Ally Sloper's Half Holiday is a British comic, first published on 3 May 1884. It has a legitimate claim to being the first comic magazine named after and featuring a regular character. Star Ally Sloper, a blustery, lazy schemer often found "sloping" through alleys to avoid his landlord and other creditors, had debuted in 1867 in the humor magazine Judy — created by writer and fledgling artist Charles Henry Ross and inked and later fully illustrated by his French wife Emilie de Tessier under the pseudonym "Marie Duval" ¹ (or "Marie DuVal"; sources differ). Cover to 27 December 1884 edition of Ally Slopers Half Holiday A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom which contains comic strips. ... May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Ally Sloper was a fictional comic book character that has legitimate claim to being the first regular comic character ever. ... The Yokosuka D4Y Suisei (彗星, comet) was a single-seat dive bomber of the Imperial Japanese Navy. ... A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to his or her legal name. ...

The "half holiday" referred to in the title was the practice in Victorian Britain of allowing the workers home at lunchtime on a Saturday, a practice that also established the kick-off times of football in the United Kingdom. Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... Football (soccer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Publication history

19th-century issue of the British comic magazine Ally Sloper's Half Holiday

The black-and-white weekly comic paper Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, typically of eight tabloid pages and priced one penny ¹, was first published on 3 May 1884, a short time after Ross, had sold the rights to the character to Gilbert Dalziel, an engraver and the publisher of Judy. Initially launching the paper with proprieter W. J. Sinkins, Dalziel was soon in full control, publishing it from "The Sloperies", 99 Shoe Lane, EC. Alongside the strips featuring Sloper, the magazine also featured prose stories and cartoons and strips of other characters.² Image File history File links AllySloper'sHalfHoliday. ... Image File history File links AllySloper'sHalfHoliday. ... British comics is the art form of comics as practiced within the United Kingdom. ... A variety of coins considered to be lower-value, including an Irish 2p piece and many US pennies. ... May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Sales of the magazine have been estimated as being as high as 350,000, the magazine describing itself as "the largest selling paper in the world". The paper found a mixed audience: aimed at adults it captured both a loyal working class, male base, as well as attracting a cult following amongst the middle class of the time. ³ The term working class is used to denote a social class. ... The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ...

Although the weekly initially ceased publication on September 9, 1916, after 1,679 issues, it was later revived between November 5, 1922 and April 14, 1923 ⁴, again from 1948 to 1949, and finally from 1976 to 1977, each attempt failing to capture the imagination of the British public as the original once had.⁵

Contributors

William Giles Baxter ⁶ took over art duties for the Sloper character with issue 13. ⁷

William Fletcher Thomas ⁸ became the artist on the Ally Sloper strips following Baxter's death in 1888.⁹

James Gibbins contributed his expertise in the field of handwriting, a skill he put forward to the police at the time of the Jack the Ripper murders, offering to analyse items thought to be authored by the ripper. ¹⁰ Penmanship is the art of writing clearly and quickly. ... Jack the Ripper is the pseudonym given to an unidentified serial killer active in the largely impoverished Whitechapel area of London, England in the second half of 1888. ...

Thomas Burke contributed stories. ¹¹ Thomas Burke (November, 1886– September 22, 1945) was a British author. ...

Influence

The weekly comic paper is widely cited as being the first comic book or magazine to feature a regular character, and is also often cited as the first comic as well. Half Holiday helped established the financial viability of the medium and codified the British form to an extent visible many years later in publications such as Viz. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Cover of Viz (issue 57) Viz is a popular British adult spoof comic magazine. ...

Footnotes

• Note 1: "Comics", Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2005
• Note 2: Andy's Early Comics Archive: Ally Sloper. URL accessed on August 21, 2005. (fan page)
• Note 3: Sabin, Roger (1993). Adult Comics:An Introduction, Routledge. ISBN 0-415-04419-7. p.19
• Note 4: Comics UK - British Comic History. URL accessed on August 21, 2005.
• Note 5: Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Ally Sloper. URL accessed on August 21, 2005.
• Note 6: The British Museum: Factsheets. URL accessed on August 21, 2005.
• Note 7: Comic creator: William G. Baxter. URL accessed on August 21, 2005.
• Note 8: Ibid., British Museum
• Note 9: Ibid., Markstein
• Note 10: Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Responses to the Ripper Murders: Letters to Old Jewry. URL accessed on August 21, 2005.
• Note 11: Rose, Jonathon. Intellectuals Among the Masses; Or, What Was Leonard Bast Really Like?. The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes. URL accessed on August 21, 2005.

August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 21 is the 233rd day of the year (234th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External link

• Cover image held by Britsh Library