It's our 'Ballyoo Spotlight' in December! Introduction message

[Yoc]

https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/DCM banner81-Ballyhoo animation.gif

Here's a direct link to the Ballyhoo Magazine folder on DCM:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=1319

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Hi Gang!
We're happy to share our latest DCM Spotlight with you all.  This one is different from any previous episodes.  We're branching out into vintage humour magazines with the help of longtime friend and master scanner Darwination.  Darwin has many various interests including humour magazines like this one from Dell.  I enjoy them but honestly know very little about the genre.

Darwin and Wiki tells us BALLYHOO was the brainchild of Norman Anthony, a longtime editor of some repute.  He convinced George Delacorte at Dell to put the magazine out.  And here's the crazy part... he wanted it to have no real advertising.  Instead he wanted to satirize the advertising industry!  Some of you might think that sounds familiar.  Perhaps a bit Mad?    Yes, you would be right.  Ballyhoo and others like it had an influence on 'Mad Magazine' which would arrive just over a decade later.  Ballyhoo had to eventually relent and include a few ads.  But it continued to feature parodies.   Ballyhoo was reportedly a hit from the start and spawned a pile of imitators.

Darwination tells it better over on his DARWINATION SCANS Blog.  His Ballyhoo feature includes links to an interview with a nervous Delacorte at the beginning of Ballyhoo and another to a Will Straw blog post that talks about 'The New York Humour Magazine Wave of 1931-1932' and the explosion of Ballyhoo clones once everyone saw how well the magazine was selling.  We highly recommend you give Darwin's blog a read, it's full of lots of goodies and fun observations on different magazines from many different eras and genres.   Here's the link to Darwin's 'Ballyhoo' post: https://darwinscans.blogspot.com/2023/11/renovation-ballyhoo-february-1934-mae.html

DCM will be sharing several issues of Ballyhoo during the month along with some of the other magazines mentioned on Darwin's blog to give you all a taste of 1930's humour in America.  But we want warn readers.  As we often hear when old examples of esoterica like this are shared, they were most definitely products of their time.  What was fine back then raises eyebrows today.  You will find some examples of unacceptable humour for modern tastes.  DCM does not believe in censoring for current tastes.  We exist to preserve these books, warts and all.  For those sensitive to such things you might want to be cautious when reading them.


Here's a gallery of some of the Balllyhoo books we will be sharing...

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v01n01 (1931-08.Dell) (IA).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v01n04 (1931-11.Dell) (IA).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n02 (1932-03.Dell)-inc Darwin.DaveH.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n03 (1932-04.Dell).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n05 (1932-06.Dell) (IA).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v05n05 (1933-12.Dell) (IA).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n01 (1934-02.Dell)(Darwination-McCoy).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n02 (1934-03. Dell)(D-M).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v08n01 Paris (1935-02.Dell)(D-M).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v08n03 (1935-04)(inc)(MrBaliHai).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v10n02 (1936-03.Dell)(D-M).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v13n03 (1937-10.Dell) (IA).jpg

And here's a small sampling of some of the contents...

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo1932-03 0012-0013 bathtub.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n02 (1932-03) Image 0030.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n03 (1932-04) -P0010.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n05 (1932-06) -P0010 Title.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v05n05 (1933-12) P0002.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v05n05 (1933-12) P0005 Title.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n02 img07 title.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n02 img20.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v10n02 (1936-03) p05 title.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v13n03 (1937-10) -P0004 title.jpg

We also plan to share some of the clones and other examples from the era such as these...

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Hullabaloo v01n04 (1932-06.Dell).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/KooKoo1932-04Image 0035 wraparound.jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Satire v01n01 1935-12 (Dizzy Detective Magazine)(Darwin).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Satire v01n02 1936-01 (Another Movie Magazine)(SS-Nation).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Hooey v01n11 (1932-10.Popular Magazines).jpg

http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Hooey v02n01 (1932-12.Popular Magazines).jpg

Enjoy the scans and please feel free to share your comments.
-Yoc

[Eddie73]

Quote: "We're branching out into vintage humour magazines"

Will this affect the scanning of old comics; or has that largely dried up based on what I've been reading?

