Famous Funnies
Famous Funnies | |
---|---|
Somebody's Stenog, Jane Arden, Oaky Doaks, Keeping Up with the Joneses, Mickey Finn, Invisible Scarlet O'Neil, Connie Roy Powers, War on Crime | |
Creative team | |
Artist(s) | Victor E. Pazmiño, A. E. Hayward, Frank Godwin, F. O. Alexander, Clare Victor Dwiggins, Ralph Fuller, Lank Leonard |
Famous Funnies is an American comic strip anthology series published from 1934 to 1955 with two precursor one-shots appearing in 1933–1934. Published by Eastern Color Printing, Famous Funnies is considered by popular culture historians as the first true American comic book, following seminal precursors.
Publication history
Precursors
The Funnies and Funnies on Parade
The creation of the modern American
It was followed in 1933 by Eastern Color Printing's Funnies on Parade, a similarly newsprint tabloid but only eight pages[4] and composed of several comic strips licensed from the McNaught Syndicate, the Ledger Syndicate, Associated Newspapers, and the Bell Syndicate,[5] and reprinted in color. Neither sold nor available on newsstands, it was sent free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products.[4][6] Other sponsoring corporations utilizing the comic as a giveaway included Kinney Shoes and Canada Dry beverages.[7]
Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics and Famous Funnies: Series 1
That same year (1933), Eastern Color salesperson
A Carnival of Comics featured such popular
In early 1934, Eastern Color Printing president George Janosik formed a 50/50 joint venture with Dell president
With the outbreak of World War II, the publishing industry participated in national drives to conserve paper. As a conservation measure, syndicates reduced the size of full-page Sunday comic strips to three-quarters or half the size of the newspaper page. As a result of this size reduction, newspaper strips were no longer suitable for further reduction in the comic book format, and Eastern was forced to commission new work rather than reprint material. Famous Funnies #88 (cover-dated November 1941) carried the last sets of reprint material from the full-size newspaper page. Beginning with the following issue, Eastern Color Printing started to commission new work for their comic book publications. Many features from the original Famous Funnies format were continued by the same artists. These artists now turned their strips into dual features – one for newspaper syndication with an emphasis on adult appeal, and the other to fit the new comic book page size and an emphasis on juvenile appeal.[citation needed]
Famous Funnies ongoing series
After the previous successes, Eastern employee Harold Moore proposed a monthly comic book series. When Dell nonetheless declined to continue, Eastern Color on its own published Famous Funnies #1 (
The success of Famous Funnies soon led to the title being sold on newsstands alongside slicker magazines. Eastern began to experiment with modifying the newspaper reprints to be more suitable to the comic book format. Lettering, reduced in reproduction to the point of illegibility, was reworked for the size of the comic book page. Adventure strips, reprinted in several weeks' worth of strips at a time, were trimmed of panels providing a recap of previous events, contributing to a concise and more smoothly flowing version of the story. Famous Funnies would eventually run 218 issues,
Ongoing features
The
Issue #2 marked the start of original material produced specifically for the book, including
Jane Arden was a regular feature in issues #2–35. The Pop Momand features Keeping Up with the Joneses and Holly of Hollywood were featured in issues #3–48.
For several years Victor E. Pazmiño drew most of the covers for Famous Funnies. Oaky Doaks was featured often on the covers of the title, which also reprinted the strip.
In May 1936, Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover contacted cartoonist Rex Collier and proposed a comic strip based on true stories of FBI agents. Collier’s strip, War on Crime, is reprinted in the October issue (#27) of Famous Funnies — the first "true crime" story in comic books.
Famous Funnies #32 featured the first appearance of the
Famous Funnies #38 began reprints of the
Famous Funnies #62 featured early work by artist Jack Kirby under the pen name Lance Kirby.[15]
Inspired by the popular trend of
Buck Rogers returned to Famous Funnies in issue #209, having been dropped from the title two issues earlier. The event was celebrated by the first of a series of eight covers by Frank Frazetta, and these issues are among the most sought-after among collectors today.[citation needed]
See also
Notes
- Famous Funnies: Series 1(1934)
References
- ^ Kleefeld, Sean. "On History: Jon Mayes", Kleefeld on Comics (October 11, 2016).
- U.S. Library of Congress: "American Treasures of the Library of Congress" exhibition. Archived from the originalon March 6, 2010. Retrieved December 1, 2006. Additional on September 26, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0060538163.
- ^ a b Brown, Mitchell (2000). "The 100 Greatest Comic Books of the 20th Century: Funnies on Parade". Archived from the original on 2003-02-24. Retrieved 2003-02-24.
- ^ "Funnies on Parade", Grand Comics Database. Accessed Oct. 29, 2018.
- ISBN 978-0313397509.
- ISBN 978-0739112663.
- ^ Goulart, "Famous Funnies", p. 144.
- ^ a b Famous Famous - Carnival of Comics at the Grand Comics Database
- ^ a b c d Goulart, "Famous Funnies", p. 145.
- ^ Famous Funnies: Series 1 at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ Overstreet, Robert, ed. (2011). Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide (41 ed.). pp. 283, 571.
- ^ Famous Funnies (Eastern Color, 1934 Series) at the Grand Comics Database.
- ^ The Adventures of Patsy at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012.
- ^ Jack Kirby at the Grand Comics Database.
Further reading
- ISBN 978-0873414982.
External links
- Coville, Jamie (n.d.). "The History of Comic Books: Introduction and 'The Platinum Age 1897 - 1938'". CollectorTimes.com via TheComicBooks.com. Archived from the original on September 26, 2010.