Sunday 11 December 2011

Flintstones, Sunday, December 1961

There are anti-anachronistic types out there who complain that the Flintstones shouldn’t celebrate Christmas because the Stone Age was before the birth of Christ. Cartoons with animals that talk, they can handle. But cartoons with Christmas before Christ just ain’t factual, they bemoan.

Well, leave it to good old Gene Hazelton (or whoever wrote the story) to come up to an explanation. We’ll get to it in a bit. But, first, the other Flintstones Sunday comics (Saturday in Canada) from 50 years ago this month.



Wilma’s fickle in the comic from December 3. I like how Dino appears in the opening panel, even though he doesn’t really have anything to do. It happened in a bunch of comics. And that model in the pillbox hat. “White House.” 1961. Hmmm.



Barney was sure fascinated with flying, wasn’t he? Flintstones fans have seen ‘The Flintstone Flyer’ (1960) countless times, no doubt. It was reworked into one of the Sunday comics. There was another flying story on December 10. It features the old, dopey version of Barney.



Ah, the smug version of Fred. Pebbles took care of that, didn’t she? But Pebbles wasn’t around on December 17 so Fred isn’t Mr. Doting Domestic Daddy yet. He’s still a jerk. And he gets his in the end.



Here’s the Christmas comic, from December 24, featuring the Psychic Psanta. I can hear Hal Smith as the Jolly Old Elf. Humbug to you who still complain about Christmas Before Christ after this.



Barney’s nostrils make an appearance on December 31. They were featured in one of the earliest TV cartoons, too, but I can’t remember which one now.

As usual, click on any of the comics to make them bigger.

7 comments:

  1. And one couldn't miss the Jackie Kennedy and Brigitte Bardot references on the first strip! Hahahaha!

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  2. I missed Bardot completely.
    She wouldn't be wearing fur now, would she?

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  3. Hi. Not all your strips can be enlarged enough to read easily against that black background. If you go into 'settings', then 'formatting', you can disable the 'lightbox' facility - this will enable all pictures to be enlarged to their full size. Cheers.

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  4. That fur coat for Wilma... I suppose Fred, being Fred, took selfish advantage of the animals in that valley being peaceful for the holidays.

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    Replies
    1. Ingrid Newkirk of PETA decided to deliberately ignore that kind of thing in a junior animal rights book she did; maybe to prevent inspirations of Flintstones/animal rights jokes.

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  5. Kid, thanks. I always right click for the pix, so I never see that annoying box. It's been fixed.
    Dave, and he had bronto steaks with the rest of it the following week!

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  6. The Flintstones comic strip also was published in Brazilian newspapers, as O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo.

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