WolfieToons by Dave Wolfe

WolfieToons by Dave Wolfe

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Spanking 'Toons by Flowers!



If the name Don Flowers is unfamiliar to you, allow me to introduce you to some of the finest, funniest, and sexiest cartoon work to ever grace a page.


(Nice Star Placement, eh?)


Mom's got polka dots, I bet.



Wotta klutz.  But, say, what a coincidence!  There's a bride's bottom featured in the current WolfieToon at  "DISCIPLINE & DESIRE,"  too-- only unclad!! 




Back to Don's cuties: 



Don's work appeared in newspapers for over forty years.  Beginning with "Puffy Pig" and "Oh, Diana!" in the thirties, he began a single-panel cartoon featuring funny, fab females called "Modest Maidens" for the Associated Press, which became such a hit that W.R. Hearst stole him away, doubling his salary and renaming his cartoon "Glamour Girls" for King Features Syndicate.  


Hm, I was unjustly accused once.





Only the technology changes.

Don and his comic strip both ended in 1968.  He died of emphysema from years of smoking, and newspapers had been dropping "Glamour Girls" as the 60's became more turbulent.  





At its peak, "Glamour Girls" ran in nearly 300 papers.  His stepson, Don Flowers, Jr., says his dad would amass a bunch of gags and then head to the drawing board, where he could do as many as a week's worth of panels in a single day.  The younger Don says his dad "never struggled, he never got frustrated, and he never said, 'I can't get this part right.'  He always knew where he wanted a line to go."

(That, by the way, is the exact opposite of the Wolfie Experience.)



Don in his studio.  


These examples have come from a collection called The Glamour Girls of Don Flowers by Alex Chun and Jacob Covey.  I recommend it!   




On the Interweb, I found a "Glamour Girls" Sunday page (I think the date at the top says "1949") in which one of the gags is very much like something Endart or NIK ZULA or Dave Wolfe might've come up with.  That Wolfie character may even steal it yet.  





I saved that a long time ago and forgot to note the source,  If you were the individual who photographed this in the wee hours, please let me give you credit and thanks!   Now, this is the best I can clear up the spanking for you.  The gag line reads, "Twenty-two, Twenty-three-- You thought I'd forgotten your birthday, didn't you?-- Twenty-four--!"




And now the climax:  a Don Flowers cartoon from the 60's that was sold on E-Bay recently.




Pop might be taking himself too seriously but you'll notice Mom isn't really interfering! 

I don't know if there were other spankings in the twenty years or so of  "Glamour Girls," but if so, they;ll eventually crop up!  Hope you enjoyed all of these!


14 comments:

  1. Hey, Wolfie, thanks for the 'toons and info on Flowers. I never heard of him but his style looks familiar.

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    1. You're welcome, Kaki! Yes, I love Don's snappy cartoon line-- his style is deceptively simple-looking!

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  2. How fun to see these old cartoons. It made me chuckle

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    1. Thanks, Blondie, glad you enjoyed 'em! I'd seen Don's work a lot, as a child of the '60s, and I'd like to think our humor is akin!

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  3. I'd never heard of him either. This is really cool! Thanks for sharing it all with us. :-)

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    1. You're welcome, Erica, and thank you! Don's style evolved over the years, and I would have loved to see how he adapted to the 70's and beyond, if he didn't decide to just lay off the comics grind and paint his watercolors instead. The 'toons above re very 60's to me!

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  4. I love the old comics! Thanks for showing us some of Don's work.

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    1. You're welcome, Minelle, and thank you very much for your comment!

      Obviously, I love the old comics and cartoons, too! I'll have to investigate what's free on line from the 60's, when I was a kid! There are several places with newspaper strips and comic books from the 1930's to late 1950's.

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  5. hi Wolfie,

    i am familiar with Don Flowers work and i appreciate you reviving some of them here. thanks too for the history lesson about this. i always find that fascinating. isn't King Features Syndicate the same ones that did our gang comedies? anyway, great post. thanks for sharing with us. phil

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    1. Yes, Phil, Kingfisher was that henpecked con-man on "Amos and Andy" who-- oh, wait, King FEATURES, that's different, and the guy was Kingfish, anyway.

      Yes, King Features does all sorts of print and video marketing; I seem to recall a little crown logo showing up before a bunch of cartoons and shorts on TV way back when. Seems right to have Spanky and Our Gang included here.

      I appreciate the remarks a bunch!!

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  6. Considering the look on the Mother's face in the last drawing, and the fact that the Dad seems to be looking directly at her--I think she's not interfering because she's worried she might be next!

    A great collection of artwork, and a few spankings for those of us who like those kinds of drawings! Thanks, Wolfie!

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    1. You're welcome, Doc, and thanks for the remarks! Yeah, I was kinda thinking the exact same thing!

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  7. Dave - this is a great find! A couple of years ago, I searched available sources such as the Fantagraphics book to see if I could find any Don Flowers spankings and came up completely empty. It's good to know there are indeed at least a couple. Now we need a high-quality scan of that Sunday color section.

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    1. You're welcome, Web-Ed, and thank you!

      I like Don's later style a lot better. I think that "Glamour Girls" page is dated January 2 1949, but I'm not certain. Don had left AP for King Features in '45, so that does narrow the search down a bit.

      I have a couple more Flowers favorites I'm going to post now!

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