Flintstones Weekend Comics, May 1970

There’s a lot of Pebbles but nary a sight of Betty and Barney in the Flintstone newspaper comic run for this month 49 years ago. She’s at the centre of one comic and kind of provides the commentary for another.


I’ve never been all that crazy about Pebbles think-talking in the comics, though it’s perfectly understandable why she was written that way. In the May 3rd comic, she has trouble parsing sentences.


Fred’s fireplace is still burning a week later. There’s even a picture on the mantle two weeks in a row. What continuity! The look of self-congratulatory pride on Fred at the end of the May 10th comic is lovely.


Yes, the tree surgeon is Joe Stoner. Yes, when this comic was written “stoner” had the same meaning you think of today. Maybe that’s why he fell out of the tree. The artist only has solid colour for the background of the small panels but can get elaborate in the longer ones. It seems to me that baby talk by Pebbles is fairly rare in the comics. The May 17th comic is the only one with the title hanging down (from a tree?) on a sign.


The storyman didn’t bother coming up with a gag in the optional top row of the May 24th cartoon; it really is a throwaway. Nice to see Dino, even if he isn’t really doing anything. Note the separate beds.


Forget that Cactus Cooler stuff. They had coffee in the Stone Age. It probably came from Juan Valdeztone. I like the silhouette characters in the May 31st comic. Note the heart-shaped word balloon.

You can enlarge the comics by clicking on them.