Wednesday 19 June 2013

Flintstones Weekend Comics, June 1963

You wouldn’t think there’d be a nice for the little uber-cute neighbour girl Amber to show up in the Flintstones comics once Pebbles came along, but that wasn’t the case. Amber appears again in one of the Sunday comics 50 years ago this month. And we get more of the “thinking” Dino this month as well. Baby Puss fans will be disappointed to see our favourite sabertoothed pet is absent again.



About the only thing interesting is the June 2nd comic are the two non-square panels. The gag is set up pretty well. Curious Dino peers out in the top panel.



Here’s the selfish, mooching Amber in the June 9th comic. The last panel is the best, as usual, with Fred and Amber turned away at different angles. No word whether Amber is related to Cary Granite. Once again, Pebbles is here for, well, no reason at all.



June 16th features the innermost thoughts of Dino. The story’s cute but I don’t really see the Dino of the TV show being as bitter. Triceratops toy alert! (see first panel). Looks like it’s the same artist from the week before. Bick Bickenbach maybe?



Dr Spock becomes Dr Sprockrock in the June 23rd comic. Did Pebbles spell her own name in blocks in the first panel? I like how the layouts are at a slight angle; notice the couch in the first panel in the middle row and the car two panels over (with the smoking volcano in the background).



Pebbles doesn’t appear in the June 30th home movies comic. It’s odd considering there was a whole cartoon episode devoted to Fred annoying everyone with his home movies of Pebbles, but that show didn’t air until the following season. Herb and Laura? I wonder who they’re named after. Herb’s expressions are great.

As usual, click on each cartoon to get a larger view.

3 comments:

  1. More Flintstones comic strip treasures! Thanks once more for posting these, Yowp!

    So Amber's last name is Granite? I don't recall if that was ever established before. Nice to see that she has a concerned parent who doesn't want her to be a nuisance to the neighbors. (I wish Mrs. Granite would have as much consideration for the readers! Keep her home from now on, Mrs. Granite!)

    The storyline of Dino's jealousy continues. It's a nice resolution in the final panel, and very appropriate for Dino.

    Good comment about the home movies story...it does seem to echo (or pre-date) that episode about Fred's home movies of Pebbles and considering her newness as a character at this point, it is odd that the home movies are not of her.

    Now, how about some voice casting? I can imagine Gerry Johnson's teenage voice for Connie the baby sitter, and Daws Butler's "distinguished gentleman" voice for Major McBroom. I can "hear" Janet Waldo's voice for both Amber and her mom. For Herb it would be Mel Blanc doing a slight variation on his Mr. Spacely voice, and Laura could be Bea Benadaret in her high-pitched society matron voice...or Jean Vanderpyl doing her lower-pitched Mrs. Slate/Mrs. Spacely voice.

    Thanks again for more Flintstones stuff! These really "rock"!



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  2. "Yowp-Yowp" Dodsworth,

    I saw this Flintstones Sunday page from June 2, 1963 in two other blogs: the John Kricfalusi's blog (http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com) and the Ger Apeldoorn's (who's the writer of the Dutch edition from MAD magazine) blog (http://allthingsger.blogspot.com).

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  3. Or Don Messick as Herb and John Stephenson as Major McBroom. That's what I "heard" in my mind as I read these. I also imagined Janet Waldo for Connie and Gerry Johnson as Amber's Mom. Actually, was Gerry Johnson a voice actress on the Flintstones in 1963? I know she did a few voices in the fourth season (like in the Rockzilla episode) before she became Betty in season 5.

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