Morning Funnies

Last updated
Morning Funnies
Morning Funnies cereal box.jpg
A box of Morning Funnies (3rd edition)
Fruit-flavored cereal
Mascot: Dennis the Menace and assorted comic strip characters
Introduced:1988/1989
Availability:Discontinued (1989)
Morning Funnies
Nutritional value per 1 cup (28 g)
Energy 110 [1]  kcal (460 kJ)
25
Sugars 14 [2]
Dietary fiber 0
Fat
1
Saturated 0
Trans 0
1
Vitamins Quantity
%DV
Vitamin A equiv.
0%
0 μg
Vitamin C
0%
0 mg
Minerals Quantity
%DV
Calcium
0%
0 mg
Iron
139%
25 mg
Potassium
1%
23 mg
Sodium
3%
70 mg
Other constituentsQuantity
Cholesterol 0
Percentages estimated using US recommendations for adults, [3] except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies. [4]

Morning Funnies is a fruit-flavored breakfast cereal produced by Ralston Cereals in 1988 and 1989. The name of the cereal was based on the assortment of newspaper comic strips featured on the box. Innovative packaging allowed the back flap of the box to be opened revealing additional comic strips, different on each edition of the cereal box. Poor sales and negative consumer reaction led to the cereal being discontinued in 1989.

Contents

Morning Funnies was just one of several Ralston cereals based on licensed characters introduced in 1988 and 1989. Others included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal, Breakfast With Barbie, the video-game themed Nintendo Cereal System, and a Batman cereal based on the 1989 film. [5] [6]

Appearance

The cereal, made with four grains and heavily sweetened, was brightly colored and shaped like smiling faces but not any specific comic strip character. [7]

The front cover of each 14-ounce box featured an assortment of popular newspaper comic strip characters in colorful squares arranged to resemble panels in "the funnies" [8] (a shortening of "the funny papers", a colloquial term for the comics pages in newspapers). [9] Each front cover also prominently displayed which of nine numbered "collector's edition" cereal boxes it was. [10] The comic strips displayed were unique to each edition of the box. [11]

The back of the box featured a pair of large Sunday comics-style comic strips and instructions on how to open the back flap to reveal more comics. The entire back of the box opened to reveal a "fifth panel" with six more color comics inside for a total of eight strips per box. [11] This flap structure was described as "an original packaging concept" for breakfast cereal. [11] In 1988, Ralston won an award for "innovative packaging" for the Morning Funnies fifth panel design. [12]

Most of the comics characters and strips on Morning Funnies were reproduced under license from the King Features Syndicate. [7] The comic strips in the rotation included Dennis the Menace by Hank Ketcham, Beetle Bailey by Mort Walker, Hägar the Horrible by Dik Browne, Hi and Lois by Walker and Browne, The Family Circus by Bil Keane, Tiger by Bud Blake, Luann by Greg Evans, Marvin by Tom Armstrong, Funky Winkerbean by Tom Batiuk, and What a Guy! by Bill Hoest and John Reiner. [11] [13]

Some editions of the box also included a subscription offer for Young American, described as "America's newspaper for kids". [8] [14]

Reception

A consumer panel for the Wilmington Morning Star found Morning Funnies to be "overly sweet" with a "strong sweet smell" but noted the cereal's large size made it "a great snack eaten dry". [15] The panel moderator opined, "if you prefer good taste to gimmicks, you might want to stay away from this technicolor treat." [15]

A survey of children's breakfast cereals published in May 1991 by Vegetarian Times found Morning Funnies to be one of the "10 worst kids' cereals, based on sugar content" with its 14 grams per serving ranking only behind Kellogg's Honey Smacks on the list. [2]

While the packaging for the cereal was innovative, the comics themselves did not all appeal to the very young children to whom the cereal was marketed. [6] Also, with only nine box variations in the year or so the cereal was produced, frequent buyers of Morning Funnies would see the same comic strips over and over. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comic strip</span> Short serialized comics

