Chicago Spanking Review Special Series

The Humorama Spanking Cartoons!

#119 - Ficklen Fly Swatter Spanking (Secretary Spanking #32)

From Comedy (September, 1956). Scanned and posted by the Web-Ed on 12/21/2012 (click to double-size).

Recently, we discussed Eric Ericson's Fly Swatter Spanking and how its "bend over and get a swat" gag still reflected the old-fashioned standards that were about to give way to a newer, more blatantly erotic OTK era in spanking cartoons. Our current example is from the September 1956 issue of Comedy, a little more than a year after this new era had begun at Humorama, and yet at first glance it seems to be a throwback to that earlier time since there is no OTK position and a fly-swatter is used instead of the bare hand. But let's look at just the art for the moment, ignoring the caption, and see what we have.

The boss has obviously just given his secretary a good whack with the fly-swatter, very likely when she was bending over to reach one of the lower files. The first major difference between this and the earlier style is the time: whereas they invariably took place an instant before the swat, depending for their humor on the great temptation we all feel when a pretty girl bends over and provides us with a perfect target, in this case the time is one second after the swat, when the girl straightens up and feels the sting! The second difference is the secretary's attitude here - her subtle smile indicates she really enjoyed getting the swat - and what a huge difference that makes! You can just possibly hide the erotic nature of these goings-on when the spanker is responding to the temptation of a girl bending over, but when the spankee enjoys the spanking, the eroticism is out in the open. Therefore, this cartoon does represent an advance over the old-style "bend over and get a swat" gags.

The caption must have been added by the editor, for it makes no sense and undercuts the visuals we've been describing: "I don't like flypaper, Miss Mation, so I bought this for you to use as you see fit!" Something like "That's for misspelling two words in the Thompson letter!" would have been an improvement, although it wouldn't have made full use of the art's suggestiveness. "A simple yet effective device, don't you agree, Miss Mation?" would have worked even better. Ficklen generally gives us a well-rounded bottom in his "spankers", and this one is no exception, although the use of solid black for the secretary's skirt does not allow us to fully appreciate the contours of the target area, an occasional problem in humor cartoons.

New skirt and caption by Hugob00m. Posted by the Web-Ed on 05/10/2013 (click to double-size).

05/10/2013 Update: Not long after we posted this cartoon, CSR Resident Artist Hugob00m decided to fix the two major flaws we pointed out above, namely the weak gag and the solid black skirt. The secretary gives the boss an open invitation to turn her over his knee, while her black skirt has been exchanged for a dress that better reveals the shape of her rear end.