Punch magazine
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Punch.jpg
There was also an American spinoff, called Punchinello.
Notable authors who contributed at one time or another included John Betjeman, A. P. Herbert, A. A. Milne, Anthony Powell, Willard R. Espy, W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, Thackeray, Artemus Ward and P.G. Wodehouse; John Tenniel was a regular cartoonist in the late 19th century, contributing a full page political cartoon every week for almost fifty years, with only a few breaks due to ill-health. Punch gave several phrases to the English language, not least the Curate's egg. Several British humour classics were first serialised in Punch, such as the Diary of a Nobody and 1066 and All That.
Tom Taylor served as editor for a period starting in 1874.
Circulation slowly declined over the years, until the magazine was forced to close in 1992 after 150 years of publication. However, in early 1996, the controversial businessman Mohammed Al-Fayed bought the rights to the name, and it was re-launched later that year. The magazine never became profitable in its new incarnation, and at the end of May 2002, it was announced that Punch would once more cease publication. Press reports at the time quoted a total loss to its owner of some 16 million pounds over the six years of publication, with only 6,000 subscribers at the end.
Many issues of Punch from before 1923, including the World War I era are available at Project Gutenberg.
Editors of Punch:
- Mark Lemon (1841-1870)
- Charles William Shirley Brooks (1870-1874)
- Tom Taylor (1874-1880)
- Sir Francis Burnand (1880-1906)
- Sir Owen Seaman (1906-1932)
- E.V. Knox (1932-1949)
- Kenneth Bird (1949-1952)
- Malcolm Muggeridge (1953-1957)
- Bernard Hollowood (1958-1968)
- William Davis (1969-1977)
- Alan Coren (1978-1987)
- David Taylor (1988)
- David Thomas (1989-)
See also
External links
- Punch cartoon and (physical) back-issue archive (http://www.punch.co.uk/)
- Project Gutenberg Punch (http://www.gutenberg.net/cgi-bin/search/t9.cgi?title=Punch&title=Charivari) edition
- Online archive of 1840-1860 Punch cartoons by John Leech (http://www.john-leech-archive.org.uk/)de:Punch (Zeitschrift)