Funnies on Parade

"Funnies on Parade" is an American publication of the early 1930s that was a seminal precursor of comic books.The creation of the modern American comic book came in stages. Dell Publishing in 1929 published a 16-page, newsprint periodical of original, comic strip-styled material titled "The Funnies" and described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert". [U.S. Library of Congress, [http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri046.html "American Treasures of the Library of Congress"] exhibition] (This is not to be confused with Dell's later same-name comic book, which began publication in 1936.) Historian Ron Goulart describes the four-color, newsstand periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than a true comic book".Goulart, Ron. "Comic Book Encyclopedia" (Harper Entertainment, New York, 2004)]

In 1933, salesperson Maxwell Gaines, sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg, and owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut company Eastern Color Printing — which among other things printed Sunday-paper comic-strip sections — produced "Funnies on Parade". Like "The Funnies" but only eight pages [http://www.geocities.com/mbrown123/greatest_comics/funniesonparade.html Brown, Mitchell. "The 100 Greatest Comic Books of the 20th Century: "Funnies on Parade"] Dead link as of at least Nov. 10, 2007] this, too, was a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licenced from the McNaught and McClure Syndicate. These included such highly popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith's "Mutt and Jeff", Ham Fisher's "Joe Palooka", and Percy Crosby's "Skippy". This periodical, however, was neither sold nor available on newsstands, but rather sent free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Proctor & Gamble soap and toiletries products. Ten-thousand copies were made. The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for Canada Dry soft drinks, Kinney Shoes, Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000.

ee also

*American comic book
*"Famous Funnies"

Footnotes

References

* "All in Color for a Dime" by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0-87341-498-5
* "The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide" by Robert Overstreet — Edition #35 ISBN 0-375-72107-X
* "The Steranko History of Comics", Vol. 1 & 2, by James Steranko — Vol. 1 ISBN 0-517-50188-0
* [http://www.dereksantos.com/comicpage/pregold2.html CBW Comic History: The Early Years...1896 to 1937, Part II]
* [http://www.collectortimes.com/~comichistory/Platinum.html The ComicBooks.com: The History of Comic Books]
* [http://www.comicartville.com/newages.htm Comicartville Library: "The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History", by Ken Quattro (2004)]