 | |
| Frequency | Monthly |
|---|---|
| First issue | November 1944 |
| Final issue | February 1977 |
Pageant was a 20th-century monthly magazine published in the United States from November 1944 until February 1977. Printed in a digest size format, it became Coronet magazine's leading competition, although it aimed for comparison to Reader's Digest .
Pageant was founded and first published by Hillman Periodicals. The first issue appeared in November 1944. [1] Publisher Alex L. Hillman saw Pageant as a prestigious addition to his magazine line that included true confessions (Real Romances, Real Story, Real Confessions), crime titles (Crime Detective, Real Detective, Crime Confessions) and comic books, and he went to press for a 500,000 print run on his first issue. [2] With an emphasis on visuals, Pageant often mixed glamour photo features with informative text on a wide range of subjects.
Pageant was purchased by Macfadden Publications in 1961 and published its last issue in February 1977.
After six years editing The American Mercury , Eugene Lyons, the first U.S. correspondent to interview Joseph Stalin, signed on as Pageant's first editor, offering a solid line-up of articles. So did Vernon Pope who took over as editor in May 1945. Even so, with a circulation of 270,000, the adless Pageant lost $400,000 for its publisher in 1946-47, mainly due to rising printing and paper costs in the postwar era. Typical of that year's contents was the September 1947 issue with articles on "Babies Before Birth," Greece, New England, pianist Alec Templeton, the photography of Louise Dahl-Wolfe and an interview with Bernard Baruch.
Vernon Pope departed in 1947 and was replaced by a former Coronet managing editor, 30-year-old Harris Shevelson, who soon had the magazine turning a profit, with circulation climbing to 350,000 by March 1949, followed by a 400,000 print run for a wacky April Fool issue (April 1949). [3]
Pageant indirectly figures into the history of Harvey Kurtzman's Mad , triggering the switch of Mad from a comic book to a magazine. In the early 1950s, Pageant did an article about the comic book Mad, illustrating it with an original double-page cartoon showing a parade of Mad characters. The drawing was created especially for Pageant by Kurtzman and Will Elder. Not long after that, Kurtzman received an offer to edit Pageant. Mad publisher Bill Gaines, in an interview with Steve Ringgenberg, explained what happened next:
Shirley Bonne, an actress who appeared in the CBS comedy series My Sister Eileen (1960–61), appeared twice on the Pageant cover in the mid-1950s.
Mad is an American humor magazine first published in 1952. It was founded by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, launched as a comic book series before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical media, as well as the cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1973–1974 circulation peak.
William Maxwell "Bill" Gaines was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically important line of mature-audience comics. He published the satirical magazine Mad for over 40 years.
Entertaining Comics, more commonly known as EC Comics, was an American publisher of comic books, which specialized in horror fiction, crime fiction, satire, military fiction, dark fantasy, and science fiction from the 1940s through the mid-1950s, notably the Tales from the Crypt series. Initially, EC was owned by Maxwell Gaines and specialized in educational and child-oriented stories. After Max Gaines' death in a boating accident in 1947, his son William Gaines took over the company and began to print more mature stories, delving into the genres of horror, war, fantasy, science-fiction, adventure, and others. Noted for their high quality and shock endings, these stories were also unique in their socially conscious, progressive themes that anticipated the Civil Rights Movement and the dawn of the 1960s counterculture. In 1954–55, censorship pressures prompted it to concentrate on the humor magazine Mad, leading to the company's greatest and most enduring success. Consequently, by 1956, the company ceased publishing all of its comic lines except Mad.
Harvey Kurtzman was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book Mad from 1952 until 1956, and writing the Little Annie Fanny strips in Playboy from 1962 until 1988. His work is noted for its satire and parody of popular culture, social critique, and attention to detail. Kurtzman's working method has been likened to that of an auteur, and he expected those who illustrated his stories to follow his layouts strictly.
John Burton Davis Jr. was an American cartoonist and illustrator, known for his advertising art, magazine covers, film posters, record album art, and numerous comic book stories. He was one of the founding cartoonists for Mad in 1952. His cartoon characters are characterized by extremely distorted anatomy, including big heads, skinny legs, and large feet.
John Powers Severin was an American comics artist noted for his distinctive work with EC Comics, primarily on the war comics Two-Fisted Tales and Frontline Combat; for Marvel Comics, especially its war and Western comics; and for his 45-year stint with the satiric magazine Cracked. He was one of the founding cartoonists of Mad in 1952.
