The Fabulous Flossie herself, caught between a flirty, fake fortune teller on the left and beleaguered boyfriend Bill in the background.
Though people's brains may be well oiled there's some places where they creak;
And Flossie's mental makeup had a funny little streak.
Though she was upstage in her ways, with tastes fine and patrician,
She had an ineradicable vein of superstition.
And Flossie's mental makeup had a funny little streak.
Though she was upstage in her ways, with tastes fine and patrician,
She had an ineradicable vein of superstition.
— Carolyn Wells, introducing readers to the newest Brinkley Girl, 1926
Following the success of artist Nell Brinkley and author Carolyn Wells' previous collaboration on The Adventures of Prudence Prim in 1925-1926, they duo was again tapped by Sunday-only news supplement The American Weekly to produce The Fortunes of Flossie. Running for 16 covers between December 1926 and June 1927, the comic strip follows the adventures of Flossie: a fabulous, thoroughly modern flapper who simply lives to have her fortune told. While Flossie's beleaguered boyfriend Bill and her society peers might scoff at her obsession with all things superstitious, Flossie just can't get her fill. Every week finds her visiting some new shady psychic, dodgy soothsayer, or seer of questionable authenticity for advice on everything from her love life (much to Bill's consternation) to her fashion choices. Can Flossie really sneak a peek at what her future holds, or will she blindly brave the unknown with her usual bravado?
The Fortunes of Flossie built on the winning combination of Brinkley's signature style and Wells' snappy verses. Much like their predecessor Prudence Prim, the Flossie strips are Slice of Life comics with a simple formula: Flossie goes off to gets her fortune told, winding up either duped by a Phony Psychic, misled by a Prophecy Twist, or both. Every week featured a new and exotic method of divination, more often than not wielded by a mysterious and worldly foreigner.
Unfortunately, those depictions of non-white characters almost unilaterally fall under the Magical Minority Person trope. And since the vast majority of the mystics Flossie visits are either petty conmen or outright criminals, the bulk of this negative characterization falls on the minority characters. Viewed through a critical modern lens, the series is rife with portrayals of African American, Hindu, Arabic, Latin, and Romani figures that run the gamut from unflattering caricatures to exoticized predators. These portrayals reflect biased early 20th century attitudes about race and character that appealed to the Lowest Common Denominator among The American Weekly's target audience. This stands in stark contrast to Brinkley's notably progressive stance when it comes to issues of women's suffrage and equality, of which free-spirited flapper Flossie and other Brinkley comic heroines are prime examples.
Since the comic is nearly a century old, spoilers below will be unmarked. A recap page that goes into more detail for each of the 16 published strips is also available.
Tropes Present in Fortunes of Flossie Include:
- Alliterative Title: The Fortunes of Flossie.
- Costume Porn: Flossie wears gorgeous modern flapper togs for tea salons, costume parties, garden soirees... even her pajamas are fabulous and over-the-top.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Flossie runs into one at a carnival who threatens to "put her [Flossie] in jail" for making moves on her fortune teller boyfriend. Flossie defuses the situation by pointing out that the real fortune teller stepped out for a moment — Bill stepped in and took his place, and it was Bill that Flossie was flirting with.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Flossie's boyfriend Bill. He's often irascible because he can't stand Flossie's habit of putting her faith in Phony Psychics, but he also gets violently jealous of any man who tries to put the moves on his beloved. On top of that, Bill even finds himself literally fighting off belligerent romantic advances made towards Flossie by the scads of sleazy, so-called "seers" she insists on frequenting.
- Crystal Ball: In the January 16th strip Flossie visits "Vesta" the French seeress, who scries the future with a crystal ball.
- Domino Mask: Bill's friends dress in domino masks and bandito bandanas when they stage a highway robbery for Bill to foil.
- False Flag Operation: Bill hires a psychic to tell Flossie that she'll "marry the man who saves her from danger." Then Bill gets his friends to stage a highway robbery when he takes Flossie for a ride, all so that he can fight off the fake bandits and look like a hero for Flossie.
