MAO MAO

 Just a girl named Mao, from a manga called VITA SEXUALIS.

DEMON DRIVEN

From a short-lived (two episodes) series by Go Nagai, DEMON PRINCE ENMA.

WILD TIMES WITH WILDFIRE

 More smashing from SMASH COMICS. The story ending with the heroine clobbering some baddies in her regular ID was Wildfire's last blaze of glory, in SMASH #37.

TOWER OF BLONDE POWER

 A correspondent on a forum kindly supplied a scan of this BLONDIE Sunday comic, circa 1952, which supports my earlier statement that on rare occasions the mild-mannered housewife could cut loose and demolish Dagwood.

The subject came up because I'd seen the same joke recycled, with a few alterations, in Harvey Comics' BLONDIE #73, under an odd title, "Tower of Power." I can only copy here the cover of that comic, which once again shows Blondie rather blandly observing Dagwood suffering another violent fate.

Before I encountered either of these fifties strips, I'd also stumbled across a reworking from June 1964 on a microfilm of a local newspaper. This one redrew the same postures of Blondie beating Dagwood, but in that one, Blondie and Dagwood are discussing how terrible it is that Dagwood's boss constantly brawls in public with his wife. In that strip, it's Dagwood's idea to fake a fight, and once again he tells Blondie not to hold back, as if he supposes she can't really hurt him. I prefer the 1964 version because it references one of Chic Young's favorite routines: the frequent scenes where Cora Dithers would beat the crap out of Julius. I suppose Young meant to imply that the older duo was so used to fighting that Cora didn't mind openly thrashing her husband, whereas by comparison Blondie most often confined her quarrels to verbal nagging. At the same time, Young probably liked to please readers-- particularly the female ones-- by suggesting that Blondie could bully the hell out of her hapless hubby whenever she pleased.

EVERYBODY WAS KUNG FU CHOPPING

 And that includes Lu Lin, enigmatic ally to the dog-faced pony soldier star of DC's "Captain Hunter" feature.

NICE GIRLS FINISH FIRST

 Though Betty Cooper was not infrequently depicted as a tough girl, in this 1949 comic strip she annoys Archie by being a little too feminine and stereotypically helpless. But once he gets a taste of female power from some raucous lady wrestlers, Archie's all for "sugar and spice and everything nice."

THE BLONDIE FILES

 As the previous post covered only the content of the 15 issues of McKay Comics, this one covers the five available issues from Harvey Comics, starting circa 1961.

Here's a rare scene of Blondie having clouted Dagwood with a rolling pin, which in the 20th century became a "feminine equalizer" in the midst of male-female quarrels.

On the rare occasions that Dagwood was mauled by a woman using hand-to-hand combat, it was usually a battleaxe like the one above. Incidentally, a 19790s comic book by Charlton recycled this double-mangling and had Dagwood say something like, "at least she doesn't know kung fu."

The most frequently seen battleaxe in BLONDIE's history was Cora Dithers, wife of Dagwood's boss Julius Dithers. One of Chic Young's favorite jokes was to have Dithers hide from his wife in the Bumstead house. Then Cora would intrude and beat up Dithers, and sometimes Dagwood if he got in the way. Perhaps the Dithers were a forecast of what would happen to Dagwood once Blondie got older, heavier, and meaner.

More innocent sadism from Blondie.

And then, some not-so-innocent punishment. More proof that Blondie would become a real termagant, if it were possible for her to age.

Here's a rare moment when Dagwood gets to watch some other poor schmuck being beat up by his wife. Note his obvious admiration of the wife: "it's remarkable how these little women can punch" and "She must have taken boxing lessons when she was young." For Blondie's part, she's just as enthralled with watching the carnage as Dagwood, but she refuses to admit it as Dagwood does.

Occasionally Dagwood was also entertained when his neighbor Herb would apparently get thrashed by his angry wife Tootsie, though of the jokes I've seen, the fights are usually off-panel. This time Blondie doesn't take pleasure in scoping out a fighting couple. Note the rolling pin reference.