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

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Yoc:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/DCM banner81-Ballyhoo animation.gifHere's a direct link to the Ballyhoo Magazine folder on DCM:
https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?cid=1319+++
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).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v01n04 (1931-11.Dell) (IA).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n02 (1932-03.Dell)-inc Darwin.DaveH.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n03 (1932-04.Dell).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n05 (1932-06.Dell) (IA).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v05n05 (1933-12.Dell) (IA).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n01 (1934-02.Dell)(Darwination-McCoy).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n02 (1934-03. Dell)(D-M).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v08n01 Paris (1935-02.Dell)(D-M).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v08n03 (1935-04)(inc)(MrBaliHai).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v10n02 (1936-03.Dell)(D-M).jpghttp://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.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n02 (1932-03) Image 0030.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n03 (1932-04) -P0010.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v02n05 (1932-06) -P0010 Title.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v05n05 (1933-12) P0002.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v05n05 (1933-12) P0005 Title.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n02 img07 title.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v06n02 img20.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Ballyhoo v10n02 (1936-03) p05 title.jpghttp://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).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/KooKoo1932-04Image 0035 wraparound.jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Satire v01n01 1935-12 (Dizzy Detective Magazine)(Darwin).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Satire v01n02 1936-01 (Another Movie Magazine)(SS-Nation).jpghttp://digitalcomicmuseum.com/images/forum message pictures/BallyhooIntro/Hooey v01n11 (1932-10.Popular Magazines).jpghttp://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.jpgHere'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.jpgMore on Flanagan at David Saunders' pulp wiki here:
https://www.pulpartists.com/Flanagan.html

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