The Big Little Books, first published during 1932 by the Whitman Publishing Company of Racine, Wisconsin, were small, compact books designed with a captioned illustration opposite each page of text. Other publishers, notably Saalfield, adopted this format after Whitman achieved success with its early titles, priced initially at 10¢ each, later rising to 15¢.
A Big Little Book was typically 3+5⁄8 in (92 mm) wide and 4+1⁄2 in (110 mm) high, with 212 to 432 pages making an approximate thickness of 1+1⁄2 in (38 mm). The interior book design usually displayed full-page black-and-white illustrations on the right side, facing the pages of text on the left. Stories were often related to radio programs ( The Shadow ), comic strips ( The Gumps ), children's books ( Uncle Wiggily ), novels ( John Carter of Mars ) and movies ( Bambi ). Later books of the series had interior color illustrations.
After the first Big Little Book, The Adventures of Dick Tracy , was published (December 1932), numerous titles were sold through Woolworth's and other retail store systems during the 1930s. With a name change to Better Little Books during 1938, the series continued into the 1960s. Variations such as Dime Action Books were produced by other publishers, as noted by the Collecting Channel's Andy Hooper:
While the format was pioneered by Whitman Publishing, other firms produced big little books between 1934 and 1960: Dell Comics (Cartoon Story Books e Fast-Action Stories); Engel van Wiseman (Five-Star Library Books); Fawcett (Dime Action Books); Goldsmith (Radio Star Series); Lynn (A Lynn Book); Ottenheimer; Saalfield (Little Big Books e Jumbo Books); Waldman (Moby Books) e World Syndicate (High Lights of History Series). [1] Whitman was also the last to abandon the form, publishing big little books about boomer characters like Major Matt Mason into the mid-1960s. Not all big little books adhered to the original format of text on the left side and a large graphic on the right of each page spread, and the earlier, more heavily illustrated books are more valuable as a result... Dick Tracy was the hero of the first big little book, and he was followed by almost every major cartoon, comic and radio character of the 1930s, including Alley Oop, Buck Rogers, Blondie and Dagwood, Li'l Abner, Mickey Mouse, Popeye, Captain Midnight, Tarzan and dozens more. There were also numerous books published that featured original characters created particularly for the Big Little series, and those are now little remembered, usually selling for $10 or less each in any condition. A few titles were ostensibly non-fiction works about famous people, as with Whitman's Billy The Kid (1935) and The Story of Jackie Cooper (1933), which proves that biographies of child movie stars are no recent phenomenon. [2]
Recently, Robert Thibadeau's [3] project at Carnegie Mellon University has made at least two Big Little Books available online. Thibadeau attempts to "capture the entire production" of an old book with facsimile images showing pages with wear and tear. "We're basically trying to eternalize that book as it is," says Thibadeau. The Antique Books Digital Library offers two free Big Little Book titles, Tim McCoy on the Tomahawk Trail and Bronc Peeler The Lone Cowboy. Fred Harman's Bronc Peeler was a Western comic strip character who was a precursor to another comic strip drawn by Harman, the more successful Red Ryder .
From 1939 the British Woolworths Group sold "Mighty Midgets", 32-page books that measured 3+3⁄4 by 2+1⁄2 in (95 by 64 mm) and were sold at the artificially low price of threepence; the price subsidised by a full page advertisement on the back. [4]
Sam Mendes' film Road to Perdition (2002) showed a boy reading The Lone Ranger Big Little Book, but this was an anachronism since the movie is set during 1931, a year prior to the first Big Little Books and two years before The Lone Ranger premiered January 31, 1933 on radio.
The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture.
Red Ryder was a Western comic strip created by Stephen Slesinger and artist Fred Harman which served as the basis for a wide array of character merchandising. Syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association, the strip ran from Sunday, November 6, 1938, through 1965.
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. The comic strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).
An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics, which included the debut of the superhero Superman. This was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the comic book industry rapidly expanded and genres such as horror, crime, science fiction and romance became popular. The 1950s saw a gradual decline, due to a shift away from print media in the wake of television and the impact of the Comics Code Authority. The late 1950s and the 1960s saw a superhero revival and superheroes remained the dominant character archetype throughout the late 20th century into the 21st century.
Mickey Finn was an American comic strip created by cartoonist Lank Leonard, which was syndicated to newspapers from April 6, 1936 to September 10, 1977. The successful lighthearted strip struck a balance between comedy and drama. It was adapted to a 400-page Little Big Book and was reprinted in several comic book series throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
Frank Merriwell is a fictional character appearing in a series of novels and short stories by Gilbert Patten, who wrote under the pseudonym Burt L. Standish. The character appeared in over 300 dime novels between 1896 and 1930, numerous radio dramas in 1934 and again from 1946 through 1949, a comic strip from 1928 through 1936, a comic book Frank Merriwell At Yale, and a 12-chapter serialized film in 1936. The book series was relaunched in 1965, but only three books were published.
T.V. Boardman, Ltd. was a London publishing houses that turned out both paperback and hardcover books, pulp magazines, and comic books. Founded by Thomas Volney Boardman in the 1930s, Boardman Books is best known for publishing the long-running monthly series of hardcover Bloodhound Mysteries, most with jacket illustrations by Denis McLoughlin. Boardman's Best American Detective Stories of the Year series is thought by some scholars of the genre to be the best collection of hard-boiled fiction ever published. Boardman published the first British hardcover edition of Robert E. Howard's The Coming of Conan as well as other titles originated by Gnome Press in the United States. Besides mystery, fantasy, and science fiction, Boardman Books published other genres of fiction and nonfiction.
Paul S. Newman was an American writer of comic books, comic strips, and books, whose career spanned the 1940s to the 1990s. Credited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most prolific comic-book writer, with more than 4,100 published stories totaling approximately 36,000 pages, he is otherwise best known for scripting the comic-book series Turok for 26 years.
Reg'lar Fellers is a long-running newspaper comic strip adapted into a feature film, a radio series on the NBC Red Network, and two animated cartoons. Created by Gene Byrnes (1889–1974), the comic strip offered a humorous look at a gang of suburban children. Syndicated from 1917 to January 18, 1949, Byrnes' strip was collected into several books. Branding also extended to such items as baseball bats and breakfast cereal.
Fred Charles Harman II was an American cartoonist, best known for his popular Red Ryder comic strip, which he drew for 25 years, reaching 40 million readers through 750 newspapers. Harman sometimes used the pseudonym Ted Horn.
Gaylord McIlvaine Du Bois was an American writer of comic book stories and comic strips, as well as Big Little Books and juvenile adventure novels. Du Bois wrote Tarzan for Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics from 1946 until 1971, and wrote over 3,000 comics stories over his career.
Stephen Slesinger was an American radio, television and film producer, creator of comic strip characters and the father of the licensing industry. From 1923 to 1953, he created, produced, published, developed, licensed or represented several popular literary legends of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
Bronc Peeler was a Western adventure cowboy comic strip created by Fred Harman in 1933, and ran until July 2, 1938. Harman is best known as the artist for the Red Ryder comic strip, which he created with Stephen Slesinger.
August Daniel Carter (1895–1957) was an American comic strip cartoonist who created the long-running Just Kids strip. He was known as Ad Carter, the signature he used on his strips.
Our Boarding House is an American single-panel cartoon and comic strip created by Gene Ahern on October 3, 1921 and syndicated by Newspaper Enterprise Association. Set in a boarding house run by the sensible Mrs. Hoople, it drew humor from the interactions of her grandiose, tall-tale-telling husband, the self-styled Major Hoople, with the rooming-house denizens and his various friends and cronies.
Harold Hering Knerr was an American comic strip creator, who signed his work H. H. Knerr. He was the writer-artist of the comic strip The Katzenjammer Kids for 35 years.
Bill Holman was an American cartoonist who drew the classic comic strip Smokey Stover from 1935 until he retired in 1973. Distributed through the Chicago Tribune syndicate, it had the longest run of any strip in the screwball genre. Holman signed some strips with the pseudonym Scat H. He once described himself as "always inclined to humor and acting silly."
Ethel Hays was an American syndicated cartoonist specializing in flapper-themed comic strips in the 1920s and 1930s. She drew in Art Deco style. In the later part of her career, during the 1940s and 1950s, she became one of the country's most accomplished children's book illustrators.
George Sixta was an American cartoonist, best known for his syndicated comic strip, Rivets, about a wire-haired terrier. It was syndicated by Field Enterprises and its successor, News America Syndicate. He pronounced his name Sick-sta.
Donald Duck is an American comic strip by the Walt Disney Company starring Donald Duck, distributed by King Features Syndicate. The first daily Donald Duck strip debuted in American newspapers on February 7, 1938. On December 10, 1939, the strip expanded to a Sunday page as well. Writer Bob Karp and artist Al Taliaferro worked together on the strip for more than 30 years. The strip ended in May 1995.