''The Halfpenny Marvel'' was a British

story paper A story paper is a periodical publication similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as "boys' weeklies", story papers were phenomenally popular ...

for children of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, published by Amalgamated Press.

Overview

''The Halfpenny Marvel'' was the first of Alfred Harmsworth's story papers aimed at putting the " penny dreadfuls" out of business by producing "pure, healthy literature" at a cheaper price. Begun in 1893, the magazine was named ''The Halfpenny Marvel Library''. The magazine was renamed ''the Halfpenny Marvel'' after three issues. Early issues contained a long, complete tale and as many as three or four shorter ones (of very short length). These short stories would later be replaced by installments of serial stories. An editorial page also appeared in most (but not all) issues, and dealt with upcoming stories as well as providing the reader with interesting facts. In the late 1890s the editorial page was used by "Pimple the orfis boy", providing comic relief with his badly-written tales. The stories were in the ''

Boys Own ''Boys' Own'' or ''Boy's Own'' or ''Boys Own'', is the title of a varying series of similarly titled magazines, story papers, and newsletters published at various times and by various publishers, in the United Kingdom and the United States, fro ...

'' genre, and often involved travel in foreign lands and the British Empire, often with quite

jingoistic Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive and proactive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national inter ...

content, even by the standards of the day. Stories most often stood alone, but occasionally a character would recur in multiple issues, though the stories would be complete in each one. Occasional issues featured detective stories, and Volume 1, Issue 6, published in December, 1893 introduced detective Sexton Blake to the world in a story named ''The Missing Millionaire''. Issue 46, published in September, 1894, introduced detective Nelson Lee in a story named ''A Dead Man's Secret''. Early covers were two-colour, often orange and black. However, before long only one colour was used on the cover, most often dark blue. In 1898 the magazine was renamed as ''The Marvel'', though still cost a halfpenny. In 1904 the paper was re-launched by Amalgamated Press (with a new issue 1) as a one-penny paper, still named ''The Marvel''. The magazine folded in 1922. ''The Halfpenny Marvel'' is referenced by James Joyce in the short story " An Encounter", part of Joyce's '' Dubliners''. This magazine, as well as ''Union Jack'' and ''Pluck'' are mentioned as highly popular among Dublin schoolboys of the time, who are especially attached to the Wild West stories published there. In one scene, a teacher is extremely annoyed when catching a pupil reading during the lesson an issue of ''The Halfpenny Marvel'' containing a story entitled "The Apache Chief".

References

{{Portal, Children and Young Adult Literature

External links

Issues of The Halpenny Marvel at the Friardale Website

1893 establishments in the United Kingdom 1922 disestablishments in the United Kingdom British boys' story papers Children's magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct literary magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1893 Magazines disestablished in 1922 Publications of Sexton Blake