There are some really tremendous and enjoyable layouts in the Flintstones Sunday comics of November 50 years ago. Due to a lack of access to sources where I’ve been getting these, I doubt I’ll be posting any more. If I don’t, these will be a fitting swan song. The top rows come from one paper and the bottom two from another, hence the quality change. Click on any of them to enlarge them. I hope someone is able to, once again, come forward and identify the artist on these.
![]( "Flintstones comic, Nov. 4, 1962")
Fred’s expressions in the November 4th comic are great. I love the second last one with the huge floppy tongue like George Nicholas drew in the animated series. Dino is the incidental lounging character in this week’s opening panel.
![]( "Flintstones comic, Nov. 11, 1962")
The artist has even better layouts in November 11th. Look how the running Fred turns into speed lines. And the front view of Barney’s car, an angle I don’t think was ever used in on the series. The crooked car angle in the middle row is neat, too. We get not only another “Eeeoww” (see the previous comic) but a “Voing” sound effect. Just a great cartoon.
![]( "Flintstones comic, Nov. 18, 1962")
A shame the top row didn’t make it into a lot of newspapers. The November 18th comic has another great opening layout. Fred and Barney in the middle foreground and groups of people in the left and right backgrounds, but the groups are at different distances and one’s in silhouette to vary things. There’s another silhouette of Fred and Barney, but it doesn’t have them against a plain colour background. There are paintings. I like the composition of the last panel; three characters, an object and two word balloons but it’s not cluttered in the slightest. And Fred imagining himself in different sculpture guises is funny, too.
![]( "Flintstones comic, Nov. 25, 1962")
What? The Flintstones’ house gets wrecked twice in one month? It happens in the November 25th comic again. Wilma has changed her hair colour. Baby Puss makes an appearance in the opening panel. And there’s another dinosaur with a question mark over its head like in the comics last month; this time, it’s Dino in the last panel.
Betty got the month off. And perhaps little Amber has become stuck in some tar pits. We can hope.
Fred’s expressions in the November 4th comic are great. I love the second last one with the huge floppy tongue like George Nicholas drew in the animated series. Dino is the incidental lounging character in this week’s opening panel.
The artist has even better layouts in November 11th. Look how the running Fred turns into speed lines. And the front view of Barney’s car, an angle I don’t think was ever used in on the series. The crooked car angle in the middle row is neat, too. We get not only another “Eeeoww” (see the previous comic) but a “Voing” sound effect. Just a great cartoon.
A shame the top row didn’t make it into a lot of newspapers. The November 18th comic has another great opening layout. Fred and Barney in the middle foreground and groups of people in the left and right backgrounds, but the groups are at different distances and one’s in silhouette to vary things. There’s another silhouette of Fred and Barney, but it doesn’t have them against a plain colour background. There are paintings. I like the composition of the last panel; three characters, an object and two word balloons but it’s not cluttered in the slightest. And Fred imagining himself in different sculpture guises is funny, too.
What? The Flintstones’ house gets wrecked twice in one month? It happens in the November 25th comic again. Wilma has changed her hair colour. Baby Puss makes an appearance in the opening panel. And there’s another dinosaur with a question mark over its head like in the comics last month; this time, it’s Dino in the last panel.
Betty got the month off. And perhaps little Amber has become stuck in some tar pits. We can hope.