Flintstones Weekend Comics, September 1963

Maybe Gene Hazleton and his freelance writing staff got tired of tossing Pebbles into the plots of the Flintstones Sunday comics. 50 years ago this month, she really only plays a role in one of the comics and doesn’t even appear in one of them. The last two for the month remind me a lot of the early Flintstones cartoons, especially the September 29th comic where Fred’s a know-it-all with the usual disastrous results.


It’s a shame a number of papers only ran the last two rows of panels so they could fit in three comics per page instead of two. Readers missed some fun drawings. September 1st features an elaborate first panel with Dino on the top of the Flintmobile. Nice use of perspective. I like Fred and Barney’s wailing expressions in the final panel.


Nice switch in the end gag on September 8th. Where’s that sign hanging from in the opening panel?


Ah, women drivers! Where would 1950s and ‘60s nightclub acts have been without women-driver and mother-in-law jokes? Here’s one in the September 15th comic. Love the jagged CRASH panel. Can you hear the crashing sound effect with the tin cans?


Is the September 22nd comic by Bick Bickenbach? The yawning Fred is great. I like the Dino throwaway gag in the opening panel. Too bad some readers missed that first row.


Another great opening panel on September 29th with the astonished look on Dino. Wilma didn’t say “darn” on the TV show, did she? If this were a TV cartoon, Hoyt Curtin’s trumpet cue based on the William Tell overture would probably be played as Fred gallops to the doorway.

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