Magazines intended for boys fall into one of three classifications. These are comics which tell the story by means of strip cartoons; story papers which have several short stories; and pulp magazines which have a single, but complete, novella in them. The latter were not for the younger child and were often detective or western in content and were generally greater in cost. Several titles were published monthly whereas the other two categories were more frequent.
In 1828 in London, and in 1829 in Boston, an encyclopedia for boys by William Clarke was published, titled The Boy's Own Book: A Complete Encyclopedia of all the Diversions, Athletic, Scientific, and Recreative, of Boyhood and Youth. [1] According to sports historian Robert William Henderson, "It was a tremendous contrast to the juvenile books of the period, which emphasized piety, morals and instruction of mind and soul; it must have been received with whoops of delight by the youngsters of both countries." [2] The encyclopedia was frequently updated and reprinted through the end of the century.
With the growth of education in the later part of the 19th century (universal education started in England in 1871), demand was growing for reading material aimed at the juvenile market. The first known edition of what would later become known as a "story paper" had been the unsuccessful monthly Young Gentleman's Magazine, published in 1777 and discontinued after six editions. [4] The first story paper to make an impact was The Boys' and Girls' Penny Magazine, first published in September 1832.
The first successful serial publication aimed at boys alone, and one of the most influential, was Samuel Beeton's weekly Boy's Own Magazine, published from 1855 to 1890. [3] [5] Between 1855 and 1920, over a dozen weekly serials by various publishers were created with the copycat title Boys' Own . [6]
Other story papers begun midcentury included Every Boy's Magazine in 1862, edited by Edmund Routledge, in 1862 [lower-alpha 1] and Boys of England in 1866. Numerous competitors quickly followed, including Boy’s Leisure Hour, Boys Standard, Young Men of Great Britain, etc. As the price and quality of fiction was the same, many of these storypapers also fell under the general definition of penny dreadfuls (also known as "penny bloods" or "blood and thunders" in their early days).
Few of these publications lasted more than a few years. Some did last; The Boy's Own Paper was published from 1879 to 1967 and The Boys' Friend from 1895 to 1927.
Another magazine with a comparatively long life was Chums, which started in 1892 and survived until 1941. It had stories about animals and sports as well as many about young people. In 1908 Chums sought to gain Baden Powell's support, and create its own brand of Scouts supporting the Chums paper. [7] Baden-Powell was committed by contract to support the Pearson periodical The Scout, and gave no support to Chums, which became derisive about the Boy Scouts. [8] In 1909 however it became the official journal for the British Boy Scouts, a break-away group from Baden Powell's Scout movement. [lower-alpha 2]
As the youth market established itself as an important part of the publishing industry, demand was perceived to exist for fiction which featured boys themselves in a leading role. This demand was to be met by stories about the public schools, a world where adults could be relegated to the background and where youths could be presented as having a degree of independence not possible elsewhere.
The publisher who took the lead in this period was Trapp Holmes with magazines such as Smiles, Funny Cuts and Vanguard. This last paper was a short lived paper, published from 1907 to 1909 and was a pioneer of the school stories genre.
Amalgamated Press soon entered the market in started to two of the most famous boys' papers, The Gem and The Magnet . The main writer for both was Charles Hamilton who was to be an important figure in schools fiction until his death in 1961.
In between the two world wars there appeared in Britain a number of weekly magazines or papers aimed at boys between the ages of 8 and 16. Their price was 2d (two pence) and they were consequently known as the "tuppenny bloods". They were printed on newsprint, with a coloured front cover. Inside there were short stories, with illustrations and often in a serial form. Some factual articles were included. They were published by DC Thomson and known as the "Big Five."
Meanwhile, The Magnet and Gem continued to publish school stories, along with newcomers like Nelson Lee and spinoffs such as The Schoolboy's Own Library which reprinted earlier stories. Such papers, however, were continually losing circulation.
During the same period, comics publications like Amalgamated Press' Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips , [lower-alpha 3] along with DC Thomson's The Dandy and The Beano , started to appear.
One boys' magazine that did not conform to the above formats was Modern Wonder , published by Odhams. It had a comparatively short life, starting in 1937 and closing down in 1941. It differed from the other magazines by mainly having factual articles of a technical nature, instead of all fiction. Some short stories and a serial were included, but it was largely well-illustrated articles about modern inventions.
Several new boys' comics were started in the 1950s, Tiger and Eagle being long-lasting. The characters in the strip of these two comics were mainly human, unlike those in The Beano and The Dandy. The Eagle had strips such as Dan Dare and PC 49 drawn without distortion.
By the middle of the 1960s, the taste of the youth of Britain was changing. Television had, for many, displaced reading.[ citation needed ] The improvement of public libraries also hastened the end of some magazines.[ citation needed ] As various publications stopped publication, they were sometimes merged with one of the remaining magazines. By 1970 most of the publications with text had been replaced by new weeklies of the strip cartoon type.[ citation needed ] Previously, this type of boys' magazine had largely only been available in the United Kingdom as imports from North America. Cartoon-strip novels for adults were also introduced.[ citation needed ]
By the end of the 20th century, many of these magazines had become collectors' items. From being worthless paper, copies became highly desirable with high prices attached to them.[ citation needed ]
The Beano is a British anthology comic magazine created by Scottish publishing company DC Thomson. Its first issue was published on 30 July 1938, and it became the world's longest-running comic issued weekly in 2018, publishing its 4000th issue in August 2019. Popular and well-known comic strips and characters include Dennis the Menace, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, Roger the Dodger, Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty and His Pals, Ivy the Terrible, General Jumbo, Jonah, and Biffo the Bear.
