British Comics

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1880 - 1900 (Story Papers) With Brett's Boys Of England setting the trend, the 1860-1880 period was undoubtedly, the golden era of the story paper. The tone of the content of these publications had calmed down since the penny bloods of the 1830's, but papers like Fox's popular Boys' Standard (1875-1892) were still producing gothic-type tales. It often had covers depicting scenes like a Spartan holding up the decapitated head of his adversary. The 1880's seemed to be the decade that volunteered itself for the dawning of a new age, a transitional period which was to see many of the less established titles fold and many of the new ones fold within six months of starting. The 'shockers' were out and only titles containing well written stories, usually with a high morale overtone, succeeded.

Long established titles like Henderson's Young Folks (d.1884), Brett's Old Boys' Journal (d.1882) and James W. Allingham's Boys' World (d.1886) all felt the pressure and ended during this decade. It appeared that the setting up of a new title wasn't too difficult to do, it was the sustaining of it that proved the problem. If the paper didn't contain a good story and good morale standards they simply ceased to be.

The Boys Own Paper combined both these qualities and other publishers had to sit up and take notice. Parents liked the idea that the writers of the B.O.P. had letters after their names or were in the Army or Navy. They also liked the fact that the publishers were the well respected Religious Tract Society, which meant that it had to contain good wholesome stories and features.



The main competitors to the B.O.P. were Edwin J. Brett's definitive Boys Of England which ran from 1866 to 1899; Henderson's Young Folks, which started back in 1871 and kept on going through to 1897, in all its guises; Fox's Boys' Standard (1875-1892); Girls Own Paper (1880-1950); Brett's Boys Comic Journal (1883-1898) and the colourful Boys Of The Empire (1888-1906) which was the first 'fully' coloured weekly story paper. Six months after this there was Edwin Burrage's Ching-Ching's Own (1888-1893) boy detective paper. As you can judge from the dates, most of these papers started back in the 1860's and 1870's, new publications from the 1880's simply couldn't compete with the tried and tested formula of the old brigade. Then, in 1890, Alfred Harmsworth entered the scene and everything was about to change.

A full overview of Alfred Harmsworth, the founder of Comic Cuts, Illustrated Comic Journal and a massive publishing empire including the founding of the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and owner of the Times newspaper, can be read in the Early Comics Section - Part 2. Harmsworth carried out a personal crusade against 'penny dreadfuls' and thoughout the early issues of Comic Cuts he said he will 'throw downstairs' all authors (and poets) of 'penny dreadfuls' who sought to sully his pages with their unsolicited contributions. In the first issue of his Halfpenny Marvel there was a slogan which read:-

"No more penny dreadfuls! These healthy stories of mystery, adventure, etc., will kill them. Boys who become inflamed by reading 'penny dreadfuls, were robbing their employers, buying revolvers with the proceeds and setting themselves up in the back streets as highwaymen. This and many other evils the penny dreadful is responsible for. It makes thieves of the coming generation and so helps to fill our jails. If we can rid the world of even one of these vile publications our efforts will not have been in vain."

A later issue of the Marvel - same publication, just an increase in price - quoted a penny dreadful with "Three spelling and six grammatical errors to every page" and mentioned that one publisher of such works cleared £7,000 a year. "Of course, he does not give one-fiftieth of the value we do."




On the 29th January 1895, Harmsworth released his Boys Friend story paper and wrote an editorial so scathing of the penny dreadfuls, their writers and editors, that it was a wonder that he wasn't sued. Harmsworth was very concerned about giving his readers value for money. He reminded them constantly that the long complete stories they were buying from him meant that they were getting a shilling for a halfpenny. He even apologized for leaving the inside covers of the Union Jack bare of text. The paper was so thin that to print on the reverse side would have ruined the picture on the cover. Harmsworth believed in taking his readers into his confidence and telling them all about the problems of printing and block-making.

"Instead of spending money on first-class glossy paper, thick cardboard covers and large type, we shall give the very best value possible......It would be easy to sell for 1 shilling, but where one man will spend a shilling 5,000 will risk a halfpenny."

