The magazine's first editors were H. J. Byron and Tom Hood. They had many well-known contributors, including Tom Robertson, Ambrose Bierce, G. R. Sims and Clement Scott but the most important contributor to its success in its first decade was W. S. Gilbert, whose Bab Ballads were almost all first published in Fun between 1861 and 1871, along with a wide range of his articles, drawings and other verses.
At a penny an issue Fun undercut its rival, Punch, and prospered into the 1870s, after which it suffered a gradual decline. It passed through various ownerships under different editors, and ceased publication in 1901, when it was absorbed into a rival comic magazine, Sketchy Bits.
History
Early years
Fun was founded in 1861 by a London businessman, Charles Maclean, who believed there was scope for a rival to the established comic weekly magazine Punch.[1][2] He established its premises at 80 Fleet Street, London, and installed the writer H. J. Byron as its titular editor, although in the early days the editing seems to have been a collective effort by Byron, Tom Hood and others.[2][3]Fun became known as "the poor man's Punch": at a penny for its weekly issue of twelve pages, it sold at a third of the price of its older rival. According to the historian Charles Barrie, Fun "had a young upstart liveliness, which by then Punch had lost, and was well received, reaching a circulation of 20,000 by 1865".[1] Each issue of Punch featured a drawing of Mr Punch and his dog, Toby: Fun parodied them with its own jester, Mr Fun, and his cat.[4]
According to the introduction to the GaleFun archive, the new magazine became Punch's most successful rival and surpassed the older publication in its commentary on literature, fine arts, and theatre.[5] The Gale site adds:
Fun distinguished itself by appealing to the lower-middle class, as opposed to Punch's upper-class readership, and by carrying a genre that was slower to catch on in England than in France and Germany: the comic strip. Fun's politics were liberal, and the staff took a warm interest in things American, especially American humor.[5]
Fun was aimed at a well-educated readership interested in politics, literature and theatre.[4] Like Punch, it published satiric verse and parodies, as well as political and literary criticism, sports and travel information. These were often illustrated or accompanied by topical cartoons, often of a political nature.[4] The more conservative and establishment-minded Punch took a condescending view of its upstart competitor. William Makepeace Thackeray, a longstanding contributor to the older publication, dubbed the new magazine "Funch". Mark Lemon, the editor of Punch, nevertheless made frequent efforts to lure Fun's best contributors away. He succeeded with F. C. Burnand but failed with Fun's star contributor, W. S. Gilbert.[2][6]
Encouraged by the success of Fun and looking to make more money, Byron founded and became editor of another humorous paper, Comic News, in July 1863. He was succeeded at Fun by Hood in May 1865, when Edward Wylam, a prosperous manufacturer of dog biscuits, bought the business.[2][3][7]
Peak years: 1865–1874
Hood assembled a vivacious and progressive team, who liked to think of themselves as bohemian, albeit in a generally respectable way. The historian Jane Stedman describes them:
The Bohemianism of the "Fun gang", as they called themselves, consisted [in] frequenting cheap unconventional clubs … in having ties with a stage not yet considered respectable, and in ebullitions of irreverence and independence both in private and in print. Most of them lacked money; one or two needed soap. Some drank too much, and some died too early. But many were young men from professional families, with university educations and legal training, who worked in government offices, [but] gravitated to journalism. Their bachelorhoods or marriages were generally respectable too. In short, their Bohemianism was essentially a sentimental, laughing, crusading camaraderie – or, at least, some of them, looking back, thought so.[8]
Notable contributors included Tom Robertson, Ambrose Bierce, G. R. Sims and, most importantly for the magazine's fortunes, W. S. Gilbert, who was an unknown novice when Fun began, but who rapidly became its most valuable asset.[6] His Bab Ballads were almost all published in Fun, along with other articles, verses, illustrations and drama criticism over a ten-year period.[9]
Hood, the son of a famous poet, was exacting in his standards. Clement Scott recalled, "In the matter of verse Tom Hood was a purist. A Cockney rhyme was to him an abomination. A false rhythm sent him crazy. It was an education, indeed, to be brought up under such a strict master".[2] As well as Gilbert, Hood's writers of verse included Mortimer Collins, Edmund Yates, Jeff Prowse and Harry Leigh.[2] Cartoonists included Arthur Boyd Houghton, Matt Morgan and James Francis Sullivan (1852–1936).
