History of Comic Books - Part II
In part 2 of comic books history I'll be covering the first half
of the Platinum age. The second half will be in the last
installment.
The Platinum age started with a book that came out in 1897
titled "The Yellow Kid 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 part 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 back cover.
In 1899 a "Funny Books" comic came out which featured the format
that became the traditional comic book format of the Platinum
age. It was hard cover and very large 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 white collection of reprints from the
Puck magazine.
It wasn't until 1901 that the first color comic book came out.
It was called "The Blackberries" and was 9 by 12 in hardcover.
Around that same time, what became the most used format for
comic books at 17 by 11 inches, came out. Some of the early
titles of this format were "The Katzenjammer Kids", "Little
Nemo" and "Happy Hooligan." It was during this time that the
first "Buster Brown" comic was created, the character from which
the Buster Brown shoes were made. As a matter of fact because of
the success of Buster Brown many companies used the comic to
sell their merchandise.
In 1910 the now popular "Mutt and Jeff" came out with a new
format, the reprinting of daily strips in black and white. The
book was still hard cover but was 15 by 5 inches. It was
published by Ball Publishing 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 characters used for
these books was "Mutt & Jeff" and "Bringing up Father."
It wasn't until 1922 that the first monthly published comic came
out. The date on the cover was simply January and was 10 cents.
The format was 8 1/2 by 9. The title was "Comics Monthly" and
only lasted 12 issues. Each issue featured a different King
Features comic character. The characters featured during this 12
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 Spark Plug."
These were all reprints of comics 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 hard and soft cover and were 60 cents each. It
wasn't until 1929 that Dell, one of the soon to be larger comic
book publishers, got into the act. Their first comic was called
"The Funnies" and was done in tabloid size format. The comic was
16 pages and sold for 10 cents. It was sold at news stands along
with the newspapers. What was unique about this comic was that
it was done in 4 colors and was not a collection of reprints but
original comics.
In 1930 Walt Disney also got into comic books with the "Mickey
Mouse Book" published by Bibo and Lang. It was 9 by 12 and 20
pages long. Inside the comic were also games, stories and songs.
This was really more a magazine than a comic and it really
wasn't until 1931 that the first true Mickey Mouse comic came
out. It was 32 pages long, 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 and published by David
McKay Company. Over 50,000 copies of this comic were published.
Between 1931 and 1933 there were a number of Mickey Mouse based
comics that were published.
In the last issue we'll go over the years of 1933 to 1938. The
reason for devoting one issue to only 6 years is because it was
during this time that comic book publishing really took off and
comics started coming out of the woodwork.