Don Flowers, Glamor Girls
I feel like 90% of old cartoons are about creepy rich old men cheating on their wives. Single-panel comics from pre-1970-something? I feel like Adulterous Old Creepy Fucks used to be this major genre of American cartoon humor. …What the hell was that about? Why was that shit ever funny???
When it’s an old comic, I just feel like I’ve seen that kind of joke more than any other kind of single-panel comic except maybe ones where some obnoxious shitty kid says something rotten. It’s always some old lech-y dude saying, “You have to earn that promotion by letting me insert my penis into your vagina, honey”; or two secretaries are talking and one of them says, “Any time I look over when I’m typing, Old Man Peters is staring at me and jerking himself off” or whatever. Except, it’s said in old-time-y language, so it’s all in code. It’s still sexual harassment but it’s really jaunty about it. ”I doff my hat to rubbing up against you in a subway, darling— it’s the bee’s knees. Tippecanoe and Tyler too!”
The comics are always pretty enough— people knew how to draw, back when. But … why did so many dudes find that shit funny? What’s funny about it? Was it just the guys who bought old comics, the editors, back when, that’s what they thought people could relate to? ”Phil, yer makin’ comics about how desperate young girls will fuck wrinkly old dicks for money. Joey— yer makin’ comics about how women should stay in a kitchen and make us some babies. Tommy, where are my comics about how we have to keep the minorities out of our country clubs?” Who were these assholes?
