Fred Flinstone The Barbarian

I found this comic that had been posted some time ago on The Diversions of the Groovy Kind blog. The blog is an awesome place to explore, as it houses tons of comics from the 70s, with a mission to get people interested in comics from that age. Sadly this attempt to spoof Conan with the Flintstones doesn't work quite right. Sometimes I wonder if the people doing these comics even understand the basic premise of the Flintstones, being a 'modern' stone age family. Meaning that the age of barbarians would have happened in the past in their world. Maybe it would have worked if Fred had been transported to some rural area of prehistoric Europe, or the whole thing had been some sort of dream sequence, something, this whole thing might have worked. Instead they lazily recycle the mistake made in The Astra' Nuts to have Fred sign up for the 'Barbarian Corps.' Which turns out to just be the army. What's really lazy is that everyone except Fred looks like a regular army general. Only Fred dons a water buffalo hat, a loincloth and a club. The whole assemble really doesn't make Fred look much like Conan at all. He just looks silly and out of place.
It must have been a bit of a rip off to kids that picked this up hoping for a decently thought out spoof of Conan. Fred does wind up having a couple 'Groo' moments and even comes face to face with the covers two headed dinosaur, but due to the execution the whole thing feels really lame.

You can read the whole comic here:

http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/04/sunday-funnies-flintstones-fred.html