Sunday 19 February 2012

Flintstones, Sunday, February 1962

Comics, at least at one time, were drawn with the idea that the top row of panels could be lopped off without affecting the plot if a newspaper had space limitations. That’s sure the case in a couple of the Flintstones Sunday comics in February 50 years ago. The first row’s kind of a mini-strip.

Mastodons make appearances in the first two Sunday pages. February 4, 1962 also has Fred saying “Abba Dabba Doo” in this one, dropping the “Y” in “Yabba” for some reason. It’s also one time when a toy mouse doesn’t cause an elephant to land on someone or pick up someone with their trunk and use him to bash the mouse.



February 11th has some nice animal drawings. I love the dropping mastodon.



Ah, the know-it-all, jerk Fred we all loved before Pebbles domesticated him shows up on February 18th. I guess someone at the studio figured “Joe” and “Bill” weren’t suitable names for the ancillary bird characters in this one, considering they crashed the plane. And is this the earliest mention of Pterodactyl Airlines?



Very attractive characters in the February 25th comic. Dino in love would be explored in the great third-season opener featuring Sassie. Short doctors have to grow those bristle moustaches in Hanna-Barbera cartoons, it seems.



Alas, no Baby Puss this month.

Click on any of the comics to enlarge them.

9 comments:

  1. That's a cute airline hostess, too. Thanks for posting these. Love the artwork in these.

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  2. Thanks for always posting these wonderful Flintstones (and Yogi) comics strips. I really wish there was a way to put them out in a book, like they do with Peanuts, Hagar, etc. Does anybody know whatever happened to the MacNaught Syndicate negatives? Is there even a record of the strips over the years?? Did HB keep any archives?

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  3. Thanks so much for these wonderful blogs. I haven't seen these since they were new in the funnys. As for finding the negatives, most local librarys have the Sunday paper either on microfilm or digital. Just as at the front desk.

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  4. More curiously, the "ABBA DABBA DOO" balloon seems to have been lettered by another, less practiced, hand. (Wider line spacing, smaller, narrower letters - compare 'E's - and less regular alignment.)

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  5. RPal, you couldn't possibly go to a library's microfiche files and reprint these comic strips in a bound book, like they do with Peanuts and Hagar the Horrible. You need better source material, unfortunately. Plus, the Sunday's would be colored and the printing would probably be off register. AND, most papers only ran the bottom 2/3 of the original strip. :-(

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    1. "Hey kids, try for these prizes." I suggest you visit the Rutgers Library or your local one. Digitized copies are usually free or inexpensive. And online publishing or you own desktop work creates a very nice product. I recently got the 1960 Trix ad images I needed done at 600 DPI and since I brought my own DVD they did it free. GO.

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    2. I understand what you are saying, but to scour through daily/Sunday papers for the 30+(?) years the strips were in the papers is obviously not an option -- at least not as easy as trying to find a Trix ad. I was wondering what happened to the MacNaught Syndicate files -- if they exist, and if not, does HB have an archive that would be easy to pull from and publish a comprehensive book on the subjects? :-)

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  6. There was at least one paperback book of reprinted Flintstones strips, though only dailies. I ordered it through the school book club when I was in junior high school (early 1980's).

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  7. “Feather / De-Feather the engine”? Sounds a lot like John Wayne having to “de-ice” the wings in “The High and the Mighty” -- or was it “Island in the Sky”, or maybe it was both! VERY clever reference!

    And, despite the usual Blanc or Messick-esque grumblings and sarcastic remarks, how often do you see a Flintstones “service creature” (Have I coined a term here?) outright rebel against its designated task - -albeit for the greater good of its brood.

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