Spring Breezes...

 More breezy skirts from the golden age...

Gag Cartoons

And now for another trip down memory lane with some old school "gag" cartoons. First, two beautifully drawn  pieces by the great Arthur Ferrier:

...followed by an archetype French maid by Dan DeCarlo (of "Archie" fame)...

...an unfinished piece by "Morrice" (I'd be interested to know what the punchline was for this one):

...and finally, an unabashed tour-de-force by Bill Ward, the undisputed master of legs, lace and lingerie (many thanks to BB for providing this exceptional piece):

The Lost Episode

Yes, the missing episode from the 1946 Glory Bee series has finally turned up and is currently undergoing restoration. In this ten minute short, the last day of school ends with a good, smart spanking on the buns when our mischeivous heroine is called up to "The Seat of Learning!" Here's a screencap from the opening sequence featuring Glory's white cotton panties at center stage:

Actually, we're still working on this one; have to put the spotlight in the background, but thought we'd give you a sneak preview all the same.

Gloire Soit!

Today, we have some screencaps from the old Glory Bee cartoons of the 1940s. According to Mark Donstein's Toonapedia, the animated shorts of the postwar period were collected and restored by Le Cine Achive De Paris and released in a DVD Boxed Set in 2006 (proving that French preservation societies treat animated material with far greater respect than their American counterparts). However, as the Glory Bee Collection is only available in Europe, screencaps from the series are virtually unknown in America.

Title Card

Post War Cheesecake

 

Katy Keene in her "undies." Despite its squeaky-clean reputation, Archie Publications could get pretty steamy during the pre-code era. While the character was aimed at a predominately female audience, most stories contained a generous amount of cheesecake, usually in the form of Katy getting changed. Readers often submitted designs for the characters' clothing; evidently the strip had a devoted male following as well.

Eight years before Marilyn Monroe's iconic scene in The Seven Year Itch, Katy Keene found herself fighting the gale for close on six pages. The strip's creator, Bill Woggon, frequently "spiced up" the action with pin up pages and mild innuendo from time to time (well, practically every issue TBH). 

"Fanservice" elements were less common in other titles, though they managed to sneak in under the radar from time to time. Billed as "America's Typical Teenaged Girl," Ginger Snapp was a female version of Archie Andrews, complete with bright red hair and oddball supporting cast - although the similarities seem to have ended there. Unlike her better-known counterpart, Ginger occasionally treated her readers to gratuitous lingerie shots, complete with lacy black underwear and thigh-length suspender stockings.

Last (and possibly least) we have Owen Fizgerald's Moronica. Published by AGC in the early 50s, Moronica (yes, that was apparently her real name) was portrayed as ditzy, naive and accident-prone, ie a stereotypical "Dumb Dora" played exclusively for laughs. Appearing mainly in the back pages of Dizzy Dames (a more subtle title cannot be conceived), the strip ran for less than a year before its cancellation in June 1953. Strangely enough, the idea of an airhead blonde losing her clothes at the drop of a hat didn't catch on too well at the time. Guess there's just no accounting for taste.