Puck (magazine)

Last updated
Puck
Puck cover2.jpg
Cover of Puck (April 6, 1901): Columbia wearing a warship bearing the words "World Power" as her "Easter bonnet"
Editor Henry Cuyler Bunner (1877–1896)
Harry Leon Wilson (1896–1902)
Joseph Keppler Jr. (1902–onward)
CategoriesHumor
FrequencyWeekly
Publisher William Randolph Hearst (1916–1918)
Founder Joseph Keppler
First issueGerman-language edition (1876;148 years ago (1876))
English-language edition (1877;147 years ago (1877))
Final issueSeptember 5, 1918;105 years ago (1918-09-05)
CountryUnited States
Based in St. Louis, later New York City
LanguageGerman
English

Puck was the first successful humor magazine in the United States of colorful cartoons, caricatures and political satire of the issues of the day. It was founded in 1876 as a German-language publication by Joseph Keppler, an Austrian immigrant cartoonist. [1] Puck's first English-language edition was published in 1877, covering issues like New York City's Tammany Hall, presidential politics, and social issues of the late 19th century to the early 20th century.

Contents

"Puckish" means "childishly mischievous". This led Shakespeare's Puck character (from A Midsummer Night's Dream ) to be recast as a charming near-naked boy and used as the title of the magazine. Puck was the first magazine to carry illustrated advertising and the first to successfully adopt full-color lithography printing for a weekly publication. [2]

Puck was published from 1876 until 1918. [1] [3]

Publication history

After working with Leslie's Illustrated Weekly in New York – a well-established magazine at the time – Keppler created a satirical magazine called Puck,. The weekly magazine was founded by Keppler in St. Louis, Missouri. Keppler had begun publishing German-language periodicals in 1869, though they failed. In 1871, [4] he attempted another cartoon weekly, Puck, which lasted until August 1872. [5] Then in 1876, he again began publishing Puck in German. Interested backers wanted Puck in English so he published it in both languages for 15 years until he ceased the German version. [3]

In 1877, after gaining wide support for an English version of Puck, Keppler published its first issue in English. The first English edition was 16 pages long and was sold for 16 cents. [3]

Sometime before 1887, Puck moved its editorial offices from St. Louis to New York City.

In May 1893, Puck Press published A Selection of Cartoons from Puck by Joseph Keppler (1877–1892) featuring 56 cartoons chosen by Keppler as his best work. Also during 1893, Keppler temporarily moved to Chicago and published a smaller-format, 12-page version of Puck from the Chicago World's Fair grounds. Shortly thereafter, Joseph Keppler died, and Henry Cuyler Bunner, editor of Puck since 1877 continued the magazine until his own death in 1896. Harry Leon Wilson replaced Bunner and remained editor until he resigned in 1902. [6] Joseph Keppler Jr. then became the editor.

The English-language magazine continued in operation for more than 40 years under several owners and editors, until it was bought by the William Randolph Hearst company in 1916 (ironically, one 1906 cartoon mocked Hearst's bid for Congress with his newspapers' cartoon characters). The Hearst conglomerate discontinued the political material and switched to fine art and social fads. Within 2 years, subscriptions fell off and Hearst stopped publication; the final edition was distributed on September 5, 1918.

London edition

A London edition of Puck was published between January 1889 and June 1890. Amongst contributors was the English cartoonist and political satirist Tom Merry. [7]

Content

The magazine consisted of 16 pages measuring 10 inches by 13.5 inches with front and back covers in color and a color double-page centerfold. The cover always quoted Puck saying, "What fools these mortals be!" The jaunty symbol of Puck is conceived as a putto in a top hat who admires himself in a hand-mirror. He appears not only on the magazine covers but over the entrance to the Puck Building in New York's Nolita neighborhood, where the magazine was published, as well.

Puck gained notoriety for its witty, humorous cartoons and was the first to publish weekly cartoons using chromolithography in place of wood engraving, offering three cartoons instead of one. [1] In its early years of publication, Puck's cartoons were largely printed in black and white, though later editions featured colorful, eye-catching lithographic prints in vivid color. A typical 32-page issue contained a full-color political cartoon on the front cover and a color non-political cartoon or comic strip on the back cover. There was always a double-page color centerfold, usually on a political topic. There were numerous black-and-white cartoons used to illustrate humorous anecdotes. A page of editorials commented on the issues of the day, and the last few pages were devoted to advertisements.

