Number 2421: Babe and the li’l adopted boy

When I read Boody Rogers’ comic, Babe, I think of the influence of his assistant, Eric Stanton. Stanton made his reputation as a fetish artist, drawing things like men riding women. (You can find that in another Babe story, which I have a link to on after today’s story.) Boody was bizarre enough, but how much did his assistant influence him?

In this robust comedy Babe and her parents, Mammy and Pappy Boone, adopt a transient who has no name, but takes the name Firetruck. That reminds me of an old joke I heard from a friend when I was an adolescent: "What is a word that begins with the letter "F" and ends with "K"? I said the well known four-letter word. “No,” my friend said, “it’s firetruck!” Is that corny old joke what Boody and Stanton were thinking about...or do I just have a dirty mind and ascribe things to them they did not intend?

There are also the frequent kissing scenes between Babe and her new “brother.” They are not related but the constant reiteration during smooching of “my sister” and “my brother” sounds like...well...you know.

The whole dirty story...or clean, depending on the purity of your mind as opposed to mine, is from Babe #2 (1948).

More kinkiness with Boody, Babe and the Eric Stanton influence. Just click on the thumbnail.

Number 2106: Lady wrestler Babe

Boody Rogers’ Babe was a hillbilly character inspired by Al Capp’s Li'l Abner, and also had the additional element of Rogers’ assistant, Eric Stanton. Stanton went on in his career to a very specialized underground of fetish artists. For Boody he not only drew but allegedly helped with plot ideas, and “Mrs Gooseflesh,” from Babe #4 (1949), fits into the bizarre category. Stanton is caricatured in the story, a dapper little man with Stanton’s birth name, Ernest Stanzoni.

Mrs Gooseflesh is a woman who likes to break necks. And the story races at a — you’ll excuse me — breakneck pace to the last few panels, which show how far into the realm of physical “comedy” Boody Rogers was willing to go.

Number 1495: Boody, Babe, Stanton and kinkiness

“The Mysterious Case of Mystery Mountain,” which was published in Babe, Darling of the Hills #8 (1949) has an aura of kinkiness. It has some startling panels, especially if you are unfamiliar with artist/creator Boody Rogers. Boody’s stuff often had a very oddball slant, so this isn’t all that out of line with his other work. It got its reputation from being published by Art Spiegelman in his Raw magazine years ago, and then again when it became known that Rogers’ assistant at the time was Eric Stanton, who had his own reputation for drawing kinky material. Google his name and you’ll see.

Stanton, unknown year. Stanton is caricatured in the story as Pinto Pete.

I scanned this story from my copy of the comic, which at one time was wet, so there was color bleeding throughout the book; I have done my best to clean up the scans.