From 1841 to 1992 the “London Charivari”
as Punch was also called, was easily identified.
The front cover wasn’t changed for decades
Here are three covers:
November 17, 1909;
November 22, 1911;
January 16, 1918
Only the strip-advertising changed at the top and the bottom of each front page! Punch didn’t need banner headlines to attract readers.
And inside? Cartoons and humorous literary writing. Lots of advertising reflects the products and services that consumers wanted in those years.
The term “cartoon” to refer to comic drawings was first used in Punch in 1843, when the Houses of Parliament were to be decorated with murals, and “cartoons” for the murals were displayed for the public; the term “cartoon” then meant a finished preliminary sketch on a large piece of cardboard, or cartone in Italian. Punch humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the cartoons led to the term’s widespread use.
Here are some cartoons from the issues
of Punch featured in this post
Readers of Printing Times wanting to learn more about Punch cartoons and their highly-talented artists will find fascinating facts in “Great Drawings and Illustrations from Punch 1841–1901 containing 192 cartoons drawn by talented artists of the 19th century”.
The editors, Stanley Appelbaum & Richard Kelly, explain in their introduction to their book that the “cartoons were carefully studied at home and abroad by those concerned with the way the political wind was blowing. To decide on the subject and handling of the next “cartoon” was one of the essential purposes of the weekly dinners at Punch’s very exclusive Table, a gathering of editors, representatives of the publishers, literary and artistic contributors and various specialized advisors.”
Read more about it in this post:
