But Little Lulu offered something that no other comic book or tv program or movie of the 1960s had: cute boys running around completely nude. Stylized, cartoon nudity, but still exciting for a preteen who had a vivid enough imagination to fill in the blanks.
I didn't know that I was reading reprints of comics written by John Stanley in the 1950s, and originally based on single-panel strips published in the Saturday Evening Post. So, like Out Our Way, I was mesmerized by this kid world so different from my own.
1. At Denkmann Elementary School, boy-girl friendships were discouraged, but Lulu Moppet had friends of both sexes: the self-assured Tubby (left); timid Annie and her brother Iggy (right); spoiled rich kid Wilbur; the haughty Gloria.
2. Some of the plots involved Tubby wanting to kiss Gloria or Lulu getting valentines from boys, but not many; mostly boys and girls were completely oblivious to heterosexual desire, a pleasant surcease of the girl-crazy boys on tv during the 1960s.
3. There was little of the gender segregation of my grade school. Boys had no qualms about appearing in girls' clothing. Girls excelled at boy-only pursuits.
4. They had remarkable freedom to go wherever they liked without parental supervision.
5. They lived in a urban neighborhood, a short walk from downtown shops that were curiously specialized (meat, vegetables, bread, and candy all in different stores). There were also woods, a lake, caves, and a swamp nearby; the beach was a short bus ride away.
These dangers mirrored those of gay kids who tried to negotiate the straight world, following nonsensical rules, knowing that the slightest slip-up would mean disaster.
Wilbur was like a little Richie Rich.
ReplyDeleteThe main thing I remembered from the Little Lulu comics was that Tubby's gang seemed to go skinny-dipping a LOT. When the stories were collected and reprinted, I was surprised it wasn't as often as I remembered and the boys' bare behinds were only shown for one or two panels at most. And Tommy and Willie, Tubby's two friends, NEVER seemed to be shown nude. At most, it was implied but there would be a bit of shrubbery or something blocking the view.
ReplyDeleteI've read all of the John Stanley reprints from the 1950s (the 1960s comics I remember haven't been reprinted), and it looks like about 10 stories showing the boys naked, always from the back. Usually it's Tubby's gang, but it was Tubby by himself a couple of times, and once Wilbur. That's more than in other kid's comics at the time. I only remember one story with Archie's bare butt, an it's actually a painting of him, not the "real" Archie.
DeleteSwimming was for a long time seen as too mannish, mainly because of the nudity. By the 50s, natatoriums were common in cities, and of course segregated by sex. Women wore slips, and men wore nothing. (Decent synthetic fibers existed By the 1950s, but inertia.)
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