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Saturday, September 11, 2010
Puck the Comic Weekly
At bottom are typographical emoticons from the March 30, 1881 issue of the satirical humor magazine Puck, published from 1871 until 1918. In 1916, it was purchased by Hearst, who later assembled Sunday comics under his Puck the Comic Weekly masthead (where Puck proclaimed "What fools these mortals be" each week). Puck the Comic Weekly was distributed to the 17 Hearst Sunday papers with a combined circulation of 5,000,000.
By the mid-1940s, Puck expanded to 16 pages (two eight-page sections). Puck in the New York Journal-American for January 11, 1948 carried George McManus' Snookums, Bringing Up Father, Flash Gordon, Dick's Adventures, Blondie, Prince Valiant, Uncle Remus, Little Annie Rooney, Tim Tyler's Luck, Seein' Stars, Gene Ahern's Room and Board, Harold Knerr's Dinglehoofer Und His Dog, Tillie the Toiler, Dudley Fisher's Right Around Home, Edwinna Dumm's Tippie, Buz Sawyer, Jungle Jim, Little Iodine, The Little King, Donald Duck, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, The Lone Ranger, Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, The Phantom and The Katzenjammer Kids.
Control click heading above to hear The Comic Weekly Man as broadcast August 6, 1950.
At bottom are typographical emoticons from the March 30, 1881 issue of the satirical humor magazine Puck, published from 1871 until 1918. In 1916, it was purchased by Hearst, who later assembled Sunday comics under his Puck the Comic Weekly masthead (where Puck proclaimed "What fools these mortals be" each week). Puck the Comic Weekly was distributed to the 17 Hearst Sunday papers with a combined circulation of 5,000,000.
By the mid-1940s, Puck expanded to 16 pages (two eight-page sections). Puck in the New York Journal-American for January 11, 1948 carried George McManus' Snookums, Bringing Up Father, Flash Gordon, Dick's Adventures, Blondie, Prince Valiant, Uncle Remus, Little Annie Rooney, Tim Tyler's Luck, Seein' Stars, Gene Ahern's Room and Board, Harold Knerr's Dinglehoofer Und His Dog, Tillie the Toiler, Dudley Fisher's Right Around Home, Edwinna Dumm's Tippie, Buz Sawyer, Jungle Jim, Little Iodine, The Little King, Donald Duck, Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, The Lone Ranger, Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, The Phantom and The Katzenjammer Kids.
One of two statues of Puck on the Puck Building at 295 Lafayette Street.
Labels: blondie, buz sawyer, dudley fisher, hearst, pepsi, puck, roy crane
¶ 5:08 AM 2 comments
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Albert's Candy Comics
I've had this little container of Albert's Candy Comics for 25 years, and I just decided to scan it. I bought it at a convenience store for maybe 15 cents in 1984 because I was curious. This product was like the polar opposite of the Whammo Giant Comics, which was printed in large "bedsheet" dimensions but displayed the strips inside at standard size. So obviously there was no reason for the book to be giant-size. The Albert company decided to print comic strips so tiny one could hardly see them. What's wrong with these people?
The container was designed to look like a miniature book, measuring about 1" x 1 1/2", and one opened the book to find candy and a comic strip. Unrecognizable cartoon characters were embossed on the cheap candy. The comic strips, folded with six panels on one side and six on the other, were apparently adapted from old Sunday strips and recolored on stats.
I enlarged the box and the opening panel to make them easy to see. I attempted to scan the five panels at bottom so if you click, the enlargement will approximate the actual printed size, which was just barely readable. Obviously, whoever devised this product had no interest in comic strips and gave no thought to a proper presentation. One could suck on the candy while looking at a strip format that sucked. Albert's Candy Comics can sometimes be found on eBay. Would you believe $99?
I've had this little container of Albert's Candy Comics for 25 years, and I just decided to scan it. I bought it at a convenience store for maybe 15 cents in 1984 because I was curious. This product was like the polar opposite of the Whammo Giant Comics, which was printed in large "bedsheet" dimensions but displayed the strips inside at standard size. So obviously there was no reason for the book to be giant-size. The Albert company decided to print comic strips so tiny one could hardly see them. What's wrong with these people?
The container was designed to look like a miniature book, measuring about 1" x 1 1/2", and one opened the book to find candy and a comic strip. Unrecognizable cartoon characters were embossed on the cheap candy. The comic strips, folded with six panels on one side and six on the other, were apparently adapted from old Sunday strips and recolored on stats.
I enlarged the box and the opening panel to make them easy to see. I attempted to scan the five panels at bottom so if you click, the enlargement will approximate the actual printed size, which was just barely readable. Obviously, whoever devised this product had no interest in comic strips and gave no thought to a proper presentation. One could suck on the candy while looking at a strip format that sucked. Albert's Candy Comics can sometimes be found on eBay. Would you believe $99?
Labels: albert's candy comics, blondie, comic strips, whammo
¶ 7:19 PM 0 comments