A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakfast cereal</span> Processed food made from grain

Breakfast cereal is a breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in Western societies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Gaines</span> Pioneer of the modern comic book

Maxwell Charles Gaines was an American publisher and a pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheerios</span> Breakfast cereal made by General Mills

Cheerios is a brand of cereal manufactured by General Mills in the United States and Canada, consisting of pulverized oats in the shape of a solid torus. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Cheerios is marketed by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand; in Australia and New Zealand, Cheerios is sold as an Uncle Tobys product. It was first manufactured in 1941 as CheeriOats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grape-Nuts</span> Breakfast cereal made by Post

Grape-Nuts is a brand of breakfast cereal made from flour, salt and dried yeast, developed in 1897 by C. W. Post, a former patient and later competitor of the 19th-century breakfast food innovator Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Post's original product was baked as a rigid sheet, then broken into pieces and run through a coffee grinder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chex</span> General Mills breakfast cereal

Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally known as Shredded Ralston, first produced in 1936 and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, then later renamed Chex in 1950. The Chex brand went with corporate spinoff Ralcorp in 1994 and was then sold to General Mills in 1997. Rival cereal company Kellogg's has the rights to the Chex brand in South Korea and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookie Crisp</span> Breakfast cereal made by General Mills

Cookie Crisp is a breakfast cereal that is manufactured to look like chocolate chip cookies. It is produced by General Mills in the United States and Cereal Partners in other countries. Introduced in 1977, it was originally produced by Ralston Purina until they sold the trademark to General Mills in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunday comics</span> Newspaper comic-strip format

The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most Western newspapers. Compared to weekday comics, Sunday comics tend to be full pages and are in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funnies Inc.</span> American comic book packager of the late 1930s-1940s

Funnies, Inc. was an American comic book packager of the late 1930s to 1940s period collectors and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. Founded by Lloyd Jacquet, it supplied the contents of early comics, including that of Marvel Comics #1, the first publication of what would become the multimedia corporation Marvel Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chex Mix</span> Snack mix

Chex Mix is a type of snack mix that includes Chex breakfast cereal as a major component.

<i>Motion Picture Funnies Weekly</i> 1939 American comic book

Motion Picture Funnies Weekly is a 36-page American comic book created in 1939, and designed to be a promotional giveaway in movie theaters. While the idea proved unsuccessful, and only a handful of sample copies of issue #1 were printed, the periodical is historically important for introducing the enduring Marvel Comics character Namor the Sub-Mariner, created by writer-artist Bill Everett.

The Eastern Color Printing Company was a company that published comic books, beginning in 1933. At first, it was only newspaper comic strip reprints, but later on, original material was published. Eastern Color Printing was incorporated in 1928, and soon became successful by printing color newspaper sections for several New England and New York papers. Eastern is most notable for its production of Funnies on Parade and Famous Funnies, two publications that gave birth to the American comic book industry.

<i>Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal</i> Webcomic

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) is a webcomic by Zach Weinersmith. The gag-a-day comic features few recurring characters or storylines, and has no set format; some strips may be a single panel, while others may go on for ten panels or more. Recurring themes in SMBC include science, research, superheroes, religion, romance, dating, parenting and the meaning of life. SMBC has run since 2002 and is published daily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wheatena</span> High-fiber cereal

Wheatena is an American high-fiber, toasted-wheat cereal that originated on Mulberry Street in New York City, New York, c. 1879, when a small bakery owner began roasting whole wheat, grinding it, and packaging it for sale under this brand name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zach Weinersmith</span> American cartoonist

Zachary Alexander Weinersmith is an American cartoonist and writer, best known for his webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC). Outside of SMBC, he has worked on a sketch comedy series, a podcast, and multiple other webcomics. With his wife Kelly Weinersmith, he has co-authored the 2017 book Soonish and the 2023 book A City on Mars. He illustrated the 2019 book Open Borders by economist Bryan Caplan, and wrote the 2023 children's book Bea Wolf, a loose adaptation of Beowulf.

