Funnies on Parade
| Funnies on Parade | |
|---|---|
|
Cover of Funnies on Parade (1933) | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Eastern Color Printing |
| Format | One-shot |
| Genre |
|
| Publication date | Spring 1933 |
| Number of issues | 1 |
Funnies on Parade is an American publication of 1933 that was a precursor of comic books.
The creation of the modern American comic book came in stages. Dell Publishing in 1929 published a 16-page, newsprint periodical of original, comic strip-styled material titled The Funnies and described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert".[1] (This is not to be confused with Dell's later same-name comic book, which began publication in 1936.) Historian Ron Goulart describes the four-color, newsstand periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than a true comic book".[2]
In 1933, salesperson Maxwell Gaines, sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg, and owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut, company Eastern Color Printing — which among other things printed Sunday-paper comic-strip sections — produced Funnies on Parade. Like The Funnies but only eight pages,[3] this, too, was a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licenced from the McNaught Syndicate and the McClure Syndicate. These included such popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith's Mutt and Jeff, Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka, and Percy Crosby's Skippy. This periodical, however, was neither sold nor available on newsstands, but rather sent free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. Ten-thousand copies were made.[3] The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for Canada Dry soft drinks, Kinney Shoes, Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000.[2]
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ U.S. Library of Congress, "American Treasures of the Library of Congress" exhibition
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Encyclopedia (Harper Entertainment, New York, 2004)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Brown, Mitchell. "The 100 Greatest Comic Books of the 20th Century: Funnies on Parade" (Internet archive link)
References
- All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0-87341-498-5
- The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide by Robert Overstreet — Edition #35 ISBN 0-375-72107-X
- The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1 & 2, by James Steranko — Vol. 1 ISBN 0-517-50188-0
- CBW Comic History: The Early Years...1896 to 1937, Part II
- Coville, Jamie. The History of Comic Books: Introduction and "The Platinum Age 1897 - 1938", TheComicBooks.com, n.d. Archive of original page published at defunct site CollectorTimes.com.
- Quattro, Ken (2004). "The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History". Comicartville.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011.