Glory Bee

Moments away from a spanking: angelic young Glory Bee attempts to scam her father.

Glory Bee is a comic strip character created by Gauis Marius in 2003 and published online through various websites. The character has appeared in numerous forms, including pencil sketches, comic strips, faux newspaper advertisements, fan fiction, CG illustrations and animated gifs. The majority of the strips are rendered in traditional media, although a number of later illustrations employ techniques similar to anime-style CG.

Glory Bee is a tribute to classic little girl characters such as Lulu, Mary Jane and Audrey. The design openly borrows visual and thematic conventions from a variety of sources, most prominently from Paramount cartoons of the late forties and 'Harvey Girl' comics of the 1950s. Spanking features prominently in many Glory Bee plotlines, frequently employed as a 'blackout gag' at the end of any given story.

The character was originally published through the Glory Bee egroup, a site dedicated to the depiction of litle girls in popular culture. The group was terminated by MSN in 2007 amidst complaints of 'inappropriate content.' Much of the artwork was lost during the closure, but the Glory Bee strips have since resurfaced at Handprints, Anime OTK and GM's own Shoujo Imageboard. The groupsite was reopened in Feb 2009 at Multiply, where it was renamed Glory Bee Reboot

General premise

Glory Bee gets a spanking from Harry Doolin while Little Sally and resident geek Horace look on (from "The New Park").

Beatrice Gloria Benton is a ten year-old girl growing up in the picket fence suburb of Everdale, USA. Smart, pretty, and naturally high-spirited, she is also irrepressibly naughty, spending most of her time annoying every adult within her immediate vicinity. While her shenanigans are usually harmless pranks, they often result in a good, hard spanking whenever her mischief crosses the line (at least once per story in comics time).

Glory's best friend is Sally Doolin, an endearingly sweet (but not overly-bright) little girl who lives in the house next door. The two are practically inseparable and share daily adventures, much to the chagrin of the various grown-ups who cross their paths.

The third member of the 'starring cast' is Sally's teenaged brother Harry Doolin, a vaguely manic high-school quarterback and the girls' chief nemesis. Glory's had a major league crush on Harry since she was five years old and normally demonstrates her affections by driving him crazy. Driven to tears of utter frustration by her continual hi-jinx, Harry's inevitable reaction is to take her over his knee for a well-earned paddling - the anticipated climax to every story.

Recurring characters

Sally Doolin has her bottom smacked in a typical climax to the Glory Bee comic strip.

Fred and Dora Benton: Glory's long suffering parents, the archetypal fifties couple. Driven to distraction by their daughter's scams and deceptions, they're constantly forced to adopt 'stern measures' to curb Glory's behavior.

Mr Donald Benson: Glory's no-nonsense homeroom teacher. An exceptionally gifted educator, he recognises Glory's genius-level intelligence but refuses to put up with any of her nonsense. Gave her a good spanking in front of the entire class on the first day of school.

Dexter Eldington: Harry's best friend, the smartest kid in Everdale. Fancies himself as something of an inventor, although his crackpot gizmos are always more trouble than they're worth. Once invented a carpet-cleaning device that malfunctioned and transformed into an Automatic Bottom-Smacking Machine (much to Glory's regret).

Kitty Hemstridge: Everdale's achetype 'good girl' and Glory's only true rival. Insanely jealous of Kitty's popularity, Glory often schemes to get her into trouble with parents and teachers (inevitably resulting in a hot bottom for both girls).

Sheila Doolin: Harry and Sally's shrewish aunt; a drop-dead gorgeous redhead with a devastating right hook and a mouth that could gut a fish. Spanks Glory on an almost weekly basis, particularly when she leads Sally into trouble.

Faux history

Glory Bee strikes a cheeky pose in a spanking-themed advertisement.

Although the Glory Bee strip was created in 2003, the author has given the character a fictitious 'history' dating back to the 1940s. Under this timeline, Glory Bee was originally published in Holy Dooley! Comics from 1941 to 1954, went out of circulation during the Comics Code Controversy, then resumed publication in 1956.

In addition to her comic-book appearances, Glory was adapted into animated format and licenced for advertising by various companies, including Sassy Pants Underwear Inc. All of these 'items' are now highly sought-after collectors pieces, particularly the Glory Bee Paper Doll Kits.

Beatrice "Glory" Benton shares some quality time with her long suffering mother.

According to the faux history, the Glory Bee animated shorts of the 40s and 50s were collected and restored by Le Cine Achive De Paris and released in a DVD Boxed Set in 2006 (a comment on the fact that French preservation societies treat animated material with far greater respect than the original American studios do themselves). However, as the Glory Bee Collection is only available in Europe, 'screencaps' from the series are virtually unknown in America.

In reality, the screencaps are Photoshop illustrations manipulated to look like cartoon freeze-frames. Employing the visual conventions of the postwar period, the images are inspired by the animated shorts of the 'classic' animation houses - Warner Brothers, MGM, Van Beuren, and most especially Famous Studios (Casper, Popeye, and Little Audrey).

Typical storyline

Glory Bee gif animation, produced for a proposed Glory Bee 'anime game.' Animated in Macromedia Fireworks.

Following in the long tradition of Little Girl strips like Audrey or Lulu, a typical Glory Bee storyline usually revolves around generational conflict and the clearly defined moral codes of the 1950s. Simple lessons like 'crime doesn't pay' are presented in terms appropriate to the (presumed) age level of the audience; subsequently, Glory generally earns a spanking as the result of her own deceitful actions.

For example, Glory wants to go out to the movies with Sally, but has already spent all of her allowance. Never to be outdone, Glory spends five pages scamming the money out of some neighborhood kids. The plan seems to work perfectly at first; Glory separates slow-witted Fatty Maxwell from his life savings (a small fortune of $2.50) and prepares to head off to the matinee.

Of course, Glory never makes it that far. Unknown to everybody, Mrs Benton is well aware of her daughter's conniving antics, having been tipped off by a do-gooder neighbor. Just when success seems within easy grasp, Glory is called inside for a nice, long spanking on the panties. The story closes with the words 'The End' superimposed over Glory's panty-clad bottom (a common finale to many comics and cartoons of the post war era).