Joseph Leo Baxendale was an English cartoonist and publisher. Baxendale wrote and drew several titles. Among his best-known creations are the Beano strips Little Plum, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids, and The Three Bears.
Lord Snooty is a fictional character who stars in the British comic strip Lord Snooty and his Pals from the British comic anthology The Beano. The strip debuted in issue 1, illustrated by DC Thomson artist Dudley D. Watkins, who designed and wrote Snooty's stories until 1968, but the stories would continue featuring in Beano issues until 1991, with occasional revivals and character cameos.
The Dandy was a British children's comic magazine published by the Dundee based publisher DC Thomson. The first issue was printed in December 1937, making it the world's third-longest running comic, after Il Giornalino and Detective Comics. From August 2007 until October 2010, it was rebranded as Dandy Xtreme.
Biffo the Bear is a fictional character from the British comic magazine The Beano who stars in the comic strip of the same name, created in 1948 by Dudley D. Watkins. He was the mascot of The Beano for several decades.
A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper.
Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to a story published in weekly parts of 8 to 16 pages, each costing one penny. The subject matter of these stories was typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. First published in the 1830s, penny dreadfuls featured characters such as Sweeney Todd, Dick Turpin, Varney the Vampire, and Spring-heeled Jack.
Dudley Dexter Watkins was an English cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for his characters Oor Wullie and The Broons; comic strips featuring them have appeared in Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post since 1936, along with annual compilations. Watkins also illustrated for comics such as The Beano, The Dandy, The Beezer and Topper, and provided illustrations for Christian stories. Watkins was posthumously inducted into the British Comic Awards Hall of Fame in 2015.
The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the largest publishing company in the world, AP employed writers such as Arthur Mee, John Alexander Hammerton, Edwy Searles Brooks, and Charles Hamilton. Its subsidiary, the Educational Book Company, published The Harmsworth Self-Educator, The Children's Encyclopædia, and Harmsworth's Universal Encyclopaedia. The company's newspapers included the Daily Mail, the Daily Mirror, The Evening News, The Observer, and The Times. At its height, AP published over 70 magazines and operated three large printing works and paper mills in South London.
A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popular before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Wham! was a weekly British comics magazine published by Odhams Press. It ran for 187 issues from 20 June 1964 to 13 January 1968, when it merged into its sister title Pow!
The Magic Comic was a British comics magazine. It was the ill-fated third comics magazine from DC Thomson. It was aimed at a younger audience, with more emphasis on picture stories. The first issue was published on 22 July 1939. The comic ran for only 80 issues until 25 January 1941. Paper rationing resulting from the outbreak of the Second World War caused its demise. Its Editor Bill Powrie promised that 'the Magic' would return; however, he was killed in action in 1942.
The Victor was a British comic paper published weekly by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. The Victor ran for 1,657 issues from 25 January 1961 until it ceased publication on 21 November 1992. Associated with it was the annually published The Victor Book for Boys. This annual was first published in 1964, with the last edition published in 1994. A hardback book, The Best of The Victor, was published in 2010 ready to commemorate the 50th anniversary of this popular adventure comic. The book featured a selection of reprints from the weekly comic.
Twinkle, "the picture paper specially for little girls," was a popular British comics magazine, published by D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd from 27 January 1968 to 1999. It was aimed at young girls and came out weekly, supplemented each year with a Summer Special and a hardcover Annual.
Chums was a boys' weekly newspaper started in 1892 by Cassell & Company and later, from 1927, published by Amalgamated Press. The publisher gathered the weekly paper into monthly and annual editions. The monthly versions were published on the 25th of the month, and up to November 1920 included all the content of the weekly editions. From then on, the monthly editions had all the story content of the weeklies, but left out the covers. This left a gap which was then filled by short stories, articles and even serials that were not included in the weekly edition. The serial ceased publication in 1941.
The Hotspur was a British boys' paper published by D. C. Thomson & Co. From 1933 to 1959, it was a boys' story paper; it was relaunched as a comic in October 1959, initially called the New Hotspur, and ceased publication in January 1981.
Robert Duncan Low was a Scottish comics writer and editor. Employed by D. C. Thomson & Co., he was responsible for their line of comics, and, as a writer, co-created Oor Wullie and The Broons with artist Dudley D. Watkins.
Jack Flash is a British adventure story character published in the British comic magazine The Beano, first appearing in issue 355 with artwork by Dudley Watkins. He featured for almost a decade in five serials, following his time as a foreigner to Earth and living in a Cornish village.
Herbert John Allingham was an English editor, journalist, serial pulp fiction writer, husband of writer Emmie Allingham and father of crime novelist Margery Allingham.
British girls' comics flourished in the United Kingdom from the 1950s through the 1970s, before beginning to decline in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s. Publishers known for their girls' comics included DC Thomson and Fleetway/IPC. Most titles appeared weekly, with the content primarily in picture-story format. The majority of the stories were serialized, with two or three pages per issue, over eight to twelve issues. They were marketed toward young teen girls.