- The Flapper: Flossie is introduced to audiences as "a flapper of the up-to-datest sort." She smokes, she wears short skirts, she stays out late partying with her stylish friends, and she revels in the modern woman's newfound freedom to date and romance whoever she pleases.
- Fortune Teller: Protagonist Flossie's defining trait is that she loves to have her fortune told, so she seeks out any and every diviner, seer, mystic, oracle, and soothsayer who passes through town. Some are blatant conmen, others are boardwalk carnies, and some few claim to have legitimate mystic insight (but are totally willing to accept bribes or otherwise alter their readings).
- Idle Rich: Flossie never seems to want for money to spend on clothes, entertainment, or general upkeep of her lifestyle. Multiple strips mention that she has a maid, so it can be assumed Flossie is middle or upper class. She's never shown to have a job, so it can be assumed she's got familial wealth to fall back on. While she does try to ingratiate herself to wealthy, childless Aunt Ann in an attempt to get written into the will, there don't appear to be any negative outcomes for Flossie when Aunt Ann decides to donate her fortune to "science."
- Last Wish Marriage: Invoked — After getting into a minor car accident with Flossie, Bill plays up his injuries and begs for a preacher to marry them before he dies. As soon and Flossie has said "I do," Bill reveals that he's fine.
- Magical Minority Person: The comic is rife with exoticized, often unflattering depictions of foreigners and minorities claiming to have fortune telling abilities. A shortlist includes:
- Astromar the "Hindu Seer", a turban-wearing man who claims to divine one's fate from the movement of the stars. He accepts a bribe from Bill to give Flossie a prediction that will paint Bill in a positive light.
- Shere Khore, a turban-wearing "oriental" fortune teller who reads the movement of birds to tell the future. His customers are more enraptured with his good looks than his claimed mystic abilities.
- A "gypsy crone" who tells Flossie her jewelry bears a deadly curse in a bid to steal it away, resulting in an unsavory mashup of the Magical Romani and Roguish Romani tropes.
- Isis the Mystic, a woman who dresses in Egyptian-inspired regalia and goes into a trance state to offer advice to her customers. Isis is hired by Flossie's friend Pat Van Zant to help their peers figure out what to wear to a costume party, but accepts Pat's bribe to give identical advice to every girl besides Pat so they all end up wearing the same outfit.
- Selim-Ka, keffiyeh-wearing Arabic sand diviner. Accepts a bribe from Bill to sketch out his likeness when reading Flossie's future.
- Karma the palm reader, a turban-wearing lothario who spends more time flirting with his customers than revealing their fortune.
- Magical Romani: Flossie visits a "gypsy" camp to have her fortune told, and is warned by a Phony Psychic that her jewelry is cursed. (They turn out to be Roguish Romani, using the Fortune Teller cover to dupe Flossie into setting her jewelry outside in the middle of the night to get rid of the fabricated curse.)
- Malevolent Masked Men: Bill organizes a False Flag Operation to show off for Flossie, employing his friends to dress as masked bandits and stage a highway robbery that Bill can foil.
- Ouija Board: In the June 12th strip, Flossie finds fellow house guest Lord Fitzhugh noodling with a Ouija board and begs him to let her have a go. The board faithfully reports what she'll get up to the next day, but in such a manner that Flossie is left with the impression she's about to get kidnapped and made into a harem girl.
- Phony Psychic: The vast majority of the fortune tellers Flossie runs off to visit are either blatant conmen, boardwalk carnies, or else have been bribed into giving Flossie a reading that benefits a third party. The ones who do give her an accurate prophecy wind up doing so in spite of themselves since Prophecies Are Always Right.
- Precious Puppy: Cute pups show up throughout the comic, and Flossie even receives multiple puppies throughout the run:
- In the introductory December 12th strip, Flossie is shown holding a Pekinese on her lap. The Pekinese reappears in the August 24th strip but never receives a mention in the text.
