Here comes The Judge! 0

[markseifert]

Hey all, used to post here a fair bit but it's been awhile. I mostly collect platinum-era stuff these days and still some gold, but this is my favorite comics-related acquisition of the past year or so:

Judge #1, Oct 29, 1881

Judge was launched by my favorite dime novel publisher, Frank Tousey.  Tousey was the nephew of the founder of the newsstand distribution system in the United States, Sinclair Tousey of American News Co.  Judge's original editor was a man named George G. Small, who is probably among the top 5 most important comic editors ever -- he had the best contacts in the business, and a great eye for great comic and illustrative art. 

During the WW1 era and beyond, Judge featured art and editing by a few names who would go onto figure prominently in the golden age. Also attached here are a pair of little-known 1911 Judge cartoons from future Wonder Woman co-creator HG Peter.

Anyone else collect Judge?

Edited May 19, 2020 by markseifert

[Comcav]

Awesome to see you posting again, Mark.  For those that haven't seen his astounding research pieces on Bleeding Cool, Mark is the most interesting Vintage Paper historian out there.

[circumstances]

Good to see you back!

[Ricksneatstuff]

Fascinating stuff and great illustrations and from 1881 too! One of the most interesting years in US history.  Three presidents that year.  

[markseifert]

14 minutes ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Fascinating stuff and great illustrations and from 1881 too! One of the most interesting years in US history.  Three presidents that year.  

I agree! Way more interesting than people think as well.  

Before the assassination, there was a conspiracy to throw the election which involved a dime novelist (he was one of the first writers to produce newsstand detective fiction in the United States), who was hired to create a forged letter purporting to be from Garfield.  It almost worked! To this day, this was one of the closest popular vote results in US history.  There were trials held over this matter, but it's largely forgotten due to what happened next.

As for the assassination... I'll just say that having studied this an awful lot, the accepted history is nonsense.  The conspirators above included a comic book publisher in San Francisco, by the way (who was a Czech Marxist who'd fled that country to avoid prison).  Chester Arthur gave the California conspirators exactly what they wanted (which was a) the Chinese Exclusion Act, b) a greatly strengthened Navy to enforce said act, and c) strong federal anti-polygamy laws), and then proceeded to burn his papers upon leaving office -- an act without parallel in US history.  To this day, his is perhaps the least-understood Presidential administrations in our history.  Library of Congress had to chase his heirs for nearly a century for the few scraps of papers that they have.

Amazing unknown story overall.

Edited May 19, 2020 by markseifert

[SOLAR BOY]

I love this.....beautiful stuff......makes you feel the history.....

[PopKulture]

Really great stuff, Mark! I chase little scraps of history as well. I pick up weird mags like the National Bi-Metallist and Punchinello when I chance upon them. Examples of favored pieces of mine include a New York Illustrated newspaper from 1863 featuring the draft riots and an 1865 De Morest's Mirror with Lincoln assassination coverage as well as this memorial songsheet:

And random stuff like this:

[markseifert]

4 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

Really great stuff, Mark! I chase little scraps of history as well. I pick up weird mags like the National Bi-Metallist and Punchinello when I chance upon them. Examples of favored pieces of mine include a New York Illustrated newspaper from 1863 featuring the draft riots an

Love it!  I have a small handful of NY Illustrated News -- you may know that the paper was co-owned by PT Barnum, and supported his politics.

The draft riot era is very important to the history of comics, as American News founder Sinclair Tousey rose to prominence in part during that moment.  The below is one of the more famous handbills he printed up during that time (not mine alas, wish it was!  This copy from LoC).

 

[PopKulture]

2 minutes ago, markseifert said:

Love it!  I have a small handful of NY Illustrated News -- you may know that the paper was co-owned by PT Barnum, and supported his politics.

The draft riot era is very important to the history of comics, as American News founder Sinclair Tousey rose to prominence in part during that moment.  The below is one of the more famous handbills he printed up during that time (not mine alas, wish it was!  This copy from LoC).

Wow, you really know your stuff! It's noteworthy how well-positioned, established printers and publishers so seamlessly ascended the ladders of power and influence. 

Do you have much of an interest in the children's literature of the day?

[markseifert]

9 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

Wow, you really know your stuff! It's noteworthy how well-positioned, established printers and publishers so seamlessly ascended the ladders of power and influence. 

Do you have much of an interest in the children's literature of the day?

Yes, but mostly along the dime novel / story paper / nickel weekly line.

As for the power of publishers -- yes.  And it's way way more than people get.  There are countless examples, but keeping up with Sinclair Tousey, here's an interesting one:  Tousey built the most powerful broadcast network in the world in his era, and he knew it.  He was an ally of Lincoln, an abolitionist, and qualified as extremely progressive for his day.  His nephew Frank produced children's fiction that covered adventure related to science and invention, working men, wall street, the military, politics, and more.  In other words, every aspect of society. 

Many subsequent figures understood the power of the American News Co. distribution network.  It's fairly well known that American News being forced out of the distribution business due to monopoly concerns was a key contributor to the mid-1950s comics industry troubles.  Less known is the fact that over the next 15 years or so, another businessman quietly put the pieces of American News back together, and then flipped it to another man who also well understood the power of such a network, and still does to this day: Rupert Murdoch. 

Murdoch took those remnants of vernerable old newsstand distro dynasty American News Corp, dropped the "American" and named it News Corp.

[Electricmastro]

Ah, reminds me of this.

Source: https://www.gocomics.com/origins-of-the-sunday-comics/2013/07/15