William Elder was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped launch Harvey Kurtzman's Mad comic book in 1952.
Two-Fisted Tales is an anthology war comic published bi-monthly by EC Comics in the early 1950s. The title originated in 1950 when Harvey Kurtzman suggested to William Gaines that they publish an adventure comic. Kurtzman became the editor of Two-Fisted Tales, and with the dawn of the Korean War, he soon narrowed the focus to war stories. The title was a companion comic to Frontline Combat, and stories Kurtzman wrote for both books often displayed an anti-war attitude. It returned to adventure-themed stories in issues #36 through #39, co-edited by John Severin and Colin Dawkins, with a cover-title change to The New Two-Fisted Tales.
Bernard Krigstein was an American illustrator and gallery artist who received acclaim for his innovative and influential approach to comic book art, notably in EC Comics. His artwork usually displayed the signature B. Krigstein. His best-known work in comic books is the eight-page story "Master Race", originally published in the debut issue of EC Comics' Impact.
Humbug is a humor magazine published from 1957 to 1958. Edited by Harvey Kurtzman, the magazine took satirical jabs at movies, television, advertising and various artifacts of popular culture, from cereal boxes to fashion photographs. Nine of the eleven issues were published in a black-and-white comic book-sized format.
Leon Lazarus was an American writer-editor for publisher Martin Goodman's Magazine Management Company, as well as for Goodman's Timely and Atlas comic book companies, the two predecessors of Marvel Comics. The uncredited author of countless comic-book stories from 1947 through at least 1965 – with his name long considered a possible pseudonym on the rare occasions it appeared – the 85-year-old Lazarus was located in 2005 by comics historians who then initiated efforts to document his credits and fill some of the many gaps in the medium's record.
St. John Publications was an American publisher of magazines and comic books. During the 1947-1958 existence of its comic-book division, St. John established several industry firsts. Founded by Archer St. John, the firm was located in Manhattan at 545 Fifth Avenue. After the St. John comic books came to an end in 1958, the company continued to publish its magazine line into the next decade. Flying Eagle Publications was a magazine affiliate of St. John Publications. Comic book imprints included Approved Comics, Blue Ribbon, and Jubilee Publications.
Hillman Periodicals, Inc., was an American magazine and comic book publishing company founded in 1938 by Alex L. Hillman, a former New York City book publisher. It is best known for its true confession and true crime magazines; for the long-running general-interest magazine Pageant; and for comic books including Air Fighters Comics and its successor Airboy Comics, which launched the popular characters Airboy and The Heap.
Panic was a bi-monthly humor comic that was published by Bill Gaines' EC Comics line during the mid-1950s as a companion to Harvey Kurtzman's Mad, which was being heavily imitated by other comic publishers.
Debuting in August 1952, Mad began as a comic book, part of the EC line published from offices on Lafayette Street in Lower Manhattan. In 1961 Mad moved its offices to mid-town Manhattan, and from 1996 onwards it was located at 1700 Broadway until 2018 when it moved to Los Angeles, California to coincide with a new editor and a reboot to issue #1.
Ben Oda was a Japanese-American letterer for comic books and comic strips.
Harvey Kurtzman's Jungle Book is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman, published in 1959. Kurtzman aimed it at an adult audience, in contrast to his earlier work for adolescents in periodicals such as Mad. The social satire in the book's four stories targets Peter Gunn-style private-detective shows, Westerns such as Gunsmoke, capitalist avarice in the publishing industry, Freudian pop psychology, and lynch-hungry yokels in the South. Kurtzman's character Goodman Beaver makes his first appearance in one of the stories.
Goodman Beaver is a fictional character who appears in comics created by American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman. Goodman is a naive and optimistic Candide-like character, oblivious to the corruption and degeneration around him, and whose stories were vehicles for social satire and pop culture parody. Except for the character's first appearance, which Kurtzman did alone, the stories were written by Kurtzman and drawn by Will Elder.
American cartoonist Harvey Kurtzman was the founding editor and primary writer for the humor periodical Mad from its founding in 1952 until its 28th issue in 1956. Featuring pop-culture parodies and social satire, what began as a color comic book became a black-and-white magazine with its 24th issue.
Patsy Walker is a comic book title featuring the character Patsy Walker originally published by Timely Comics beginning in 1945, by Atlas Comics from 1951 to 1961, and later by Marvel Comics.