Sign in to join Owen Jones's fan club.
Punch Magazine - A British Institution
http://the-real-way.com
Probably the first name that comes to mind when thinking of the heritage of cartoons is that of Punch.
It was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published between 1841 and 1992. It was started in July 1841 by Henry Mayhew who, with Mark Lemon, was responsible for the editing, and engraver Ebenezer Landells who looked after the images.
Its original sub-title was 'The London Charivari', after a French satirical humour magazine called Le Charivari. Revealing their satiric and humorous intent, the two editors adopted the name of the rebellious glove puppet, Mr. Punch, of Punch and Judy renown as the title of the new periodical.
However the name is also a play on words with regard to the name of the co-editor Mark Lemon, in that "punch is nothing without lemon". Mayhew did not stay with the publication for long. He ceased being joint editor in 1842 and became "suggestor in chief" until he left in 1845.
Punch was responsible for the word "cartoon" in the signification of a comic drawing. In fact, one of its most famous cartoons, drawn by George Du Maurier, the grandfather of the writer Dame Daphne Du Maurier , gave rise to the phrase “it is good in parts, like the curate’s egg”. The phrase derives from a cartoon known as "True Humility".
It featured a nervous-looking curate taking breakfast in his bishop's house.The bishop says, "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones." The curate answers, "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"
However, perhaps its most well-known cartoon is entitled “Dropping the Pilot” . This was a political cartoon by Sir John Tenniel, first printed in March 1890. It depicts the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, as a shipping pilot, disembarking from a ship watched by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. Bismarck had just resigned as Chancellor at Wilhelm's insistence.
After a very difficult beginning with much financial trouble and lack of marketplace success, Punch became a necessity for British middle class drawing rooms because it not just displayed a refined sense of humour and but lacked the offensive material so ubiquitous in much of the alternative satirical press of the era.
The Times used small parts from Punch as column fillers, giving the publication free publicity and implicitly granting a degree of respectability. However respectability was truly achieved when it was daid that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were to be discovered amongst it circulation.
The distribution of Punch peaked during the 1940's at 175,000 but thereafter fell into decline, until in 1992, after 150 years the publication was compelled to close.
In 1996, the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed became tired of the numerous criticisms he had to put up with from the magazine Private Eye and bought the rights to the Punch name with a view to using it to combat his adversary.
He relaunched it later that year, but it never regained any degree of readership or profitability and in May 2002 it was announced that Punch would at long last shut down for good
Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on numerous topics but is currently concerned with Kitty Cannon 3. If you would like to read more, please visit our web site entitled Kitten Cannon 3.
Article submitted Friday, September 09, 2011 & read 36 times.
Owen Jones writes on many subjects and is currently running several websites. He was born in Wales but now lives in northern, rural Thailand.
Leave your comments through Blogz:
1-0-0-0-1-ADSO
Copyright © 2012 IcoLogic, Inc.