The Raven
An 1890 Puck cartoon depicts President Benjamin Harrison at his desk wearing his grandfather's hat which is too big for his head, suggesting that he is not fit for the presidency. Atop a bust of William Henry Harrison, a raven with the head of Secretary of State James G. Blaine gawks down at the President, a reference to the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven". Blaine and Harrison were at odds over the recently proposed McKinley Tariff. The Raven-Harrison&Blaine.jpg
The Raven
An 1890 Puck cartoon depicts President Benjamin Harrison at his desk wearing his grandfather's hat which is too big for his head, suggesting that he is not fit for the presidency. Atop a bust of William Henry Harrison, a raven with the head of Secretary of State James G. Blaine gawks down at the President, a reference to the famous Edgar Allan Poe poem "The Raven". Blaine and Harrison were at odds over the recently proposed McKinley Tariff.

Contributors

Over the years, Puck employed many early cartoonists of note, including, Louis Dalrymple, Bernhard Gillam, Friedrich Graetz, Livingston Hopkins, Frederick Burr Opper, Louis Glackens, Albert Levering, Frank Nankivell, J. S. Pughe, Rose O'Neill, Charles Taylor, James Albert Wales, and Eugene Zimmerman.

Puck Building

Puck was housed from 1887 in the landmark Chicago-style, Romanesque Revival Puck Building at Lafayette and Houston streets, New York City. The steel-frame building was designed by architects Albert and Herman Wagner in 1885, as the world's largest lithographic pressworks under a single roof, with its own electricity-generating dynamo. It takes up a full block on Houston Street, bounded by Lafayette and Mulberry streets.

Legacy

Years after its conclusion, the "Puck" name and slogan were revived as part of the Comic Weekly Sunday comic section that ran on Hearst's newspaper chain beginning in September 1931 and continuing until the 1970s. It was then revived again by Hearst's Los Angeles Herald Examiner , which folded in 1989.

Archives

A collection of Puck cartoons dating from 1879 to 1903 is maintained by the Special Collections Research Center within the Gelman Library of The George Washington University. [8] The Library of Congress also has an extensive collection of Puck Magazine prints online. The Florida Atlantic University Libraries Special Collections Department also maintains a collection of both English and German edition Puck cartoons dating from 1878 to 1916. [9] [10]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 "U.S. Senate: Puck". www.senate.gov. Retrieved August 10, 2022.
  2. Dueben, Alex (September 10, 2014). "Puck Magazine and the Birth of Modern Political Cartooning". Vulture. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 "TR Center – Puck Magazine". www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
  4. Jeremy Glass (November 24, 2014). "5 Defunct Magazines that Changed America". Thrillist. Retrieved May 1, 2016.
  5. Catherine Palmer Mitchell (1928–1990). "Keppler, Joseph". Dictionary of American Biography . Vol. V, Part 2. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 352–3.
  6. "Guide to the Harry Leon Wilson Papers, ca. 1879–1939". Berkeley, CA: Bancroft Library . Retrieved April 8, 2010.
  7. Simon Houfe (1978). Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists 1800–1914 . ISBN   9780902028739.[ full citation needed ]
  8. Guide to the Samuel Halperin Puck and Judge Cartoon Collection, 1879–1903, Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University
  9. "Catalog Record for Puck Magazine". FAU Libraries Catalog. 2018.
  10. "Catalog Record for Puck Magazines, German". FAU Libraries Catalog. 2018.

Related Research Articles

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">Cartoon</span> Type of two-dimensional visual art

A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Nast</span> American cartoonist (1840–1902)

Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist often considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political cartoon</span> Illustration used to comment on current events and personalities

A political cartoon, also known as an editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine artistic skill, hyperbole and satire in order to either question authority or draw attention to corruption, political violence and other social ills.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard F. Outcault</span> American cartoonist

Richard Felton Outcault was an American cartoonist. He was the creator of the series The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown and is considered a key pioneer of the modern comic strip.

