Dad spanks Mom from the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Conception by Bawdy Bard with art by Kevin Karstens. Characters © Universal Press Syndicate. Posted by the Web-Ed on 04/30/2021.
We come now to a strip more substantial than either Family Circus or Foxtrot - the last two comics we've encountered in our ongoing series on the work of Bawdy Bard and good as each one is in its own way - Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes (1985 - 1995), which is often thought of as the last truly great comic strip. Like those two, the only really natural M/F spanking pair from among the major characters that comes to mind are the mother and father (their first names are never revealed in the strip), and that's the pair that Bawdy Bard chose. (There is a sort of connection, for want of a better word, between Calvin, Family Circus, and Foxtrot, namely that when Watterson was fighting to get more space for his Sunday strip (and hence more creative potential), Bil Keane (Family Circus) opposed his efforts while Bill Amend (Foxtrot) supported him.)
Once again we have a child witnessing an adult spanking and not understanding what he's seeing, the gag here being accentuated by Calvin possessing a very active imagination. BB chose his material well, then, and the ever-reliable Kevin Karstens came through with his usual blend of humor and eroticism as he depicts the happy couple spanking away.
