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Page 14 The Antique Shoppe August, 2018
THE EARLIEST COMIC BOOKS
1897 TO 1930
by Roy Nuhn
The modern-day comic book’s coming of age is traditionally traced back to
The Funnies of George Delacrote (1929), Eastern Color Printing Company’s
Funnies on Parade (1933) and to the famous Action Comics (1938) featuring the
first adventure of Superman. However, the
actual birth of comic books, in the form of
bound reprint comic strip editions, occurred
a bit over 100 years ago during the waning
moments of the 19th century.
These early comic books, some printed
in color and others in black and white, were
simply collections of comic strips taken
from the “funny pages” of daily and Sunday
newspapers. Conceived, manufactured,
and distributed as just another book, most
had cardboard covers. A few specials came
hardbound, often with dust jackets. These
covers were almost always illustrated, mostly
using lithography, and usually in color.
Printing was done on regular book-paper
stock, not the inexpensive and poor-quality
pulp paper used in later years for certain
types of juvenile books and magazines.
Overall dimensions varied considerably, Front cover of Foxy Grandpa (1902), a comic strip that enjoyed great
ranging from 3 1/4 x 8” to 11 x 17”, the popularity for a short while. Publisher was Stokes Co.
larger sizes in general use between 1900
and 1920. Those published in the 1920s,
the decade of their greatest popularity and biggest sales,
tended to be somewhat smaller, around 9 x 9 inches,
though there were many exceptions. Books of the early
1930s were smaller still, closely approximately the size
destined to become the standard for the true comic book.
The numbers of pages throughout these years fluctuated
between 24 and 100, but the average was between 60 and
70.
At the beginning was R.F. Outcault’s Yellow Kid in
1897, printed one year after the famed Kid’s debut as
America’s first comic strip. Throughout the course of the
new century’s first decade, dozens of reprint comic strip
book titles were distributed. Many of the earliest were
published by the newspapers themselves as premiums,
functioning as potent circulation builders, or by advertisers
such as Grand Union Tea, to whom the New York Herald
sold rights to Pore Li’l Mose in 1902.
Usually, the reader had to clip a specified number of
coupons from the daily papers over a length of time and turn The Roosevelt Bears comic strip debuted in 1906
them in for his or her “book of cartoons.” Never titled “comic in 20 newspapers. It quickly became a big hit. This
books,” they were often referred to as “cartoons” or by the
name of the strip reprinted, such as Little Sammy Sneeze reprint book was published the following year. for children and underwent heavy usage. When finished
1905), Foxy Grandpa (1901), Alphonse
& Gaston (1903), Happy Hooligan
(1903) and Jimmy (1905). Specific titles
were employed in the case of a sustained
series, such as Buster Brown and His
Resolutions (1903), the Buster Brown
offerings by Frederick A. Stokes Co.
running up to 1916.
In 1910 there occurred a dramatic
example proving just how popular
these cartoon books had become with
young people everywhere. In that year,
the Chicago American announced its
latest cartoon book premium, the first
Mutt and Jeff, and was overwhelmed
with more than 50,000 requests!
Another book followed the next year.
Both the Hearst and Pulitzer ↑Arguably the most successful daily
newspaper chains issued large comic strip of all time, Mutt and Jeff
numbers of reprint comic books. And spawned over a dozen reprint books, Jiggs and Maggie. This is book Number
so, yet another salvo in the fierce war including this Number 6 in 1919 by
of yellow journalism was fired. Cupples & Leon Co.
However, commercial publishers were also involved, some as early as 1902
when the Stokes Co. produced the first Buster Brown comic strip reprint book - in
color. For a period of about 35 years, over two dozen firms created a continuous
and heavy flow of books containing reprints
of comic strips taken directly from the
nation’s newspapers. Most were sold during
the Christmas season, often being advertised
in the newspaper which carried the original
strip. Many other advertisements appeared in
the leading magazines of the day, especially
those intended for children, like St. Nicholas.
The busiest - and today the most famous
publisher was the Cupples and, Leon
Company, located at 443 Fourth Avenue
in New York City. Of the more than 200
different reprint comic strip book titles done
by the industry as a whole, Cupples and Leon
accounted for nearly one-half of them.
Special hardbound versions, called Big
Books, reprinting the reprints, were sold
during the late 1920s. The contents of each
consisted of three previously published
editions. Cupples and Leon’s last series
most likely was Treasure Box of Famous
Comics, which utilized the standard comic
book format of 32 pages and was released
sometime in the late 1930s. Boxes had five titles, each
being a partial reprint of an earlier book.
Business was quite brisk in the 1920s, when reprint
comic books achieved extraordinary sales. This success was
instrumental in convincing other publishers to experiment
with different styles and formats. By the early 1930s, these
efforts finally resulted in the first modern comic books.
Reprint comic books were difficult to handle because
of their size and hard covers. And they were, after all,
only reissues, usually in black and white, of old material
originally found in daily and Sunday newspapers. With the
arrival of the “true” comic book - paper wrapped, smaller
size for ease of handling, priced at only a dime, and
containing original color material with all-new heroes and
a radically innovative art style - the old reprint comic strip
book was surpassed and firmly supplanted.
Many pioneer comic books survived the years. They are,
however, difficult to find in anything approaching pristine
condition because the covers chip and break off so easily.
In addition, inside pages rip with little effort. The
problem is that such books were intended as amusements
with, they were often unceremoniously
thrown into a carton and stored in
the attic or cellar where insect and
humidity damage took its tool. Time
and people alike have not been kind to
these lovely and interesting books and
it is unfortunate that the vast majority
of those surviving down to our own day
are in far less than perfect condition.
Reprint comic strip books,
forerunners and predecessors of today’s
very collectable and highly regarded
comic books, are a small part of our
understanding of the progression of
American humor and cartoon art
through the centuries of our nation’s
life. They are reminders of the past, a
↑One of many depicting the forgotten era when, in the absence of
misadventures of George McManus’ television, virtual reality games, and
computers, the comic strip was an
8 in the Bringing Up Father series (1924), important form of entertainment for a
published by Stokes Co. large segment of the population.