<i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i> Daily newspaper in Missouri, United States

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the Belleville News-Democrat, Alton Telegraph, and Edwardsville Intelligencer. The publication has received 19 Pulitzer Prizes.

<i>Daily Worker</i> 20th-century American newspaper (1924–1958)

The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the CPUSA; it also reflected a broader spectrum of left-wing opinion. At its peak, the newspaper achieved a circulation of 35,000. Contributors to its pages included Robert Minor and Fred Ellis (cartoonists), Lester Rodney, David Karr, Richard Wright, John L. Spivak, Peter Fryer, Woody Guthrie and Louis F. Budenz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frederick Burr Opper</span> Cartoonist

Frederick Burr Opper was one of the pioneers of American newspaper comic strips, best known for his comic strip Happy Hooligan. His comic characters were featured in magazine gag cartoons, covers, political cartoons and comic strips for six decades.

<i>Judge</i> (magazine) Defunct American weekly satirical magazine

Judge was a weekly satirical magazine published in the United States from 1881 to 1947. It was launched by artists who had left the rival Puck Magazine. The founders included cartoonist James Albert Wales, dime novels publisher Frank Tousey and author George H. Jessop.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Thomas Anderson</span> American cartoonist (1865–1948)

Carl Thomas Anderson was an American cartoonist best remembered for his comic strip Henry. Readers followed the pantomime adventures of the mute, bald-headed Henry in strips which he signed with his familiar signature displaying an enlarged "S": Carl AnderSon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Bellew</span> American journalist

Frank Henry Temple Bellew, American artist, illustrator, and cartoonist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugene Zimmerman</span> American cartoonist

Eugene "Zim" Zimmerman was a Swiss-American cartoonist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitazawa Rakuten</span>

Kitazawa Yasuji, better known by the pen name Kitazawa Rakuten, was a Japanese manga artist and nihonga artist. He drew many editorial cartoons and comic strips during the years from the late Meiji era through the early Shōwa era. He is considered by many historians to be the founding father of modern manga because his work was an inspiration to many younger manga artists and animators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woody Gelman</span> American publisher and cartoonist

Woodrow Gelman was a publisher, cartoonist, novelist and an artist-writer for both animation and comic books. As the publisher of Nostalgia Press, he pioneered the reprinting of vintage comic strips in quality hardcovers and trade paperbacks. As an editor and art director for two-and-a-half decades at Topps Chewing Gum, he introduced many innovations in trading cards and humor products.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank A. Nankivell</span> Australian artist and political cartoonist

Frank Arthur Nankivell (1869–1959) was an Australian artist and political cartoonist, known for his caricatures in publications such as Puck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Keppler</span> Austrian-born American cartoonist and caricaturist (1838-1894)

Joseph Ferdinand Keppler was an Austrian-born American cartoonist and caricaturist who greatly influenced the growth of satirical cartooning in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernhard Gillam</span> English-American cartoonist (1856–1896)

Bernhard Gillam was an English-born American political cartoonist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matt Morgan (cartoonist)</span> English-American watercolorist (1837–1890)

Matthew Somerville Morgan was an English‐American artist known mainly for his political cartoons in various publications. He also did theater posters for major American acts in both the United States and Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udo Keppler</span> American cartoonist (1872–1956)

Udo J. Keppler, known from 1894 as Joseph Keppler Jr., was an American political cartoonist, publisher, and Native American advocate. The son of cartoonist Joseph Keppler (1838–1894), who founded Puck magazine, the younger Keppler also contributed cartoons, and became co-owner of the magazine after his father's death, when he changed his name to Joseph Keppler. He was also a collector of Native American artifacts, and was adopted by the Seneca Nation, where he became an honorary chief and given the name Gyantwaka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Friedrich Graetz</span> Austrian illustrator and cartoonist (1842–1912)

Friedrich Graetz or Grätz was an Austrian illustrator and cartoonist. His best-known works appeared in Viennese satirical magazines such as Kikeriki and Der Floh, and in the American magazine Puck. Puck was the first magazine to print cartoons in color. Many of Graetz's cartoons were political, targeting issues of government responsibility and public health and urging social change.

References