- In the January 9th strip, Flossie's champion collie dog "Nell" unexpectedly gives birth to seven adorable puppies.
- In the March 20th strip, Flossie's next door neighbor sends over a puppy she'd promised to Flossie.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: Most (if not all) of the predictions the Flossie receives end up coming true, though never in the way she expects. Some examples include:
- A man with fortune-telling parakeets predicts that "One in your home is worth her weight in gold; Be kind to her — she'll add to your possessions seven-fold." Flossie takes this to mean her elderly Aunt Ann will write her into the will, but the real "wealth" is when her collie dog has seven puppies — each "worth their weight in gold" to Flossie.
- A Crystal Ball gazer tells Flossie she sees many men and a "thimble" in her future — a sure sign Flossie will date around but never marry, ending up an Old Maid. Flossie storms off in a huff, until her housemaid reminds her of an appointment with an up-and-coming dressmaker.
- Flossie chances to meet a tea leaf reader at a party and begs for a reading. The tasseographer sees "spread wings—and trees far, far below" in Flossie's cup and takes it to mean Flossie will soon die and be "wafted to the skies." An upset Flossie returns home to contemplate her demise, only to find a telegram confirming that her friend John has booked them an airplane trip the following day.
- Putto: As in Brinkley's earlier works like "Golden Eyes" and Her Hero "Bill" and The Adventures of Prudence Prim, little winged cherubs tend to appear around Flossie provide reactions to her romantic follies.
- Reading Tea Leaves: One strip sees Flossie meet a tasseographer at a party. The woman offers to reads Flossie's tea leaves and finds an omen of wings over the treetops. The tealeaf reader panics and warns Flossie that it's an omen of death, as the leaves are clear that she'll soon "ascend to heaven." Flossie freaks out and returns home, only to find a telegram confirming an airplane trip is in her future.
- Rescue Romance: Invoked and Played Straight in two separate instances:
- Invoked — Bill bribes a fortune teller to tell Flossie "The stars decree: one will rescue you from danger; he is the man you'll wed!", then stages a highway robbery that he can rescue Flossie from. Everything runs smoothly until Flossie recognizes the bandits as Bill's friends.
- Played Straight — When Flossie visits a caravan and has her fortune told by a Magical Romani woman, she's told to set her jewelry out in the moonlight to rid it of a curse. A Roguish Romani who's in on the con follows her home to scoop up the jewels in the middle of the night — but boyfriend Bill shows up to fight off the thief, saving Flossie and her jewels from harm.
- Roguish Romani: After visiting a Magical Romani fortune teller, Flossie is duped into setting her jewelry on her windowsill in the middle of the night to banish a made-up curse. She's pursued home by a "gypsy" man who is in on the con. He waits for Flossie to set out the jewels before climbing to her room and attempting to steal them away.
- The Roaring '20s: The strip was published between 1926 and 1927, and was set contemporaneously. Flossie and her set visit speakeasies, drive fast cars, wear delightfully short skirts, and spend all evening partying at glamorous establishments.
- Slice of Life: Although the protagonist is obsessed with superstition and fortunetelling, the comic is simple slice-of-life fare that follows Flossie's day-to-day trials and tribulations in The Roaring '20s. She fights and makes up with her boyfriend, she goes to glamorous parties with her friends, and she wears fabulous modern fashion.
- Smoking Is Glamorous: Flossie's introduction to viewers shows her smoking a cigarette in a long, delicate holder as the verse expounds on how very stylish and modern she is.
- Spooky Séance: Flossie attends a bunk séance that winds up raided by the police, and needs to be "rescued" by Bill.
- Strictly Formula: Nearly every strip sees Flossie seeking out the advice of a new fortuneteller, getting a vague prediction, worrying over the specifics of the prediction and/ or being told that fortunetelling is utter bunk by the skeptical Bill, only for the prediction to come true in an unexpected way. There are a few twists to the formula and strips that skip a step, but by and large the weekly comics followed the same beats.
