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Comic books in 'Victorian Age'

  • Issue #83
    Judge's Library (1889 Sackett & Wilhelms Litho Co.) 83


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    • Spine split 5%. Staple rust: Moderate.

    Issue #83 - February, 1896. This issue of Judge's Library Magazine contains cartoons and prose all focusing on the subject of "On, and Off the Stage". 8 1/8" x 11 1/8", b&w, 32 pages. Cover price $0.10.

  • Issue #101
    Judge's Library (1889 Sackett & Wilhelms Litho Co.) 101


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    • Staple rust: Moderate.

    Issue #101 - August, 1897. This issue of Judge's Library Magazine contains cartoons and prose all focusing on the subject of "Breakers". 8 1/8" x 11 1/8", b&w, 32 pages. Cover price $0.10.

  • Issue #1875
    Max and Maurice (1871) 1875

    "Max and Maurice: A Juvenile History in Seven Tricks" by Wilhelm Busch. Roberts Brothers, Boston. 1875 reprint. OVERSTREET NOTES: "56 pages of art and text in a transitional format between a regular children's book and a comic book (the page count difference is ad pages in back). Seminal inspiration for William Randolph Hearst to acquire as a "new comic" (following the wild success of Outcault's Yellow Kid) to license M&M from Busch and hire Rudolph Dirks in late 1897 to create a New York American newspaper incarnation. In Hearst's English language newspapers it was called The Katzenjammer Kids and in his German language NYC newspaper it was titled Max and Moritz, Busch's original title...Translated from the 1865 Germain original."

  • Issue #0
    Pictures of Life and Character (1880) 0

    Pictures of Life and Character, 8-1/2 x 6 1/4" inches, 212 pages (counting endpaper and covers), color cover (inset full-color litho), black-and-white cartoons with sub-text, reprinted John Leech cartoons from Punch Magazine. Note: This item was published without a dust jacket.

  • Issue #0
    Chip's Old Wood Cuts (1895) 0

    First Edition. R.H. Russell and Son Publishers, 1895, by Frank P.W. "Chip" Bellew. 64 pages. 8-7/8" x 11-3/4". Publisher's original quarter cloth binding with paper over boards. Title stamped in red to front board with surrounding decoration in brown. Spine plain and unstamped. B&W. NOTE: 1897 reprint exists.

  • Issue #REPRINT
    Imagerie d'Epinal Album d'Images (1888) REPRINT


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    Reprint edition, publication date unknown. This is a 39-40 page, hardcover edition with a blue background. Full color, French text, no date or indicia, though we suspect this is a modern reprint. "Imagerie d'Epinal Album d' Images" by various French artists. Printed and hand colored in France expressly for the Humoristic Publishing Company by Jean-Charles Pellerin's Imagerie d'Epinal printing house, which was founded in 1796. Printed on one side only. This is a collection of forty or so broadsheets (actual number of broadsheets vary by copy; a broad sheet is a single sheet), originally sold separately. According to Overstreet, all known copies were collected with sheets 15-20, 23,24, 47 and 48 missing. Each broadsheet tells a different fairy tale, in sequential art panels (with accompanying descriptive text below each panel). This historically important graphic collection presages the format used by Hal Foster in his Prince Valiant strips by some fifty years, and is a clear forerunner of the modern day comic book. Pellerin for Humoristic Publishing Co., Kansas City, Mo; no date but Overstreet states the original was published in 1888. 11-1/2" x 15-1/2", Page count may vary per copy (around 40). Full color hardcover, hand colored interior.

  • Issue #1888
    Imagerie d'Epinal Album d'Images (1888) 1888

    Original edition published 1888. "Imagerie d'Epinal Album d' Images" by various French artists. Printed and hand colored in France expressly for the Humoristic Publishing Company by Jean-Charles Pellerin's Imagerie d'Epinal printing house, which was founded in 1796. Printed on one side only. This is a collection of fifty to sixty broadsheets (actual number of broadsheets vary by copy; a broad sheet is a single sheet), originally sold separately. Overstreet states: "all known copies only have fifty of the sixty known broadsheets, three slightly different covers known to exist," some with the original French text on the broadsheets, some with English translations, with or without the general title "Contes de Fees" ("Fairy Tales"). According to Overstreet, all known copies were collected with sheets 15-20, 23,24, 47 and 48 missing. See individual item description for further details. Each broadsheet tells a different fairy tale, in sequential art panels (with accompanying descriptive text below each panel). This historically important graphic collection presages the format used by Hal Foster in his Prince Valiant strips by some fifty years, and is a clear forerunner of the modern day comic book. Pellerin for Humoristic Publishing Co., Kansas City, Mo; no date but Overstreet states this was published in 1888. 11-1/2" x 15-1/2", Overstreet states 108 pages but page count may vary per copy. Please see individual item description for further details. Full color hardcover, hand colored interior.

  • Issue #3-1ST
    Good Things of Life (1884) 3-1ST

    3rd Series - 1st printing. Collection of captioned cartoons first published in Life Magazine. Gilted Hardcover, 10 1/4-in x 8-in, 76 Pages, B&W.

  • Issue #0
    Bull Calf and Other Tales (1892 Charles Scribner's Sons) 0

    Words and illustrations by A.B. Frost. Features "The Humane Man and the Bull Calf," "A Warning to Mutton that Thinks Itself Lamb," "Antonio and Jeremiah, an Inharmonious Tale," "Dizzy Joe," "Violet's Experience," "The Entire Discomfiture of Uneasy Walker," "'Twas a Poem about Gentle Spring," "The Kidnapping of Private Jean Francois: A Frontier Episode of the Next War," "A Low Down Trick; or, Louisa's Capitulation," and "A Tale of Two Tails." 7 in. x 9 in., 116pg, hardcover, B&W.

  • Issue #1-1ST
    Spice of Life HC (1888 White and Allen) 1-1ST


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    White and Allen - 1888. Humorous illustrations about Victorian-era life. Green full-cloth hardcover binding with decorations stamped in gilt and maroon. Gilt page edges. 10-1/4" x 8-1/2", 64 pages, B&W

  • Issue #1-1ST
    Buzz A Buzz Or The Bees HC (1872 Phillipson & Golder) 1-1ST


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    • Water damage: Slight.

    By Wilhelm Busch. Published by Griffith & Farran, London: September, 1872. 8-1/2"x5-1/2", 168 pages, printed one side only, orange, black & white hardcover, B&W interior. Notes from Overstreet: Reprint published by Phillipson & Golder, Chester; text written in English to accompany Busch art.

  • Issue #0G
    Bushel of Merry Thoughts HC (1868 Samson Low Son & Marsten) 0G


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    Sampson Low Son & Marsten -1868. Wilhelm Busch comic strip reprints translated by Harry Rogers. Hardcover, green quarter-cloth binding. 6.5" x 10", 134 pages, B&W.