History of Comic Books - Part II

In portion 2 of amusing books history I'll be covering the first one-half of the Platinum age. The 2nd one-half will be in the last installment.

The Platinum age started with a book that came out in 1897 titled "The Yellow Child in McFadden's Flats." It was 196 pages long and in black and white. The cost was 50 cents and was published by G. W. Dillingham Company. It was actually portion of a series Dillingham did on American authors. The phrase "comic book" was actually coined with this printing as the phrase was written on the dorsum cover.

In 1899 a "Funny Books" amusing came out which featured the formatting that became the traditional amusing book formatting of the Platinum age. It was difficult screen and very big at 16 1/2 by 12 inches. The book was created by F.M. Howarth, but published by E.P. Dutton. It was a black and achromatic aggregation of reissues from the Robin Goodfellow magazine.

It wasn't until 1901 that the first colour comedian book came out. It was called "The Blackberries" and was 9 by 12 in hardcover.

Around that same time, what became the most used formatting for amusing books at 17 by 11 inches, came out. Some of the early statute titles of this formatting were "The Hangover Kids", "Little Nemo" and "Happy Hooligan." It was during this time that the first "Buster Brown" amusing was created, the fictional character from which the Fellow Brown place were made. As a substance of fact because of the success of Fellow Brown many companies used the amusing to sell their merchandise.

In 1910 the now popular "Mutt and Jeff" came out with a new format, the reprinting of day-to-day strips in black and white. The book was still difficult screen but was 15 by 5 inches. It was published by Ball Publication and 5 volumes were published.

Then in 1919, Publisher Cupples & Leon used a different format. They were 10" by 10" with 4 panels per page. They were black and white, 52 pages for 25 cents. Titles and fictional characters used for these books was "Mutt & Jeff" and "Bringing up Father."

It wasn't until 1922 that the first monthly published amusing came out. The day of the month on the screen was simply January and was 10 cents. The formatting was 8 1/2 by 9. The statute title was "Comics Monthly" and only lasted 12 issues. Each issue featured a different King Features amusing character. The fictional characters featured during this 12 calendar month run were "Polly and Her Pals", "Mike and Ike", whom the candy was named after, "S'Matter Pop", "Barney Google", "Tillie the Toiler", "Indoor Sports", "Little Jimmy", "Toots and Casper", "Foolish Questions" and "Barney Google and Trip Plug." These were all reissues of comedians originally printed in 1921.

In 1926 the forever popular "Little Orphan Annie" was first published by Cupples and Leon in 7 by 9 format. These were printed in both difficult and soft screen and were 60 cents each.

It wasn't until 1929 that Dell, one of the soon to be bigger amusing book publishers, got into the act. Their first amusing was called "The Funnies" and was done in tabloid size format. The amusing was 16 pages and sold for 10 cents. It was sold at intelligence stand ups along with the newspapers. What was alone about this amusing was that it was done in 4 colours and was not a aggregation of reissues but original comics.

In 1930 Walt Walt Disney also got into amusing books with the "Mickey Mouse Book" published by Bibo and Lang. It was 9 by 12 and 20 pages long. Inside the amusing were also games, narratives and songs. This was really more than a magazine than a amusing and it really wasn't until 1931 that the first true Paddy Mouse amusing came out. It was 32 pages long, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 and published by Saint David McKay Company. Over 50,000 transcripts of this amusing were published. Between 1931 and 1933 there were a figure of Paddy Mouse based comedians that were published.

In the last issue we'll travel over the old age of 1933 to 1938. The ground for devoting one issue to only 6 old age is because it was during this time that amusing book publication really took off and comedians started coming out of the woodwork.