Wednesday 16 November 2011

Flintstones, Sunday, November 1961

Shall we visit those Modern Stone Age days before Pebbly-Poo, when Fred Flintstone was a grumpy, petty, jealous, insecure jerk? Let’s.

Here’s how Fred was behaving in the Sunday comics (in Canada, Saturday), 50 years ago this month.

I don’t know why Fred and Barney are riding lizards on November 5, but they are. We have a fish that writes in English. And, as much as it looks like a word is missing in the balloon on the sixth panel before Fred says “Luck,” one isn’t. I’ve checked several versions of the cartoon.



Other than Baby Puss, the whole cast appears on November 12. There’s a bit of foreshadowing here. A Goony Bird played by Mel Blanc made an appearance on TV in Fred’s New Job (1963). When I read this comic. I pictured Don Messick.



You loved Gary Granite in The Monster From the Tar Pits. It aired a year before this comic brought him back on November 19. Can you read this dialogue without hearing John Stephenson?



Ah, here’s a gratuitous appearance by Baby Puss on November 26. I like the layout in the fourth panel with all the goats. Did Harvey Eisenberg do this one?



You can click on any of the cartoons to enlarge them.

3 comments:

  1. The "Fish" strip is Harvey Eisenberg, the remaining strips are all Gene Hazelton, to the best of my knowledge.

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  2. Thanks, Don. Always appreciate any help people can offer on these.

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  3. The "snapper" at the end of the November 5th strip is similar to a gag Tex Avery used in "Field and Scream" (1955). Our "typical sportsman" sees a little kid reeling in fish after fish at the edge of a lake, and tries his luck after the kid leaves. Fish heads suddenly pop up from the water, and one asks, "Hey, mac- where'd the kid go?".

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