The Easter cartoon is in the Flintstones weekend newspaper comic of March 26, 1967. The anonymous writer makes an Easter Bunny/Playboy bunny reference as his end gag. As you can see below, Fred is wearing a secret agent hat while “Pops” looks like a leprechaun with beard.
You can the rest of the month’s half-pagers below. One story features a tramp (Mel Blanc voice, perhaps?) and another with a door-to-door salesmen (I hear Howie Morris). The March 5th comic has Gene Hazelton experimenting with no backgrounds, similar in a way to coloured cards in medium shots of Hanna-Barbera characters in the early animated cartoons.
My thanks again to Richard Holliss for supplying these from his archive.
March 5, 1967.
March 12, 1967.
March 19, 1967.
March 26, 1967.
Everything in the Flintstone's world is made of rock, wood and animal parts. What is the "rubber" glove made of?
ReplyDeleteThey have glass, too. (What else would you put Welch's grape jelly in?)
DeleteIf Hugh Heffner saw the Flintstones Sunday page from March 26, 1967...
ReplyDeleteThis same Flintstones Sunday page from March 26, 1967 brings the first appearance of the Fred's dad.
ReplyDeleteBesides looking like a leprechaun with the beard, the Fred's dad also looks like a character which Hanna-Barbera created in 1978: Nugget Nose The Galloping Ghost, whose segment makes part of The Bufford Files series.
DeleteThe comic strip itself addressed the issue of the Flintstones' "out of time" celebration of Christmas, when Fred and Barney encountered a time-traveling Santa Claus who explained the meaning and celebration of the holiday. So who knows? Maybe a time-traveling Easter Bunny arrived in Bedrock to tell about Easter--or maybe Santa gave them all the information they needed on that one visit. In any case, anachronism is what the Flintstones are all about--they are a 60's sitcom family transported to the Stone Age, so just about anything goes, anachronistically speaking.
ReplyDeleteEven Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm got into the religious act by recording "Let the Sunshine In" and "The Lord is Counting on You" plus a whole album of Christmas carols.
They also had churches in Bedrock--Fred visits several of them while looking for a grown-up Pebbles and Arnold who are tying the knot in his dream in the episode "Groom Gloom."
I much prefer these takes on religion to the current DC Flintstones comic book which has a very unfunny ongoing story-line about attempts to find a god to worship.
It's nice to see Bamm-Bamm making an appearance on March 19th. With the addition of Pops to the comic strip cast, the Rubbles' appearances diminish considerably in the later 60's and early 70's.
Thanks, Yowp, for keeping the monthly comic strips coming, and thanks to Richard Holliss for supplying these great color versions.
Yes, sc33, you've hit on the point of the series, which escapes people who seriously complain about religious anachronisms every Christmas. It's the 60s set in the Stone Age.
DeleteI've avoided discussing the Flintstones DC "comic" on the blog.
Don't forget The Flintstones is a parody of the cosuming society, which's a stuff that remains updated until nowadays.
Delete"My problems with the vendor machine - Part 2"
ReplyDeleteHullo, HB-fans from the whole world!
Do you remember of the Flintstones daily strip from December 12, 1964 (drawn by Gene Hazelton)?
Very well. At this Flintstones Sunday page from March 5, 1967 (also drawn by Gene Hazelton), we have another situation involving Fred and the vendor machine.
To all complainers I say: it's a cartoon. Who cares?? For all we know the Flintstones could be in some parallel or post-apocalyptic universe.
ReplyDeleteI "heard" Gerry Johnson as the saleslady. Most likely because this is 1967 when she was still voicing Betty in the Busch beer spot Fred and Barney were in.
Once again, thanks Yowp and Mr. Holliss!
Are those the same car hops from the drive-in?
ReplyDeletehttp://termiteterraceheadlines.blogspot.com/
If there can be a Stone Age Ann Margret why not a Stone Age Jesus? "Jesus Christone"?
ReplyDelete