Harmsworth publication of halfpenny papers forced some of the other boys' publishers to follow suit. Edwin Brett put out an orange covered Halfpenny Surprise, containing a long complete and short serial. After a few years, Harmsworth was able to raise the prices of his boys papers to one penny, and thereby achieve a higher standard of production. There is no doubt that the actual type in some of his halfpenny papers was even more trying to the eyes than that of some of the maligned 'penny dreadfuls.'

If the 1880's was the transitional decade then the 1890's was the Harmsworth decade. With his major benchmarking in the comics world with Comic Cuts (1890), Illustrated Chips (1890) and Funny Wonder (1892) already underway, he set about conquering the boys story paper market as well. In 1893 he released his first one in the shape of the Halfpenny Marvel later to become The Marvel in 1896. Apart from the damnation of the penny dreadfuls in its early years, issue number six of the Halfpenny Marvel heralded the introduction of private detective Sexton Blake in a story entitled The Missing Millionaire. Blake was created by Hal Meredeth (aka Harry Blyth) who was originally going to call him Frank Blake but the demand went up, most probably from Harmsworth himself, for a more unusual first name. Someone, we just don't know who, came up with the name of Sexton, and the name stuck. Blake, although inspired by, is unjustly regarded as the 'office-boys' Sherlock Holmes and any Blake-o-phile will wholeheartedly agree with that. They were doing the same job, but got their successful results in two completely different styles.




Holmes' attraction was his powers of deduction, lateral thinking and train timetables, Blake was a bit more hands-on and didn't mind getting his hands dirty in his fight for justice. He also did the job for a living and often wanted to know how much he was going to get paid. He preferred to cycle to his offices in New Inn Chambers and later in Wych Street (Strand), rather then take the hansom (cab). He also never wore a deerstalker hat, resort to opium to heighten his awareness or play the violin. But as time passed and Sherlock Holmes was becoming ever popular, Blake started to show signs of becoming more Holmesian. He moved to the north end of Baker Street, he started to smoke a pipe and wear a dressing gown (to think) and he employed a housekeeper. However, when he got down to work, he was always an up-and-at-'em kind of detective who was often knifed, gassed, slugged, clubbed, run down, gunned down, hung and falling through numerous amount of trap-doors.

It was Issue 25 of the Halfpenny Marvel which announced that "Sexton Blake had been secured by the Union Jack" and was due to makes his debut in April 1894 (issue 2). It was after his transfer to the pink-covered Union Jack that Sexton Blake started to become famous. Hal Meredeth, unfortunately, sold the rights of the Blake name for just nine guineas (£9 and 9 shillings) to Alfred Harmsworth. This made it possible for other scribes to write the Blake stories, with no profits going to poor old Meredeth. In 1898, Meredeth died of typhoid fever before Blake really took off, so the writer never saw how popular his creation was to become.




In 1910 a silent film entitled The Jewel Thieves Run To Earth By Sexton Blake was released. It was written by Henry Blyth who may or may not have been related to Harry Blyth (aka Hal Meredeth) - he may have even been him. There were another 22 feature films, lots of plays (1907-1930), radio shows (1939-1967) and two TV series (1967 & 1978) starring Sexton Blake. His golden era started after 1921, which was when Harold Tyman, the dynamic and idea-creating editor took the reigns of the Union Jack. It was from here, and well into the 1930's, that Blake became almost as famous as Holmes himself. At one point there were so many stories written for Blake that additional publications had to be used to accommodate and in September 1915 The Sexton Blake Library was introduced. These were 80,000 word novels that were appearing 2,3,4 and sometimes 5 times a month in A5-sized books. The publics appetite for Blake was insatiable and these Libraries continued until 1968 and were translated in many different languages including Arabic and Hindi. Blake also appeared in Illustrated Chips, Popular, Detective Weekly, Knockout and Valiant as well as annuals. In 1978 he underwent a name change in the Tornado comic and became Victor Drago. Apparently, the publishers thought the Blake name was too out-dated and simply changed it.

The Union Jack Library, as it was originally called, started on the 28th April 1894 and enjoyed a fabulous run of 2025 issues until the 18th February 1933, which was when the title got changed to Detective Weekly. Maybe because the Union Jack symbolised an empire that was fast depleting. The Detective Weekly was twice the size of the Union Jack and ran for another 379 issues until the infamous World War 2 paper shortages came into effect on the 25th May 1940 - the Graveyard Week. This was the week when scores of comics and story papers ceased to be.