Despite selling more than 6,000 issues a week, this was not enough to cover all the costs of the magazine.
The magazine struggled to attract readers and was going in the way of Mayhew’s other business venture, a failed pub. Unfortunately, the early issues were not that successful. Reading some of the early captions, it might seem that they had been assembled together by a drunken committee. As the brandy was passed around and the cigars were lit up, the editor would call, “Gentlemen, the cartoon!” As was custom, the contents of the week’s main political cartoon would be discussed after dinner was over. When Punch moved into a new building on Fleet Street in 1865, the Punch Dinner tradition had become so established that the magazine made sure to have its own banquet hall. During the meetings they would eat, drink, smoke cigars, all the while laughing at their own jokes. The editorial staff meeting took place over dinner - a tradition that lasted nearly 150 years. The satirical drawings were called “Punch’s Pencillings.” Each week the task was given to a different illustrator, while the subject of the illustration was decided by a committee of writers and artists at the weekly editorial meeting. The early issues were more politics than pictures, however, though each issue did feature a full-page spread at the center of the magazine. We have considered him as a teacher of no mean pretensions, and have, therefore, adopted him as the sponsor for our weekly sheet of pleasant instruction.įor the first fifty years of Queen Victoria’s reign, political caricature was virtually monopolized by Punch. Few of the admirers of our prototype, merry Master PUNCH, have looked upon his vagaries but as the practical outpourings of a rude and boisterous mirth. Our title, at a first glance, may have misled you into a belief that we have no other intention than the amusement of a thoughtless crowd, and the collection of pence. An explanation was included in the introduction to volume one: Punch, of Punch and Judy, as their mascot. Using this name, the editors then took the anarchic puppet Mr. To this, Mayhew shouted, “Capital idea! Let us call the paper Punch!” At one early meeting, someone had remarked that the magazine should be like a good punch mixture. He was intrigued by its heavy use of wood engravings and with the help of writer Henry Mayhew, the magazine was born. Landells had been a fan of another satirical weekly coming from Paris called Le Charivari.
The idea for Punch magazine came from engraver Ebenezer Landells. Today, Punch continues to stand out as a valuable resource for social historians. From the nineteenth century on, the magazine played a significant role in the development of satire in the Western world and in the realm of illustration, it practically revolutionized it. Launched on July 17, 1841, the magazine reflected the interests, concerns and frustrations of the country, combining humor, illustration and political debate with a fresh and radical audacity. etc., 1841-2002įor more than a century, Punch magazine cast a satirical eye on life in Britain. “This Guffawgraph is intended to form a refuge for destitute wit - an asylum for the thousands of orphan jokes - the millions of perishing puns, which are now wandering about without so much as a shelf to rest upon!”