History of Comics

Pre Golden Age

Into the new century and the early 1930's many publishers produced cartoon books for public consumption. Though many of these companies fell by the wayside, many of the characters they created are still well known Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Popeye, Mutt & Jeff, Little Nemo, and Buster Brown. It was also during this time that one of the earliest "funny animals" Krazy Kat, first appeared. In 1910 George Herriman began featuring Krazy Kat in his daily newspaper in "The Family Upstairs" strip. By 1916 Krazy Kat was starring in his own colour Sunday strip.

Following on the next year after Krazy Kat's debut, the Chicago American produced a Mutt and Jeff promotion, in an attempt to boost circulation. This comic sold over 45,000 copies, despite the fact that readers had to collect six coupons from the newspaper to receive the 18x6 landscape book. This type of publication would not be repeat for another eighteen years. In the meantime, in 1922 a reprint magazine, Comic Monthly, appeared with each issue devoted to reprints of a separate comic strip.

January 1929 saw pulp publisher New Fiction Company's George Delacorte publish the Funnies no.1, it was the fist four colour comic news stand publication, featuring original comic pages and costing 10 cents. The magazine lasted until no.36, before it died a death. However, as well as being the world's fist colour publication, the Funnies also included work by the first published female comic book artist, Victoria Pazmino. A notable first.

In was about this time that many other characters that are still popular (or at least well known today) began to appear in the newspapers. Notably Tarzan of the Apes, drawn by the master Hal Foster, began his daily strip in January 1929 and he quickly became one of the most popular strips. In January of the following year, Mickey Mouse made his debut, fresh from making his debut in the movies two years previously. In October 1931, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy appeared, apparently inspired by the local gang wars in Chicago.

In 1933, after seeing the Ledger syndicate publish a small amount of their Sunday comics on 7 by 9 inch plates, an idea hit upon two printer employees. Sales manager Harry L. Wildenberg and salesman Max. C. Gaines, employees of Eastern Colour Printing Company in New York, saw the plates and figured two of these plates could fit on a tabloid page and produce a 7 1/2 by 10 inch book when folded. Gathering 32 pages of newspaper reprints including Mutt and Jeff, Joe Palooka, and Reg'lar Fellas, they created Funnies on Parade. This was the first comic produced in a format similar to modern comics. Looking to test their product, they published 10,000 copies to be given out as premiums by Proctor and Gamble.

Impressed by this success, Gaines convinced Eastern Colour that he could sell thousands of these to big advertisers like Kinney Shoe Stores, Canada Dry, and Wheatena to be used as premiums and radio giveaways. Because of this, Eastern followed by printing Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics and later Century of Comics, both containing Sunday newspaper reprints. M. C. Gaines was able to sell these in quantities of 100,000 to 250,000 copies. Century of Comics was the 2nd comic book and the first 100 page comic.

With these enormous successes behind him and seeing the "Big Little Books" that were so popular at the time, Gaines decided to try another test, actually trying to *SELL* these books. Taking a few extra giveaway books, he marked them with a 10 cent price tag and preceded to distribute them to area newsstands on a Friday. When he returned on Monday, every copy had sold!

Seeing potential in this new product, but unsure of how to best realize it, Eastern Colour turned to George Delacorte, remembering his earlier attempt at selling comics. Eastern Colour printed 35,000 copies of Famous Funnies, Series 1 priced at 10 cents and proceeded to sell the entire print run to Delacorte. Delacorte, after begin refused by American News, which controlled newsstand distribution, made the comic available only through chain stores. After it's promptly sold out on the stands, American News reconsidered
Famous Funnies No. 1, the 1st newsstand comic and contracted with Eastern colour for 250,000 comics, prompting Eastern Colour, in May 1934, to issue Famous Funnies No. 1, dated July 1934. It was the first newsstand comic. With the printing of No. 2 in July 1934 it became the first monthly comic magazine. Though the title sold well, it was 7 issues before it showed a profit. The title continued for another 216 issues and 20 years, reaching a peak circulation of 400,000 copies and ending in 1955.

Shortly after this saw the publication of the first four colour comic featuring just a single character. Gaines, looking for more promotions, approached and convinced the sponsors of the Skippy radio show to publish a comic based on the character. With their backing, 500,000 copies of Skippy's Own book of Comics were printed. The book was advertised on the air and given away in drug stores to anyone who bought a tube of Phillip's toothpaste.

During this time more now classic comic strips began to appear. While working on the Secret Agent X-9 strip, Alex Raymond developed an idea for a science fiction strip. Shortly thereafter, in January 1934, the first Flash Gordon strips saw publication. Later, after creating an additional strip, Jungle Jim, to go along with his increasingly popular Flash Gordon, Raymond left Secret Agent X-9. Flash Gordon's popularity continued to grow, with Flash Gordon related merchandise soon flooding the stores and a weekly radio show was being aired. In 1936 a Flash Gordon serial starring Buster Crabbe was produced by Universal. At the time is was the most expensive serial ever made. Near the close of the year, on October 19, 1934, Milton Canniff's Terry and the Pirates made their debut in the Tribune-News Syndicate. Terry and the infamous The Dragon Lady continue to endure to this day.