Comics

I don't recall seeing any actual spankings in For Better Or Worse,in the strip that appeared in the newspapers. Had the impression that by the time that strip came along,spanking was taboo in mainstream comics.
However, an artist called CollegeBoy drew some takeoffs of the strip that had spankings. Saw some of his work in BaredAffair and maybe other places too.

In the original incarnation of the strip, before the characters basically grew up (the kids) and "aged out" of spankings, there were at least a few spankings or "aftermath" scenes. One of the most famous (and likely the most controversial) had John spanking Mike over the knee on with his pants pulled down and on his bare bottom, all of which was shown in the strip. Mike had gotten into a fight with another boy and his dad spanked him to teach him that violence was unacceptable, which caused some understandable confusion in his mind. It was meant to be ironic, I suppose. When they started re-running the strips from the beginning, they left out some of the more controversial ones (not always spanking related). I remember seeing the original one, in full color in the Sunday comics section of the paper, sometime back in the 70's...

Colegeboy (his spelling) did some great work regarding FBOFW and also did some parodies of other strips too. "Zits" comes to mind...

The most recent Better or Worse book is a retrospect of the artist, and includes one of the old "pain stars from the rear" drawing when Micheal draws in the first magazine that publishes Elly's work - following that up with a smart comment. Growing up, Lynn encountered CP in school at least once (grade 2) and a wooden spoon at home, but later strips included a talk between Elly and her father about why CP was never fair.

On the Digital Comics Museum site there are a few titles I can suggest. From the looks of your collection so far, you might already know about it, but it's an online library of public domain comics. One title they have a number of issues of, called Cookie, has quite a few spanking scenes, both "onscreen" and post-spanking "pain-star" scenes. It was another humorous teen comic riding on the coat-tails of Archie.

Comicbooksplus is another site. They pretty much have the same material. Comicbooksplus is more friendly for reading comics, IMO, but the Museum has a better layout for finding titles. It can be quite a hunt, since they are full comic books and there might just be one spanking reference inside.

Although I haven't seen many, the comic strip Henry had a number of spankings, as I recall, and I wish i could find strips of The Smith Family because they were pretty routine in that.

"I stumbled across an Archie mock up once that I found really cute. Betty was entering the kitchen with her report card in hand. Her mother suggested that they sit down and talk about it. Betty said that her Dad had already seen it so she didn't think she'd sit and there were pain stars radiating from her bottom. At least I think it was a mock up. I always found the prospect of a spanked Betty more appealing than a spanked Veronica, but I always thought Betty was too well behaved to be spanked." Betty was spanked once when she was possessed by a witch but I believe it was actually Josie from the Pussycats rather than Betty in one you mentioned. You can find both at the "Chicago Spanking Review",

Comic Books Plus is probably the best site for finding and downloading comics that have become public domain and thus were largely published before the Political Correctness Witch Hunts of the '50's and '70's. Any previously unknown spankings are likely to be found there. The Chicago Spanking Review is the best place to find spankings of adults in comics whereas Handprince and Boyz Being Boyz are the best places to find spankings juveniles in comics. Anime OTK has probably the most massive collection of anime spankings but you don't get anything bigger than a thumbnail without a subscription. If you have a scanner and the time you might try going through libraries and bookshops with books of cartoon collections because I know of several spankings I've seen in old comic strips collected in paperback or hardcover books I've never seen posted anywhere on the Web. My 'Holy Grail" would be to see the Gold Key comic version of McLintock! which should have two spankings in it never seen in cyberspace.

FYI, rather than copying and pasting a post and then putting quotes around it, you can highlight the text and then click the "quote" button in the upper right corner of the message and it will open a reply window with the complete quote, including the author so you can acknowledge the author when you reply. It's easier and the person who made the original comment knows you're replying to them.

What strikes me as shocking when I see all of these, is just how common and expected spanking was. I'm a baby boomer, so spanking was around when I grew up, but not like this. Seems kids were spanked for every infraction. Seems like no one would bat an eye at a wife being spanked. Shocking.

I think it's because it was taken far less seriously than it is now. A spanking was just a way to get a one-panel comeuppance scene in, not much different than a pie to the face. And because it was viewed as a childish punishment, it wasn't seen as much like a physical attack, so it was also a way to physically handle a female antagonist, whereas a man would've been punched in the face.

Although these older comics often mentioned spanking they rarely ever showed it. Dennis the Menace (the US one) was a classic example of that. Dennis did something that could get him spanked nearly every strip. I can't ever remember seeing him spanked in the strip, but I do remember at least 3 references to it. One was from his mother, one his Dad and one from Joey.