Just as the superhero has precursors in pulps, myth, and even Japanese kamishibai (paper theatre), the modern comic book traveled through a few developmental stages. Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics awaits!

FAMOUS FUNNIES: A CARNIVAL OF COMICS

Writer:  F.O. Alexander/J.P. McEvoy/Gene Byrnes/Ham Fisher/Bud Fisher/Clare Victor Dwiggins/Pop Mormand/A.E. Hayward/John Hix/H.J. Tuthill/Sol Hess/Charles Payne/Frank Godwin
Penciler: F.O. Alexander/John Striebel/Gene Byrnes/Ham Fisher/Bud Fisher/Clare Victor Dwiggins/Pop Mormand/A.E. Hayward/John Hix/H.J. Tuthill/Wallace Carlson/Charles Payne/Frank Godwin
Editor: M.C. Gaines/Harry Wildenberg
Publisher: Eastern Color Printing Company (Not Credited)
Cover Price: $0.00
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $40,000.00
Release Date: October 1st, 1933

Previously, in Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics: Many modern fans only know the name Max Gaines from his founding of All-American Comics (one of the companies that would become DC Comics) and his later ventures with EC Comics. Back in 1933, though, he was just a new salesman at Easter Color Printing, trying to come up with a new concept for his clients. The idea of a mail-away pamphlet reprinting newspaper strips didn’t impress the company, but it did impress sales manager Harry Wildenberg. The resulting eight-page publication, Funnies on Parade, was mailed out for free to anyone who clipped and mailed in a coupon from his client’s products and is considered one of the first things that could reasonably be called a comic book. The first modern newsstand comic would debut in the Summer of 1934, something we’ve already looked at in the Retro Review corner, but the parts that came in between make for an interesting story as well.

This issue features syndicated comics material (from the McClure, McNaught, and Lester Syndicates at least), with the physical publishing being done by Dell Publishing, one of the giants of the pulp magazine world and the publisher of The Funnies, a proto-comic insert available through newspapers. That experiment ran for about eight months in 1929, but the publication of this issue is very much the point where Dell Comics’ fifty-plus-year comics legacy kicked off in earnest. Max Gaines left Eastern at some point in the mid-30s (whether he quit or was fired is a matter of some dispute) to become a manager at the aforementioned McClure Syndicate, partnering with Dell to produce its first comic titles. That’s where the Reg’lar Fellers come in.

I’m not a fan of the Reg’lar Fellers strip, but I am a huge advocate of the related comic book, Reg’lar Fellers Heroic Comics, which gave us such Golden Age luminaries as Hydro-Man and The Music Master. But as one of the gems in the Bell-McClure Syndicate crown, the Fellers are heavily represented in these pages and would later end up being featured in the first issue of All-American Comics, Gaines’ own publishing concern in 1939. Also interesting is the appearance of Honeybunch’s Hubby, a comic strip with which I was previously completely unfamiliar.

As far as I can tell, it began its life as Mr. Mush, then disappeared circa 1911. Creator Charles Payne replaced it with S’Matter Pop?, but began drawing Honeybunch again in 1931, with S’Matter as a “topper” to fill an entire page of comics. By 1934, both strips were gone, but I have to say it’s a cute little strip with very little continuity. The most remarkable part of Carnival of Comics, though, is the fact that this 91-year-old publication still looks great, as seen with the final feature, Connie.

Cited by Toonopedia as the first female adventure hero, Connie Kurridge is an interesting footnote in comics, with her adventures ending in 1941, the year Wonder Woman debuted in a comic edited by… M.C. Gaines! It’s one of those neat coincidences in the strange world of comics. Like all comics of the era, this anthology issue doesn’t just contain adventure and humor strips. It also includes several puzzle pages, a how-to page of magic tricks, and Ripley’s Believe It Or Not competitor, Strange As It Seems.

Though never as popular as Ripley’s, S.A.I.S. underwent a much more rigorous editorial policy, insisting that all facts be corroborated by a minimum of three sources, making it actually educational instead of the neat-but-often-apocryphal tales espoused by Believe It Or Not. Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics was available to consumers of Wheatena cereal, and reputedly available at Woolworth’s, and was successful enough that editor Gaines is credited by some as the Father of Comics, earning 5 out of 5 stars overall. Even if you don’t get the humor of Mutt and Jeff, it’s hard to call it anything but revolutionary.

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