Story paper
Encyclopedia
- This article is about BritishUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Story papers. For the U.S. version, see Dime novelDime novelDime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...
.
Publication
To publish is to make content available to the public. While specific use of the term may vary among countries, it is usually applied to text, images, or other audio-visual content on any medium, including paper or electronic publishing forms such as websites, e-books, Compact Discs and MP3s...
similar to a literary magazine, but featuring illustrations and text stories, and aimed towards children and teenagers. Also known in Britain as 'Boys' Weeklies', story papers were phenomenally popular before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Among the most well-known British story paper was Boy's Own Paper
Boy's Own Paper
The Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967.-Publishing history:The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instil Christian morals...
, which ran from 1879 to 1967.
Beginnings
The first known edition of what would later become known as a "story paper" was The Young Gentleman's Magazine, published in 1777. The first story paper to really take off was The Boys' and Girls' Penny Magazine, first published in September 1832.In 1866, Charles Stephens began selling Boys of England on the English streets for a penny--the first "penny dreadful". Story papers in this style minimized the expense of writing in order to produce an extremely cheap product. Strictly speaking, the "penny dreadful" died off by the turn of the century, but this term was still used to refer to story papers throughout their history. The Halfpenny Marvel
Halfpenny Marvel
The Halfpenny Marvel was a story paper of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For the American comic company, see Marvel comics-Overview:...
, first published in 1893, was "founded to counteract the pernicious influences of the Penny Dreadfuls", according to its title page. A book about these weeklies (also called "bloods" because of their savage contents) was created in 1948 by E. S. Turner, called Boys Will be Boys.
Golden Age
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as the "Golden Age" of story papers. Sales of the story papers were at their highest during these years, as were the fecundity of the authors, the range in genre of magazines, and the colourful variety of the heroes. The most famous story paper hero, Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake
Sexton Blake is a fictional detective who appeared in many British comic strips and novels throughout the 20th century. He was described by Professor Jeffrey Richards on the BBC in The Radio Detectives in 2003 as "the poor man's Sherlock Holmes"...
, reached his apex during these years.
World War II caused chaos in Britain, and among other things the story papers had to be shut down as funds were redirected to the war. This is known as the Dark Ages for story papers, and nearly all of the papers ceased printing in 1939 or 1940.
Silver Age and modern comics
In the 1950s to 1970s, some story papers such as the Eagle briefly flourished, but American comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s and television had a commanding influence on the attentions of British children. Mergers between publishing houses finished off the remaining story papers, or modified them to become comic books.
Format and politics
George OrwellGeorge Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's essay, Boys' Weeklies
Boys' Weeklies
"Boys' Weeklies" is an essay by George Orwell in which he analyses those weekly story-paper publications for boys which were current around 1940...
, outlines the general themes of the story paper in the "Golden Age". As far as Orwell could tell, Britain was the only country in Europe in which story papers were produced. The Gem
The Gem
The Gem was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominately featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school "St. Jim's". These stories were all written using the pen-name of Martin Clifford, the majority by Charles Hamilton who was...
and The Magnet
The Magnet
The Magnet was a United Kingdom weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional public school located somewhere in Kent, and were written...
, the oldest of their kind, featured school serials always centred around a group of characters any reader could identify with. More recent story papers focused on adventure and intrigue, and had a large teenage readership. According to Orwell, all of the English papers published at the time were stuck in the 1910s and had an underlying Conservative slant, which taught children to be deferent to the upper class. He suggested Socialist values could be just as exciting if they followed the story paper format.
There were story papers for children of both sexes, although there was a broad overlap in the actual readership of the two.
UK
- Adventure
- Aunt Judy's MagazineAunt Judy's MagazineAunt Judy's Magazine was a British magazine for young people founded in 1866 by Margaret Gatty and continued after her death in 1873 by her daughter Horatia Eden until 1885. It published much of the work of Juliana Horatia Ewing and perhaps most notably "Fairy Sylvie" and "Bruno's Revenge", two...
- Boy’s Best Story Paper
- Boys’ Broadcast
- Boy's Champion
- The Boys' Friend
- Boys’ Magazine
- Boys of EnglandBoys of EnglandBoys of England was a British boys' periodical issued weekly from 1866 to 1899, "the leading boys' periodical of the nineteenth century".Boys of England was edited by the publisher and former Chartist Edwin J. Brett. By the 1870s it had a circulation of 250,000, and a mainly working-class readership...
- Boy's Own PaperBoy's Own PaperThe Boy's Own Paper was a British story paper aimed at young and teenage boys, published from 1879 to 1967.-Publishing history:The idea for the publication was first raised in 1878 by the Religious Tract Society as a means to encourage younger children to read and also instil Christian morals...
- The Boys' HeraldThe Boys' HeraldThe Boys' Herald was a magazine published in England from 1877. It mostly ran adventure stories and sold for 1d...
- The Boys' Realm
- Bullseye
- The Captain
- The Champion
- The Children's Friend
- ChumsChums (paper)Chums was a boys' weekly newspaper started in 1892 that was the official paper of the British Boy Scouts and British Boys' Naval Brigade . The publisher also gathered the weekly paper into monthly and annual editions...
- Dixon Hawke Library
- The Dreadnought
- The Empire
- The GemThe GemThe Gem was a story paper published in Great Britain by Amalgamated Press in the early 20th century, predominately featuring the activities of boys at the fictional school "St. Jim's". These stories were all written using the pen-name of Martin Clifford, the majority by Charles Hamilton who was...
- Girl's Best Friend
- Girls’ Crystal
- The Girl's Home
- Girl's Own PaperGirl's Own PaperGirl's Own Paper was a British story paper catering for girls and young women, published from 1880 until 1956.- Publishing history :The first weekly number of the Girl's Own Paper appeared on January 3, 1880. As with its male counterpart the Boy's Own Paper, the magazine was published by the...
- Girl's Reader
- Girl's Realm
- Girl’s Weekly
- The Greyfriars Herald
- Halfpenny MarvelHalfpenny MarvelThe Halfpenny Marvel was a story paper of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For the American comic company, see Marvel comics-Overview:...
- JabberwockJabberwock (magazine)Jabberwock: a Monthly Magazine for Boys and Girls was published in London by Chapman & Hall and edited by Brenda Girvin. Price 6d 1905 - 1907Vol 1 No 3 contained The Princess and the Cat by E. Nesbitt.- References :...
- Joker
- The MagnetThe MagnetThe Magnet was a United Kingdom weekly boys' story paper published by Amalgamated Press. It ran from 1908 to 1940, publishing a total of 1683 issues. Each issue contained a long school story about the boys of Greyfriars School, a fictional public school located somewhere in Kent, and were written...
- The Marvel
- The Modern BoyThe Modern BoyThe Modern Boy was a British Boys magazine published between 1928 and 1939 by the Amalgamated Press and ran to some 610 issues. First launched on 11 February 1928 and always costing just 2d , the magazine ran initially to 523 weekly issues until 12 February 1938...
- Nelson Lee Library
- Our Girls
- Pals
- Peg’s Paper
- The Penny Popular
- The Pilot
- Pluck
- Public School MagazinePublic School MagazinePublic School Magazine was a short-lived magazine for young boys. It was started in 1898 by publishers Adam and Charles Black and appeared monthly until March 1902, when it ceased publication, the copyright being sold to rival publisher George Newnes, who had in the meantime founded his own...
- The Ranger
- Red Arrow
- School and Sport
- School Friend
- School Girls’ Own
- Schooldays
- The SchoolgirlThe SchoolgirlThe Schoolgirl was a British 28-page weekly story paper aimed at girls, subsequently reduced to 24 pages. Launched on 21 February 1922, it was published by...
- Schoolgirls’ Weekly
- Scout
- The Skipper
- Startler
- The Thriller
- Tip Top
- The Triumph
- Union JackUnion Jack (magazine)- Introduction :There were two story papers called Union Jack. The first appeared in the 1880s but was only very short-lived. The name was then used by Alfred Harmsworth in 1894 for a new halfpenny storypaper intended as a companion to the successful Halfpenny Marvel.Harmsworth considered it his...
- The Vanguard
- Young England magazineYoung England magazineYoung England: A Illustrated Magazine for Boys Throughout the English-Speaking World was a British story paper aimed at a similar audience to the Boy's Own Paper, It was published from 1880 until 1937.- Publishing history :...
- Young FolksYoung Folks (magazine)Young Folks was a weekly children's literary magazine published in the United Kingdom between 1871 and 1897. It is most notable for having first published a number of novels by Robert Louis Stevenson in serial form, including Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Black Arrow.Young Folks went under a...
See also
- Penny DreadfulPenny DreadfulA penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...
- Pulp magazinePulp magazinePulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
- Dime novelDime novelDime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...
- History of the British comicHistory of the British comicA British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper....