanking, and Ronnie would be the logical guy to give it to her, so why did Lee write a swift kick instead of a spanking into this story when he had scripted several spankings under similar circumstances? (We're going to provide a complete list of these over on the main site when we present Millie the Model #27).

One possible reason is that the footprints imprinted on the floor suggested a boot imprinted on Hedy's behind, and perhaps it's as simple as that. However, Butch's recent question about the Comics Code Authority does suggest an alternative: this example is ten years later (in 1957) than the one Butch was referring to, and by this time the decade-long spanking drought (1956-1965) had descended on the industry due the Code frowning on non-parental spankings. Perhaps Lee anticipated the Code Ladies would object to Ronnie spanking or paddling his girlfriend Hedy at her request and wrote his script accordingly. I don't suppose we'll ever know for sure.

[hugob00m]

Hi, Web-ed.

One possible reason is that the footprints imprinted on the floor suggested a boot imprinted on Hedy's behind, and perhaps it's as simple as that. However, Butch's recent question about the Comics Code Authority does suggest an alternative: this example is ten years later (in 1957) than the one Butch was referring to, and by this time the decade-long spanking drought (1956-1965) had descended on the industry due the Code frowning on non-parental spankings. Perhaps Lee anticipated the Code Ladies would object to Ronnie spanking or paddling his girlfriend Hedy at her request and wrote his script accordingly. I don't suppose we'll ever know for sure.

The only reason I can think of for a kick instead of a spanking would be consistency with the theme of footprints.

One way they could've kept the footprint theme going and still end with a spanking would be to have Ronnie apply a slipper to Hedy's naughty backside!

[web-ed]

Hi, Web-ed.

The only reason I can think of for a kick instead of a spanking would be consistency with the theme of footprints.

One way they could've kept the footprint theme going and still end with a spanking would be to have Ronnie apply a slipper to Hedy's naughty backside!

A slipper (or plimsol) - what a great idea, B00m! Too bad Lee didn't think of it.

[web-ed]

This week we're going to see the only known spanking in the Millie the Model group of titles (my research is ongoing, so if we're very lucky we may find another), so to whet our appetites a bit I thought we'd take a look at some missed opportunities. The spanking was of Millie's rival Chili, but Millie's own bottom was not exactly spared as we'll see now. Silly as most of this is, Millie is a very good-looking blue-eyed blonde, drawn in a realistic style in early issues and in Dan DeCarlo's unique style later on.

Our first example is from Millie the Model #4 (October 1946), where Millie takes a pratfall thanks to a trick chair, much like the Zatanna pratfall I posted (and HugoB00m altered) several years ago:


Art and probably story by Ken Bald. © Marvel Characters Inc.

[web-ed]

Only two issues later, Millie goes golfing but her tee shot goes awry:



Now of course none of us wants to see some guy get hit with a golf ball, but in this case it explains why he decides to see if he can duplicate Millie's feat, which he does - and unrealistically, he gets a hole-in-one out of it as well!


"Success" indeed! Story and art by Ken Bald. © Marvel Characters Inc.

Ken Bald does a very nice job on the art here, and we get to see Millie with the classic pillow-strapped-to-behind we saw so frequently in the Patsy Walker books.

[web-ed]

Next, poor Millie takes three pratfalls in Millie the Model #5 (April 1947):





Artist unknown. © Marvel Character Inc.

It's interesting that the only part of her dream that Millie acts out is the pratfall - a "rude awakening" as she puts it, indeed! And that's after she took one on the beach in her two-piece swimsuit, which would have been fine for spanking.

The artist is unknown, but it could still be Ken Bald. Pete Riss was beginning to take over from Bald around this time, but he worked in Bald's style and it can be hard to tell them apart. Bald probably did the script, anyway.

[web-ed]

Comics were 52 pages during this time, and Millie had several backup features, perhaps the least of which was Rusty. Rusty was Marvel's brown-haired answer to Blondie (rust=brown), and she had a husband, Johnny, even more inept than Dagwood. Johnny decides to learn archery, but the kids move his target so that his arrow strikes a pretty neighbor just where you'd expect:



Much like the golfer we saw previously, the neighbor then decides on a little tit-for-tat (as we might say) and shoots Johnny in the same place.


From Rusty in Millie the Model #11. Personnel unknown. © Marvel Characters Inc.

Johnny then gets a second arrow, this time from Rusty by accident (and with some more help from the kids). Obviously we don't care for this part, but we're showing it so readers can make some sense (if possible in a story this silly) of what's going on. Whoever the artist is, he's no Ken Bald, who would certainly have shown the pretty neighbor getting the arrow in more detail. And of course we note the considerable artistic license here as a real arrow would have been dangerous. (It should have been a toy one like we saw in Patsy Walker).

[web-ed]

And that wasn't all in Millie #11! Millie herself gets an arrow to the behind in the expressionistic splash page:


Yes, we get the point, and so does Millie in Millie the Model #11 (April 1948).

Then she takes yet another pratfall, this time caused by some nasty little man:

Artist unknown but could be Pete Riss. © Marvel Characters Inc.

That's no fewer than five behinds in jeopardy in just this one issue! Must be some kind of a record.

[web-ed]

Another backup feature in Millie was Annie Oakley. In this story, Annie's fanny is spared but Sally's is not. Uniquely, she's already got a pillow under her butt on the splash page, and to make sure readers didn't miss it, someone put an arrow-shaped caption with "Pillows" lettered on it while Tex laughs in the background. We're certainly off to a good start!



And if she wasn't sore enough from riding, Sally unwisely decides to take a fall and of course lands fanny-first on a cactus plant. Result: she has to "sit out" the big hoedown with another pillow under her behind and the pain stars still a-flyin':


From Millie the Model #15 (December 1948), personnel unknown. © Marvel Characters, Inc.

[web-ed]

By a strange coincidence, I was talking about Dr. Fredric Wertham earlier today in responding to Butch's question over on the "Weekly Updates" topic but didn't mention that he hated the bondage elements in comics as well as the spankings. How he missed this one I don't know. It came from Millie #13 (August 1948) and it's pretty blatant: Millie is quite firmly restrained, and not by any sailor's knots I've ever seen!


Art by Pete Riss; writer unknown. Too bad Clicker (the red-haired guy) didn't spank 'er .

And finally, it's one more pratfall for poor Millie:

Ouch! The art could be by Dan DeCarlo. © Marvel Characters Inc.

It's not likely there are any Clicker/Millie spankings, but I'll keep searching. Clicker, by the way, was called "Flicker" in the early issues for some reason. It's hard to say why, since a photographer would more likely be named "Clicker" and because "Flicker" is a very dangerous word to letter in a comic book, as I explained years ago somewhere. (With hand lettering combined with bad printing, the "l" and "i" may run together to form a "u" with disastrous consequences). Was Stan Lee trying to live dangerously?

[willjohn]

If you want to know how dangerous ask a Dutchman what "Flicka" means. It's nothing to do with a mare.

[web-ed]

If you want to know how dangerous ask a Dutchman what "Flicka" means. It's nothing to do with a mare.

I had to look it up, but I'm glad I did - now I know why not to say "Flicka" to a Dutchman!

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Love Millie`s facial expression as she in bondage also her landing on her bottom after jumping out the plane seem painful

[hugob00m]

A nice collection of pratfalls. Pratfalls aren't as much fun as spankings... but I guess they're related. Both involve discomfort inflicted on someone's posterior.

And when the "butt of the joke" is a pretty woman in a skirt or a dress, sometimes there is some exposure involved too.