[Yoc]

Hi Eddie, no no.  New scans have slowed down due to supply, but we will always encourage comic book scanning for sharing on the site.  We have been sharing other materials that have 'comic' like content like Victorian story books, gag books (thanks ComicsCastle) and humour mags like Ballyhoo.  When we are lucky enough to work with Darwination sharing a batch of scans with us, we felt it warranted a 'spotlight'.

Enjoy the scans!
-Yoc

[Yoc]

Our next Ballyhoo issue is an all new DEBUT scan from Darwin and DaveH.  Thanks guys!

Ballyhoo v02n02 [Msg-4pgs] (1932-03.Dell) Darwin+DaveH.cbz

This is missing some pages but you'll still enjoy it without them.

-Yoc

[darwination]

A quick note on the new issue that Yoc has posted in the Ballyhoo section today, Ballyhoo v02n03 (1932-04.Dell), scanned by intriguing Internet Archive scanner, Vaguery, who makes nice, big scans.  Thanks, Vaguery 

The issue features a splash page from John R. Flanagan in a spoof of Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu.  My feeling is that it was probably an unsold illustration for a Rohmer story that was perfect for Ballyhoo's purposes here:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1183121144409243729/Ballyhoo_v02n03_1932-04.Dell_splash_The_Sex_Murder_Mysteries_of_Mysterious_Glopton_Swilk_J.R._Flanagan_800.jpg

Here's a non-embedded link to the splash at full size.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1173146328424001696/Ballyhoo_v02n03_1932-04.Dell_splash_The_Sex_Murder_Mysteries_of_Mysterious_Glopton_Swilk_J.R._Flanagan.jpg

I mention this here because Flanagan (who did work in Collier's and other slicks early in his career and Adventure and Blue Book later on) is known in comic circles for some of the covers he did for D.C. A cover only copy of Double Action #2 sold recently at auction with collector interest:

https://d3nvbf5pqk2vjh.cloudfront.net/cgccomics/monthly_2023_09/CGC4310075-001_OBV.thumb.jpg.e568707f6ad343eeabd686b0a6649408.jpg

More on Flanagan at David Saunders' pulp wiki here:
https://www.pulpartists.com/Flanagan.html

[Yoc]

Very nice!
Thanks for sharing these Darwin.  Lovely to see more comics connections.

[Yoc]

Here's our latest 'Ballyhoo Spotlight' update.
This one features another clone magazine.  When Fawcett saw Ballyhoo take off it only took them three months to produce their own clone called 'Hooey'.  Here are two issue of the mag scanned by BONES.

Hooey v01 n11 (1932-10.Popular Magazines) -Bones.cbr
Hooey v02 n01 (1932-12.Popular Magazines) -Bones.cbr

[Yoc]

Hi Gang,
Our latest issue is from Darwination and DaveH.  It's missing two pages but still worth a read!

Ballyhoo v04 n03 (1933-05. Dell) msg-2pgs [Jigsaw Number] Darwin+DaveH.cbz

Enjoy!
-Yoc

[darwination]

This issue is fantastic and shows off some of the inventiveness of the magazine.  They were always out to capitalize on trends and novelties (the magazine itself falls into this category), and this issue is the second issue I've seen to take on the jigsaw puzzle which was enjoying huge popularity during the depression as an affordable and re-usable form of entertainment, good for hours and hours and hours of diversion. Those of us who've been perusing these magazines might have noticed, too, that Ballyhoo was always out for a side hustle and was selling various products at newsstands related to the magazine like prints of centerfolds, drink recipe charts, playing cards, etc.  This issue has a puzzle with Russell Patterson art on offer.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1187454520582754435/Ballyhoo1934-07p050.jpg

I found some images at Worthpoint, pretty neat!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1187456958735851680/Ballyhoo_Puzzle_Box_Large_View.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1187459422058971247/Ballyhoo_Puzzle_Box_Side.jpg

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1187456958408691792/Ballyhoo_Full_Puzzle_Color.jpg

The temptation to cut this issue up and do the puzzles must have been extreme.  Sad my copy is missing some pages, but it's pretty common with Ballyhoo and shows reader engagement.  Pulling out puzzles, gags, and, likely, pictures of girls was very common   

[Yoc]

Fun stuff, thanks for the scan and for sharing here Darwin.
Members will be happy to hear two more were just scanned by you and edited by DaveH.  Both will be showing up here very soon.

