''Funnies on Parade'' is an American publication of 1933 that was a precursor of comic books. The eight-page publication featured reprints of such popular syndicated comic strips as '' The Bungle Family'', '' Joe Palooka'', ''

Keeping Up with the Joneses Keeping is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Charles Keeping (1924–1988), British illustrator, children's book author and lithographer * Damien Keeping (born 1982), Australian rules football coach * Frederick Keeping (1867 ...

'', ''

Mutt and Jeff ''Mutt and Jeff'' was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspape ...

'', '' Reg'lar Fellers'', and '' Somebody's Stenog''. Creators included F. O. Alexander, Gene Byrnes, Al Capp,

Clare Victor Dwiggins Clare Victor Dwiggins (June 16, 1874 – October 26, 1958) was an American cartoonist who signed his work Dwig. Dwiggins created a number of comic strips and single-panel cartoons for various American newspapers and newspaper syndicates from 18 ...

, A. E. Hayward, C. M. Payne, Al Smith, and Harry J. Tuthill.

History

Precursor: ''The Funnies''

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 ''The Funnies'' was the name of two American publications from Dell Publishing (Dell Comics), the first of these a seminal 1920s precursor of comic books, and the second a standard 1930s comic book. ''The Funnies'' (1929–1930) In 1929, George ...

'' and described by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

as "a short-lived

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

tabloid insert". This is not to be confused with Dell's later same-name comic book, which began publication in 1936.

Comics historian Comics studies (also comic art studies, sequential art studies or graphic narrative studies) is an academic field that focuses on comics and sequential art. Although comics and graphic novels have been generally dismissed as less relevant pop cul ...

Ron Goulart Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author. He published novelizations and other work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson, Co ...

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 HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp ...

, New York, 2004)

''Funnies on Parade''

In early 1933, Eastern Color began producing small comic broadsides for the

Ledger Syndicate The Public Ledger Syndicate (known simply as the Ledger Syndicate) was a syndication company operated by the Philadelphia '' Public Ledger'' that was in business from 1915 to circa 1950 (outlasting the newspaper itself, which ceased publishing in ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, printing Sunday color comics from plates. Eastern Color sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg and his coworkers — salesperson Maxwell Gaines and owner George Janosik — realized that two such plates would fit on a tabloid-sized page. Soon after, in April 1933, Wildenberg created the first modern-format comic book when, according to legend, he folded a newspaper into halves and then into quarters and, finding that a convenient book size, led him to have to Eastern Color publish ''Funnies on Parade''. Like ''The Funnies'' but 32 pages, this, too, was a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from the McNaught Syndicate, the

, and the

Bell-McClure Syndicate The Bell Syndicate, launched in 1916 by editor-publisher John Neville Wheeler, was an American syndicate that distributed columns, fiction, feature articles and comic strips to newspapers for decades. It was located in New York City at 247 West 4 ...

. This periodical, however, was neither sold nor available on

newsstands A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local ...

, but rather sent free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

soap and toiletries products. Ten-thousand copies were made.Brown, Mitchell
"The 100 Greatest Comic Books of the 20th Century: ''Funnies on Parade''"
(Internet archive link) The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for

Canada Dry Canada Dry is a brand of soft drinks founded in 1904 and owned since 2008 by the American company Dr Pepper Snapple (now Keurig Dr Pepper). For over 100 years, Canada Dry has been known mainly for its ginger ale, though the company also manufa ...

soft drinks,

Kinney Shoes The G.R. Kinney Company was an American manufacturer and retailer of shoes from until . Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange, symbol KNN, began in March 1923. The shoe concern was started by George Romanta Kinney whose father ran a genera ...

, Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000. In addition to Gaines, those associated with the project included Leverett Gleason other future industry notables working under Wildenberg's supervision. Later in 1933, Gaines collaborated with Dell Publishing once again to publish the 36-page one-shot ''Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics'', followed in 1934 by ''

Famous Funnies ''Famous Funnies'' is an American comic strip anthology series published from 1934 to 1955. Published by Eastern Color Printing, ''Famous Funnies'' is considered by popular culture historians as the first true American comic book, following semin ...

'', which ran for 218 issues and is considered the first true American comic book. Goulart, Ron. "The Funnies: I" (entry), ''Comic Book Encyclopedia'' (

, New York, 2004) , p. 144

References

External links

CBW Comic History: The Early Years...1896 to 1937, Part II
* Coville, Jamie

, TheComicBooks.com, n.d

published at defunct sit
CollectorTimes.com
*

History

Precursor: ''The Funnies''

''Funnies on Parade''

See also

References

External links

Further reading