All four main cast members, Dino and Baby Puss make appearances. Gene Hazelton’s kid creations, Amber and Pee-Wee (a boy), only made it into the Flintstones dailies this month. I couldn’t begin to guess who the artist is on these.
Wilma’s a blonde in the December 2nd comic. Dino is helpfully holding a copy of the Bedrock News in the opening panel. We get a back view of the annoyed Wilma. I can’t find any secret messages in the blocks in the final panel. Dinosaurs apparently roam the neighbourhood.
I didn’t make a note of the three-row version I found so we’ll have to be content with a two-row version of the December 9th comic from the Windsor Star (which appeared the day before in Canadian newspapers as they didn’t publish on Sundays then). The multiple Freds and the long tongue on Fred in the final panel are just great. The sidebar strip accompanied both the weekend and daily Flintstones in the Star. Whether it was supplied by the syndicate or a concoction of the paper, I don’t know, but for reasons that are lost to time, it features Fred, Barney, Wilma and some unidentified woman instead of Betty. Maybe it was Barney’s first wife. There’s a Gerry Johnson joke in here somewhere but we must move on.
The stupid version of Barney appears on December 16th. Fred’s got one of those George Nicholas wavy mouths in the final panel. Today’s odd sound effect is “Voing!”
What you say? The reindeer’s name is Irving? (feel free to read those sentences in any of the New York accents). It doesn’t appear the writer (Hazelton?) fit in the names of any Hanna-Barbera employees in the December 23rd Christmas edition comic. Wilma asks the same question in the first panel that was on my mind. The dinosaurs with the strap-on reindeer antlers are pretty neat. Note how Dino makes a cameo appearance in the first panel with his head peeking out behind the door.
Great expressions on Wilma and Betty in the final two panels in the December 30th comic. Check out what’s in the background. Baby Puss is running away in the opening panel, there’s an exploding volcano in the first panel of the second row with Dino a little closer to the foreground (it’s impossible to tell it’s him in this particular photocopy). I think the store in the first panel of the third row has an ‘Acme’ sign.
As I mentioned with the Yogi weekend comics, it’s become too difficult and time-consuming to track down decent quality versions of these strips and one large source of newspapers has dried up for me so I suspect I’ll discontinue posting these.
ReplyDeleteYowp:
Thanks for posting these. I appreciate the effort that goes into locating decent copies.
These comic strips reveal so many details of life in Bedrock and Jellystone that never made it into animation. The artwork in these earlier strips is much more detailed than in the later years. Thanks for pointing out the details in the panels.
Sorry you may have to discontinue posting these. I was hoping this could last at least until March and the introduction of Pebbles.
Thanks for a great run of these! It would be wonderful to see a book devoted to the Flintstones comic strips, and another to the Yogis. With so many comic strip reprint books emerging these days, maybe someday soon there'll be a project devoted to these. You've practically posted a whole couple of volumes' worth in this blog.
Thanks again for this great service! Whether it continues or not--it's deeply appreciated.
Nice way to end the series of comic posts! Steve
ReplyDeleteI second everything my pal Scarecrow says!
ReplyDeleteThese are fun, Yowp. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI love when the strips reference the TV show-Fred's season one catchphrase, "Droll...very droll", and even an indirect nod to a scene in "The Rock Vegas Story" episode with Wilma and Betty chastising Fred for his reckless driving.
Irving Spector was at Hanna-Barbera by late '62 (and had his own cartoon strip about a decade earlier). So having just arrived from New York, there could be an inside joke reference with the reindeer's name.
ReplyDelete(I'll also miss the posts and the artwork -- while you're naturally going have characters and backgrounds who are more on model if the strip is being done contemporaneously with the show by some of the same people working on the show, the downward spiral of H-B art by the end of the 60s in matching the characters and background with The Flintstone's familiar look was one of my many onging annoyances with Bill & Joe's studio in the 1970s.)
Thanks for the comics posts, Yowp..>:)
ReplyDeleteIt's looking like the Filmation's logo!
Delete"Yowp-Yowp" Dodsworth,
ReplyDeleteSeeing Fred dressed as Santa Claus on the Flintstones Sunday page from December 23, 1962, I remember of having seen several times Fred worn as Santa Claus on the following occasions:
- in the 1964 Christmas episode from The Flintstones (Hanna-Barbera/Columbia Pictures, 1960-66);
- in the 1977 special A Flintstone Christmas;
- and in the 1993 special A Flintstone Family Christmas (with Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles married and with their kids).
When I was writting this post, I was listening on YouTube, various Christmas songs, as Santa Claus is coming to town (which The Jackson Five recorded for Motown in 1970) and Wonderful Christmas time (which the ex-beatle Paul McCartney recorded for EMI/MPL in 1977).
ReplyDeleteMy all time favorite cartoons "Flintstone".The Flintstones are modern stone-age family.The Flintsones combined the genre of the situation comedy with animation.
ReplyDeleteFlintstones Rock!
"Yowp-Yowp" Dodsworth,
ReplyDeleteThere's a topic involving more Christmas-themed comic strips on the Mark Christiansen's blog (http://marksotherstuff.blogspot.com). And the comic strips featured on this topic are the following: Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones and Yogi Bear.
Enjoy to give a peek on this topic!
Great part of these materials was drawn by Dick "Bick" Bickenbach (who was involved with the layouts from the Flintstones classical TV series), except the Flintstones Sunday page from December 30, 1962, which was drawn by Harvey Eisenberg (the "Carl Barks from Hanna-Barbera"), with Roger Armstrong making the inking and the lettering.
ReplyDelete