Film Fun
![]() | This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2011) |
Film Fun | |
---|---|
![]() Film Fun annual 1947 | |
Publication information | |
Publisher | Amalgamated Press Fleetway Publications |
Schedule | Weekly |
Genre |
|
Publication date | 17 January 1920 – 15 September 1962 |
No. of issues | 2,225 |
Editor(s) | Frederick George Cordwell ("Eddie the Happy Editor") |
Film Fun was a British celebrity comics comic book that ran from (issues dates) 17 January 1920 to 15 September 1962, when it merged with Buster, a total of 2,225 issues. There were also annuals in the forties and fifties. As the title suggests, the comic mainly featured comic strip versions of people from films from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Publication history[]
Film Fun was launched by Amalgamated Press (which had other similar titles like Radio Fun, Sports Fun, and, later ). Pre-war circulation at its peak was around 800,000 copies per week.[1]
The title was renamed Film Fun and Thrills in 1959 (when Amalgamated Press was bought by the Mirror Group; later known as IPC). In 1962, sales of Film Fun dropped below 125,000 a week, prompting IPC to merge the comic with Buster.
Mergers[]
merged with Film Fun soon after its launch in 1920, followed by in 1932, in 1935, Illustrated Chips in 1953, and in 1960.[2][3]
Eddie the Happy Editor[]
was better known to Film Fun fans as "Eddie the Happy Editor." Cordwell edited the comic until his death in 1949, aged 62 in Richmond, Surrey.[citation needed] Cordwell wrote many scripts for the strips as well as text stories for Film Fun. He introduced the idea of characters receiving huge plates of bangers and mash, giant Christmas puddings, and pies and such from grateful beneficiaries of their efforts. Cordwell even made it into the stories himself, "meeting" Laurel and Hardy a number of times, Joe E. Brown, Wheeler and Woolsey and other characters.[citation needed]
Content[]
The cover of the first edition featured Harold Lloyd but named as "Winkle", the screen name by which he was known in Britain at the time. Apart from Laurel and Hardy, Film Fun used to feature many film and stage comedians of that era like Charlie Chaplin,[4] Abbot and Costello,[5][6] Buster Keaton, Ben Turpin,[7] Jackie Coogan, Fatty Arbuckle,[7] Joe E. Brown,[7] George Formby,[7] Wheeler & Woolsey,[7] Max Miller,[7] Lupino Lane,[7] Red Skelton,[4] Harold Lloyd (named Winkle in those days),[8] W.C. Fields, Terry-Thomas,[4] Sid Field, Frank Randle, Morecambe & Wise,[9] James Cagney,[10] Tony Hancock, Sid James, The Goon Show, Frankie Howerd, Tommy Cooper,[11] Martin & Lewis, Arthur Lucan (in his drag role as Old Mother Riley) and Bruce Forsyth. There would also be serialised cowboy films featuring stars like Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. There were also detective stories featuring a fictional detective named Jack Keen.
Contributing artists[]
- Walter Bell[6]
- [12]
- [13]
- Fred Holmes[14]
- [11]
- Tom Radford[8]
- Eric Roberts[15]
- George William Wakefield[7]
- [4]
- Jos "Josiah" Walker[10]
- Norman Yendell Ward[5]
- Roy Wilson[9]
- Films stills (selection)
Still for the American film Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves with Ali Baba (George Stone) being asked by his rich brother the secret of the cave, from pages 16 and 17 of the February 1919 Film Fun
Still for the American film Deliverance with Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, (1919), page 22 of the July 1919 Film Fun
Still with Betty Compson for the American film The Green Temptation (1922), page 17 of the April 1922 Film Fun
References[]
- ^ "The Comic Book Price Guide For Great Britain - FILM FUN". Comicpriceguide.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- ^ Lew Stringer (2011-01-30). "Blimey! It's another blog about comics!: Top Spot - The 'Clint' of 1958?". Lewstringer.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- ^ "Loading". Dandare.info. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Terence Wakefield".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Norman Yendell Ward".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Walter Bell".
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h "George William Wakefield".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Tom Radford".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Roy Wilson".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Jos Walker".
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Charlie Pease".
- ^ "Bertie Brown".
- ^ "Freddie Crompton".
- ^ "Fred Holmes".
- ^ "Eric Roberts".
Sources[]
- Film Fun at the Grand Comics Database
External links[]
Media related to Film Fun at Wikimedia Commons
- 1920 comics debuts
- 1962 comics endings
- Action-adventure comics
- Humor comics
- Fleetway and IPC Comics titles
- British humour comics
- 1920 establishments in the United Kingdom
- 1962 disestablishments in the United Kingdom
- Magazines established in 1920
- Magazines disestablished in 1962
- Comics based on films
- Comics based on real people
- Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom