the history of the Comic Book
part 1 continues
The Platinum Age 1897 – 1938
Early 1897 a book called The Yellow Kid in McFadden’s Flats came out. This “comic” book was 196 pages long, square bound, black and white, 50 cents and 5 ½” x 7 ½”. It was published by G. W. Dillingham Company with permission from Hearst, the newspaper that had Hogan’s Alley at the time.
It was a part of a series that Dillingham did on American Authors, only he took special liberties with this one and created what is today known as a comic book. In fact this book coined the phrase “Comic Book” as it’s written on the back cover. Inside we get an origin of sorts as it reprints the earliest Yellow Kid’s appearances. There is some text within by E. W. Townsend explaining Outcault and the Kid. This comic book starts what is now called the Platinum Age of Comics.
In 1899 a Funny Folks comic book came out, taking a close first stab at a format for many Platinum Age comic books. The book was hardcover, 16 ½” wide by 12″ tall. Funny Folks was created by F. M. Howarth, but published by E. P. Dutton. It was a black and white collection of reprints from the Puck magazine.
In 1901 The Blackberries came out and is the first known full color comic book. It used a format of 9″ x 12″ and was a hardcover book.
Then the most often used format of 17″ wide x 11 tall” began being used by a number of comic books. Among them The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Nemo and Happy Hooligan. After the Yellow Kid, Outcault would create many other strips and characters. One of them also ended up in comic book form. That was Buster Brown, published in 1902 by Cupples & Leon. Thanks to the merchandising success of Buster Brown, many companies made Buster Brown comics as premiums to sell their stuff. Most of these comics were full color, but with only reprinted Sunday comics on one side of the page. They were large volumes and were priced at 50 cents. This format lasted over a decade.
click here for yellow kid site
In 1910 Mutt & Jeff created a new format, reprinting daily strips in black and white. The book was still a hardcover, but was 15″ wide x 5″ tall. It was published by Ball and they did 5 volumes of Mutt & Jeff books.
Then in 1919, Publisher Cupples & Leon used a different format. They were 10″ by 10″ with 4 panels per page, each page. They were black and white, 52 pages for 25 cents. Titles and characters used for these books was Mutt & Jeff and Bringing up Father.
not all comic books of this era were fictional. the popularity of film brought new ways to show off the usefulness of the comic book
this story uses the most popular film star of the silent era Charlie Chaplin.
In 1922 the first monthly comic book came out. It was cover dated January and had a price of 10 cents. They were done in 8 ½ by 9 format. The title was Comics Monthly and lasted 12 issues. Each issue was devoted to a popular comic strip character that was syndicated by King Features. Polly and her Pals., Mike & Ike by Rube Goldberg. S’Matter Pop? , Barney Google, Tillie the Toiler, Indoor Sports, Little Jimmy. Toots and Casper, Foolish Questions, Barney Google and Spark Plug. These were all reprints of 1921 daily black and white strips.
In 1926 Little Orphan Annie and Smitty comics came out in a 7 by 9 format, published by Cupples and Leon. They were printed in both soft cover and Hardcover with dust jackets. They were very popular with a 60 cents price.
In 1929 Dell Publishing took a crack at a regular Comic Book. The comic was called The Funnies and was done in a big tabloid-sized format. They were 16 pages and sold for 10 cents. It was distributed by the newsstands along with newspapers. Unlike Comic Monthly, this book was done 4 colors and had original comic strips instead of reprints. A new issue came out every Saturday, but it lost money. Issues #3 to #21 were 30 cents each. The price changed to 5 cents with issue #22 and lasted the final issue with #36.
Almost all “comic” books of this period are reprints of older comic strips
Lets look at a reprinted book from little jimmy circa 1935
unlike comic books that we see nowadays, the platinum age books are stitch bound and appear to look more like a childrens book (hardcover,usually more than 100 pages)
the images above is a big little book (5-3/4″ x 4-1/4″ 160 pages)
very similar to the picture books from earlier in the century.
the third image is from little jimmy strip circa 1-20 – 1931
Side Note:
The Give Away: The American Tobacco Company decided to introduce baseball advertising cards into their tobacco products with the issue of White Border Set in 1909. The cards were included in packs of cigarettes and produced over a three-year period until the ATC was dissolved. The most famous, and most expensive card for the grade, is the Honus Wagner card from this set
This prompted other companies to seek out other types of give aways, this help boost the popularity of the Comic Book
the platinum age of comics had no costume crime fighters!
not the kinda costumes we know of in this age of spandex bliss
to be continued
Tags: comicbooks