breakfast cereal
Cereal, formally termed breakfast cereal (and further categorized as cold cereal or warm cereal), is a traditional breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in We ...
produced by
Ralston Cereals Ralston may refer to:
Place names United States
*Ralston, California
* Ralston, Iowa
*Ralston, Nebraska
* Ralston, Oklahoma
*Ralston, Wyoming
* Mount Ralston in the Sierra Nevada of California
*Ralston Creek (Colorado)
* Ralston Hall, Belmont, Cal ...
in 1988 and 1989. The name of the cereal was based on the assortment of newspaper
comic strip
A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...
s featured on the box. Innovative packaging allowed the back flap of the box to be opened revealing additional comic strips, different on each edition of the cereal box. Poor sales and negative consumer reaction led to the cereal being discontinued in 1989.
Morning Funnies was just one of several Ralston cereals based on licensed characters introduced in 1988 and 1989. Others included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cereal, Breakfast With Barbie, the video-game themed Nintendo Cereal System, and a
Batman
Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on March 30, 1939. I ...
The cereal, made with four grains and heavily sweetened, was brightly colored and shaped like smiling faces but not any specific comic strip character.
The front cover of each 14-ounce box featured an assortment of popular newspaper comic strip characters in colorful squares arranged to resemble panels in "the funnies" (a shortening of "the funny papers", a colloquial term for the comics pages in newspapers). Each front cover also prominently displayed which of nine numbered "collector's edition" cereal boxes it was. The comic strips displayed were unique to each edition of the box.
The back of the box featured a pair of large
Sunday comics
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.
The first US newspap ...
-style comic strips and instructions on how to open the back flap to reveal more comics. The entire back of the box opened to reveal a "fifth panel" with six more color comics inside for a total of eight strips per box. This flap structure was described as "an original packaging concept" for breakfast cereal. In 1988, Ralston won an award for "innovative packaging" for the Morning Funnies fifth panel design.
Most of the comics characters and strips on Morning Funnies were reproduced under license from the
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is a American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editori ...
. The comic strips in the rotation included '' Dennis the Menace'' by
Hank Ketcham
Henry King Ketcham (March 14, 1920 – June 1, 2001) was an American cartoonist who created the '' Dennis the Menace'' comic strip, writing and drawing it from 1951 to 1994, when he retired from drawing the daily cartoon and took up painting ...
, ''
Beetle Bailey
''Beetle Bailey'' is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Mort Walker, published since September 4, 1950. It is set on a fictional United States Army post. In the years just before Walker's death in 2018 (at age 94), it was among the old ...
'' by
Mort Walker
Addison Morton Walker (September 3, 1923 – January 27, 2018) was an American comic strip writer, best known for creating the newspaper comic strips ''Beetle Bailey'' in 1950 and ''Hi and Lois'' in 1954. He signed Addison to some of his strips. ...
, ''
Hägar the Horrible
''Hägar the Horrible'' is the title and main character of an American comic strip created by cartoonist Dik Browne and syndicated by King Features Syndicate. It first appeared in February 1973 and was an immediate success. Since Browne's retirem ...
'' by
Dik Browne
Richard Arthur Allan Browne (August 11, 1917 – June 4, 1989) was an American cartoonist, best known for writing and drawing ''Hägar the Horrible'' and ''Hi and Lois''.
Biography
Browne attended Cooper Union and got his start at the ''New York ...
, ''
Hi and Lois
''Hi and Lois'' is an American comic strip about a suburban family. Created by Mort Walker and illustrated by Dik Browne, both of whose offspring currently work on the strip, it debuted on October 18, 1954, distributed by King Features Syndicate.R ...
'' by Walker and Browne, ''
The Family Circus
''The Family Circus'' (originally ''The Family Circle'', also ''Family-Go-Round'') is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and, since Bil's death in 2011, is currently written, inked, and rendered (colored) by his son, Jef ...
Tiger
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living Felidae, cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily pr ...
Funky Winkerbean
''Funky Winkerbean'' is an American comic strip by Tom Batiuk. Distributed by North America Syndicate, a division of King Features Syndicate, it appears in more than 400 newspapers worldwide.
While Batiuk was a 23-year-old middle school art t ...
'' by
Tom Batiuk
Thomas Martin Batiuk (born March 14, 1947) is an American comic strip creator, best known for his long-running newspaper strip '' Funky Winkerbean''.
Career
Born in Akron, Ohio, Batiuk attended Kent State University, from which he graduated in ...
, and '' What a Guy!'' by Bill Hoest and John Reiner.
