1920’s

Comics material had been in existence before the turn of the century but it was not until 1929 when The Funnies was published. The funnies was the first collection of comics material but it was more like a color newspaper supplement, as it had no cover, rather than the comic book format familiar today. Before 1929, almost all comics were part of magazines, newspapers or supplements and were not sold separately. While The Funnies was the first collection and definitely became a guide for later comics, it bares about as much resemblance to the modern comic book as the first steam powered vehicles from the 18th century do to modern day cars.

Most comic characters from the 20’s were created for newspaper strips rather than for stand-alone books. It is sad to look at characters from this period and see how few have survived to modern days. There were literally hundreds of characters and strips from the start of the 20th century’s first two decades but only a handful ever made the jump into comic books and fewer still are known to any degree today. Gasoline Alley was a hugely popular strip in its day and while it is not the monster hit it once was, it can still be found in the newspaper comics section today. The biggest on that list of survivors are Tintin by Herge, Buck Rogers, Popeye and Tarzan none of whom draw the readers like they did in their heyday.