[Yoc]

Here's another  issue of Ballyhoo for you all.

Ballyhoo v05 n05 (1933-12.Dell) (IA).cbr

Enjoy!
-Yoc

[Yoc]

Merry Christmas everyone!
Here's our latest Ballyhoo scan and two bonus scans for the holidays.
The Ballyhoo is a 'Christmas Number', perfect for the season.
We're also sharing two issues of Worth Carnahan's 'Wild Cherries' humour mag.  This was being made in the same era and feature more risque jokes and gag pages.  It's got one of the most beautifully designed logos that I've seen so far of the genre and era.  Top notch graphic design there.  Be sure to check out Darwination's blog on these.  He's done a multi-part series of posts on artist, designer, owner Worth Carnahan.  It includes his recent interactions with Worth's family.  Fun stuff!

NOTE - If ANYONE out there owns a copy of 'Wild Cherries' #1, Darwin would love to hear from you.  His goal is to share the entire run of the title.

Ballyhoo v05 n06 (1934-01.Dell) [Christmas Number] Darwin+DaveH.cbz
Wild Cherries v01n02 (1933-09.Publications Services Syndicate) (Darwination).cbr
Wild Cherries v01n03 (1933-10.Publications Service Syndicate) (Darwination).cbr

[Yoc]

New today in our Ballyhoo Spotlight...  two issues from the beginning of 1934.

Ballyhoo v06 n01 (1934-02.Dell)(Darwination-McCoy).cbr
Ballyhoo v06 n02 (1934-03. Dell)(D+M)-tweaked.cbz

Thanks again to Darwin for all his work on these books for us.

[darwination]

Thanks for putting up the Wild Cherries, Yoc. 

It ran for four issues, so I'm still looking for issues #1 and #4 to complete the run of scans.

I'd note that I wouldn't put Wild Cherries in the same classification of humor magazine as Ballyhoo and its many, many imitators even though it was likely impacted market-wise by this "glut" of humor magazines.  The Ballyhoo-type mags were full magazine-sized and on a thin slick paper.  The page count tended to 36 or 48.  Wild Cherries is more in the vein of a humor digest which was pulp-sized (and digests could be smaller too) with pulp paper and a page count like 68 or whatnot and a mixture of the sort of art you'd see in the girlie pulps and artists and models magazines and the cartooning you'd see in mags like Smokehouse Monthly or the Calgary Eye-Opener.  No doubt all these magazine publishers with these new humor mags were trying to catch the lightning in a bottle of Ballyhoo, though, no matter the format.

In the letters column of the second issue of Wild Cherries, there's a puzzled reader (or possibly a ghost written letter by the editor) that references Ballyhoo:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1098635762951524436/1189625078481158195/WildCherries1933-09Image_0064.jpg

It's one of those things where you see a really cool magazine like Wild Cherries or Satire Presents only make it a short while.  Sometimes there's market reasons, sometimes people catch on too late, sometimes people never catch on - but the magazine and comic graveyards are full of classic titles that only made it a handful of issues. 

One other possibility for the short run of Wild Cherries is the price.  You can see in the cover logo on #2 where the logo says "25 cents and worth it".  25 cents was a lot during the depression.  The high riding magazine of the market of the 20s was gone.  Illustrators and cartoonists from the higher end magazines and slicks had to get work where they could.  The conventional wisdom is that the pulps did great even as the larger magazine market (and associated advertising businesses) took the brunt of the depression's impact on the magazine business, but there was plenty of competition on the newsstands no matter what part of the market you were after.

[Yoc]

New today in our Ballyhoo Spotlight...

Ballyhoo v06 n06 (1934-07.Dell) Zilch College Number (Darwin).cbr
Ballyhoo v08 n01 Paris Edition (1935-02.Dell)(D-M).cbz
Satire v01 n01 1935-12 (Dizzy Detective Magazine)(Darwin).cbz

Enjoy!
-Yoc