The Fun gang frequented the Arundel Club, the Savage Club, and especially Evans's Café, where they had a table in competition with the Punch "Round table".[10] Even though Fun was seen as liberal in comparison with the increasingly conservative Punch, it could cast satirical scorn or praise on either side of the political spectrum. For instance, Disraeli, whose unorthodox character and Jewish lineage made him a frequent target of attack, was praised in the magazine, particularly for his Reform Bill of 1867.[4]
Later years
The ownership of Fun passed in 1870 to the engravers and publishers George and Edward Dalziel, who had previously engraved drawings for Punch. Two years later they transferred it to their nephew Gilbert Dalziel (1853–1930). After the death of Hood in 1874 the quality of the content began a slow decline. Gilbert's contributions ceased in the early 1870s, and although Fun still had talented writers including Clement Scott and Arthur Wing Pinero, the magazine lost a key asset without his unique combination of what Stedman calls "squibs, fillers, puns, verses, drawings, social and dramatic criticism, suggestions for double acrostics (a special Fun feature), absurd letters, and, of course, the Bab Ballads, which out-laughed anything Punch had to offer".[11]
Hood was succeeded as editor by Henry Sampson until 1878, and then the editorship devolved to Charles Dalziel. In 1893 the Dalziel family withdrew from the journal, and Henry T. Johnson became editor.[12]Fun was bought by the publisher George Newnes, who sold it to Charles Shurey, proprietor of a rival comic paper early in 1901. It ceased publication in the same year, when it was absorbed into Shurey's Sketchy Bits.[5]
Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knighted for artistic achievements in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist.
Punch, or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. Artists at Punch included John Tenniel who, from 1850, was the chief cartoon artist at the magazine for over 50 years.
Thomas Hood was an English humorist, playwright and author. He was the son of the poet and author Thomas Hood. Pen and Pencil Pictures (1857) was the first of his illustrated books. His most successful novel was Captain Master's Children (1865).
Thomas Hood was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for The London Magazine, Athenaeum, and Punch. He later published a magazine largely consisting of his own works. Hood, never robust, had lapsed into invalidism by the age of 41 and died at the age of 45. William Michael Rossetti in 1903 called him "the finest English poet" between the generations of Shelley and Tennyson. Hood was the father of the playwright and humorist Tom Hood (1835–1874) and the children's writer Frances Freeling Broderip (1830–1878).
Henry James Byron was a prolific English dramatist, as well as an editor, journalist, director, theatre manager, novelist and actor.
Thomas William Robertson was an English dramatist and stage director known for his development of naturalism in British theatre.
Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, usually known as F. C. Burnand, was an English comic writer and prolific playwright, best known today as the librettist of Arthur Sullivan's opera Cox and Box.
The Bab Ballads is a collection of light verse by W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911), illustrated with his own comic drawings. The poems take their name from Gilbert’s childhood nickname. He later began to sign his illustrations "Bab". In writing these verses Gilbert developed his "topsy-turvy" style in which the humour is derived by setting up a ridiculous premise and working out its logical consequences, however absurd. The ballads also reveal Gilbert's cynical and satirical approach to humour. Gilbert wrote most of the "ballads", and first published a collection of them in book form, before he became famous for his comic opera librettos written in collaboration with the composer Arthur Sullivan.
Charles Henry Bennett was a British Victorian illustrator who pioneered techniques in comic illustration.
This is a selected list of W. S. Gilbert's works, including all that have their own Wikipedia articles. For a complete list of Gilbert's dramatic works, see List of W. S. Gilbert dramatic works.
Foggerty's Fairy and Other Tales is an 1890 book by W. S. Gilbert, collecting several of the short stories and essays he wrote in his early career as a magazine writer. A number of them were later adapted as plays or opera librettos.
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most famous of these include H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and one of the most frequently performed works in the history of musical theatre, The Mikado. The popularity of these works was supported for over a century by year-round performances of them, in Britain and abroad, by the repertory company that Gilbert, Sullivan and their producer Richard D'Oyly Carte founded, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company. These Savoy operas are still frequently performed in the English-speaking world and beyond.
The Colonel is a farce in three acts by F. C. Burnand based on Jean François Bayard's Le mari à la campagne, first produced in 1844 and produced in London in 1849 by Morris Barnett, adapted as The Serious Family. The story concerns the efforts of two aesthetic impostors to gain control of a family fortune by converting a man's wife and mother-in-law to follow aestheticism. He is so unhappy that he seeks the company of a widow in town. His friend, an American colonel, intervenes to persuade the wife to return to conventional behavior and obey her husband to restore domestic harmony, and the colonel marries the widow himself.
John Hollingshead was an English theatrical impresario, journalist and writer during the latter half of the 19th century. After a journalism career, Hollingshead managed the Alhambra Theatre and was later the first manager of the Gaiety Theatre, London. Hollingshead also wrote several books during his life.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, A Tragic Episode, in Three Tabloids is a short parody play by W. S. Gilbert of Hamlet by William Shakespeare. The main characters in Gilbert's play are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude of Denmark, their son Prince Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Ophelia.
William Jeffrey Prowse, often known as Jeff Prowse was an English journalist, poet, humorist and lyricist.
Archibald Henning (1805–1864) was a British illustrator best known for the illustrations that he drew for Punch.
Judy was a British satirical humour magazine of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The full name was Judy; or the London Serio-Comic Journal.
The Theatre was a magazine published in London between 1877 and 1897.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
