The All New Flintstones and Pebbles (1970) 45

Happy Easter.

This ever-shifting holiday is observed on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. If spending the day in church with spiffy new threads, you already know this is Christianity’s most important day. Today represents the resurrection of Jesus on the third day following his crucifixion and death.

For those sitting at home stuffing their faces with chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps, this may not have the same significance, so we’ll turn our attention to more secular traditions.

The comic of choice for today has little to do with Easter other than the cover. Interior tales in this cover-dated May 1976 The All New Flintstones and Pebbles issue include It’s Tough to Be a Genius, The Great Lover, The Bedrock Bullet, No Smart Talk and Happy New Year?

The All New Flintstones and Pebbles (1970) 45

This incarnation of the Flintstones in four-color ran a total of 50 issues, from November 1970 to February 1977.

Dell was the first publisher to feature the stone-age family in comic books with six issues distributed between December 1961 and August 1962. From there the license was picked up by Gold Key Comics who continued the numbering. The series ran from issue seven to 60 covering the remainder of the 1960s.

Charlton printed Fred, family and friends’ exploits for much of the 1970s before Marvel Comics retitled the franchise Hanna-Barbera’s Flintstones to close out the decade.

The title was excavated nearly a decade later for The Flintstones 3-D presented by Blackthorn Publishing in April of 1987. Marvel Comics turned out 11 issues of The Flintstone Kids beginning the same year and running through 1989.

Harvey and Archie Comics chronicled on their crusades for the first half of the 1990s while DC Comics brought the old millennium to a close. The same company would bring them back in 2016 for 12 issues.

The Flintstones originated on ABC Sept. 30, 1960, and aired until April 1, 1966. It was the first prime-time animated series earning the distinction as the most financially successful and longest-running network animated television series until The Simpsons.

The show was met with mixed reviews; reviled by critics, but loved by the viewing audience. Even today, it is derided as drivel with limited animation and plots.

Yet, the show survived and has continued to live on through the decades in reruns