Stan Mack is an American cartoonist, illustrator and author best known for his observational comic strip Stan Mack's Real Life Funnies, which ran in The Village Voice for more than 20 years. He was an early pioneer of documentary cartooning and is the author of numerous graphic nonfiction books addressing a wide range of social and historical topics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monster cereals</span> Breakfast cereal brands in North America

The monster cereals are a line of breakfast cereals produced by General Mills Corporation in North America. The line was introduced in 1971 and, at various times, has included six brands, each featuring a cartoon version of a classic movie monster: Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, as well as Frute Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy with a sixth character Carmella Creeper introduced in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralcorp</span> Manufacturer of various food products

Ralcorp Holdings is a manufacturer of various food products, including breakfast cereal, cookies, crackers, chocolate, snack foods, mayonnaise, pasta, and peanut butter. The company is based in St. Louis, Missouri. The majority of the items Ralcorp makes are private-label, store-brand products. It has over 9,000 employees. Ralcorp has its headquarters in the Bank of America Plaza in downtown St. Louis.

<i>What a Guy!</i> American comic strip by Bill and Bunny Hoest

What a Guy! is an American comic strip created by Bill Hoest and Bunny Hoest, the team responsible for The Lockhorns and Agatha Crumm. It began in March 1987, just over a year before Hoest's death in 1988.

The Sunday Funnies is a publication reprinting vintage Sunday comic strips at a large size (16"x22") in color. The format is similar to that traditionally used by newspapers to publish color comics, yet instead of newsprint, it is printed on a quality, non-glossy, 60-pound offset stock for clarity and longevity. Featured are classic American comic strips from the late 19th century to the 1930s. The publication's title is taken from the generic label often used for the color comics sections of Sunday newspapers.

References

  1. "Nutrition Information for: Morning Funnies Cereal". FitDay. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "A Nutritional Comparison of Children's Cereals". Vegetarian Times . May 1991. p. 24. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  3. United States Food and Drug Administration (2024). "Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels". FDA. Archived from the original on 2024-03-27. Retrieved 2024-03-28.
  4. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Committee to Review the Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium (2019). Oria, Maria; Harrison, Meghan; Stallings, Virginia A. (eds.). Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US). ISBN   978-0-309-48834-1. PMID   30844154. Archived from the original on 2024-05-09. Retrieved 2024-06-21.
  5. Friedman, Marty; Dornblaser, Lynn (February 1990). "Oat bran, "lite" help to spur new product totals to record highs". Prepared Foods . Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  6. 1 2 "Breakfast of Champions: Licensed cereals profit from children's fantasies". Spartanburg Herald-Journal . Spartanburg, SC. April 30, 1990. p. C2. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  7. 1 2 Wyman, Carolyn; Leblang, Bonnie Tandy (May 1, 1989). "Morning Funnies: Read all about it". The Providence Journal . Providence, RI. p. D03. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  8. 1 2 "Yummy funny". St. Petersburg Times . St. Petersburg, FL. April 5, 1989. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  9. Benchley, Robert C. (October 1922). "Love Conquers All". pp. 75–76.
  10. "Cereals From Beyond 2". The Metal Misfit. 9 April 2007. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 McMath, Robert (October 1, 2003). "A flap over cereal packaging ... again". Brand Packaging. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  12. "Blair Entenmann". LinkedIn . Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  13. "Stuff". The Providence Journal . Providence, RI. February 27, 1989. p. D01. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  14. Sloane, Martin (September 24, 1989). "Baby buggy belts are baffling". The Beaver County Times . Beaver, PA. United Feature Syndicate. p. B6. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
  15. 1 2 Polson, Mary Ellen (March 14, 1989). "Panel won't laugh at Morning Funnies". Wilmington Morning Star . Wilmington, NC. p. 3D. Retrieved March 9, 2010.