Some editions of the box also included a subscription offer for ''Young American'', described as "America's newspaper for kids".
Reception
A consumer panel for the ''
Wilmington Morning Star
''Star-News'' is an American, English language daily newspaper for Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding area (known as the Lower Cape Fear). It is North Carolina's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. It was owned by Halifax ...
'' found Morning Funnies to be "overly sweet" with a "strong sweet smell" but noted the cereal's large size made it "a great snack eaten dry". The panel moderator opined, "if you prefer good taste to gimmicks, you might want to stay away from this technicolor treat."
A survey of children's breakfast cereals published in May 1991 by ''Vegetarian Times'' found Morning Funnies to be one of the "10 worst kids' cereals, based on sugar content" with its 14 grams per serving ranking only behind Kellogg's
Honey Smacks
Honey Smacks (formerly known as Sugar Smacks, simply known as Smacks outside the U.S. in international markets) is a sweetened puffed wheat breakfast cereal made by Kellogg's, noted for its high sugar content. It was introduced in the early 1950 ...
on the list.
While the packaging for the cereal was innovative, the comics themselves did not all appeal to the very young children to whom the cereal was marketed. Also, with only nine box variations in the year or so the cereal was produced, frequent buyers of Morning Funnies would see the same comic strips over and over.
The Beaver County Times
''The Beaver County Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Beaver, Pennsylvania, United States, and serving the north-western Pittsburgh suburbs. The ''Times'' is a direct descendant of many of Beaver County's newspapers, starting with the ' ...
, location=
Beaver, PA
Beaver is a borough in and the county seat of Beaver County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is located at the confluence of the Beaver and Ohio Rivers, approximately northwest of Pittsburgh. As of the 2020 census, the borough population ...
, agency=
United Feature Syndicate
United Feature Syndicate (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media (along ...
, title=Baby buggy belts are baffling , page=B6 , url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=urciAAAAIBAJ&pg=1499,4194257&dq=morning-funnies+cereal&hl=en , date=September 24, 1989 , accessdate=March 9, 2010{{cite web , work=The Metal Misfit , title=Cereals From Beyond 2 , url=http://metalmisfit.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/cereals-from-beyond-2/ , accessdate=March 9, 2010{{cite web , publisher=
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
Spartanburg Herald-Journal
The ''Spartanburg Herald-Journal'' is a daily newspaper, the primary newspaper for Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States.
History
The origins of the paper lie with ''The Spartan'', a weekly paper reportedly first printed in about 1842†...
, location=
Spartanburg, SC
Spartanburg is a city in and the seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest city in the state. For a time, the Offi ...
Vegetarian Times
''Vegetarian Times'' is an American publication focused on food, culture, health and lifestyle for vegetarians, vegans, and all people interested in plant-based eating. ''Vegetarian Times'' promotes an eco-friendly lifestyle with recipes, and he ...
Wilmington Morning Star
''Star-News'' is an American, English language daily newspaper for Wilmington, North Carolina, and its surrounding area (known as the Lower Cape Fear). It is North Carolina's oldest newspaper in continuous publication. It was owned by Halifax ...
, location=
Wilmington, NC
Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...
, title=Panel won't laugh at Morning Funnies , url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1454&dat=19890314&id=6L0sAAAAIBAJ&pg=6973,4701432 , date=March 14, 1989 , page=3D , accessdate=March 9, 2010{{cite news , first1=Marty , last1=Friedman , first2=Lynn , last2=Dornblaser , work= Prepared Foods , title=Oat bran, "lite" help to spur new product totals to record highs , url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3289/is_n2_v159/ai_8483254/ , date=February 1990 , accessdate=March 9, 2010{{cite news , newspaper=
The Providence Journal
''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...
, location=
Providence, RI
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Ba ...
The Providence Journal
''The Providence Journal'', colloquially known as the ''ProJo'', is a daily newspaper serving the metropolitan area of Providence, Rhode Island, and is the largest newspaper in Rhode Island. The newspaper was first published in 1829. The newspape ...
, location=
Providence, RI
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Ba ...
, title=Morning Funnies: Read all about it , url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/projo/access/596043171.html?dids=596043171:596043171&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+01%2C+1989&author=Carolyn+Wyman+and+Bonnie+Tandy+Leblang&pub=The+Providence+Journal&desc=NEW+FOOD+Morning+Funnies%3A+Read+all+about+it&pqatl=google , date=May 1, 1989 , page=D03 , accessdate=March 9, 2010{{cite news , newspaper= St. Petersburg Times , location=
St. Petersburg, FL
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa, Florida, T ...