Editing Punch (magazine) (section)

== History ==
''Punch'' was founded on 17 July 1841 by [[Henry Mayhew]] and wood-engraver [[Ebenezer Landells]], on an initial investment of £25 ({{Inflation|UK|25|1841|2023|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}). It was jointly edited by Mayhew and [[Mark Lemon]]. It was subtitled ''The London Charivari'' in homage to [[Charles Philipon]]'s French satirical humour magazine ''[[Le Charivari]]''.{{sfn|Appelbaum|Kelly|1981|p=14}} Reflecting their satiric and humorous intent, the two editors took for their name and masthead the anarchic glove puppet Mr. Punch, of [[Punch and Judy]]; the name also referred to a joke made early on about one of the magazine's first editors, Lemon, that "[[Punch (drink)|punch]] is nothing without lemon".<ref>{{cite news |title='The First Cartoonist': Linley Sambourne and Punch Magazine |url=https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/first-cartoonist-linley-sambourne-and-punch-magazine |access-date=3 June 2024 |website=The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.gov.uk and}}</ref>

Mayhew ceased to be joint editor in 1842 and became "suggestor in chief" until he severed his connection in 1845. The magazine initially struggled for readers, except for an 1842 ''Almanack'' issue which shocked its creators by selling 90,000 copies. In December 1842, due to financial difficulties, the magazine was sold to [[Bradbury and Evans]], both printers and publishers. Bradbury and Evans capitalised on newly evolving mass printing technologies and also were the publishers for [[Charles Dickens]] and [[William Makepeace Thackeray]].

===Cartoon terminology===
[[File:SubstanceandShadow.jpg|thumb|[[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]], ''Substance and Shadow'' (1843), published as ''Cartoon, No. 1'']]
The term "[[cartoon]]" to refer to comic drawings was first used in ''Punch'' in 1843, when the [[Palace of Westminster|Houses of Parliament]] were to be decorated with murals, and "cartoons" for the mural were displayed for the public; the term "cartoon" then meant a finished preliminary sketch on a large piece of cardboard, or {{lang|it|cartone}} in Italian. ''Punch'' humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the ''Punch'' cartoons led to the term's widespread use.{{sfn|Appelbaum|Kelly|1981|p=15}}

===Artistry===
Illustrator [[Archibald Henning]] designed the cover of the magazine's first issues. The cover design varied in the early years, though [[Richard Doyle (illustrator)|Richard Doyle]] designed what became the magazine's [[Masthead (British publishing)|masthead]] in 1849. Artists who published in ''Punch'' during the 1840s and 1850s included [[John Leech (caricaturist)|John Leech]], Doyle, [[John Tenniel]], and [[Charles Keene (artist)|Charles Keene]]. This group became known as "The ''Punch'' Brotherhood", which also included Charles Dickens, who joined Bradbury and Evans after leaving [[Chapman and Hall]] in 1843.<ref name=vicweb/> ''Punch''{{'}}s authors and artists also contributed to another Bradbury and Evans literary magazine called ''[[Once A Week (magazine)|Once A Week]]'' (est. 1859), created in response to Dickens' departure from ''[[Household Words]]''.<ref name=vicweb/>

[[Helen Hoppner Coode]] contributed nineteen drawings to ''Punch'' and is recognised as its first woman contributor.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Spielman|first=M|title=The History of 'Punch'|year=1895|location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Coode, Helen Hoppner|url=https://dvpp.uvic.ca/prs_2620.html|url-status=live|website=Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230327132137/https://dvpp.uvic.ca/prs_2620.html|archive-date=Mar 27, 2023}}</ref>

===Liberal competition===
In the 1860s and '70s, conservative ''Punch'' faced competition from upstart liberal journal ''[[Fun (magazine)|Fun]]'', but after about 1874, ''Fun''{{'}}s fortunes faded. At Evans's café in London, the two journals had "round tables" in competition with each other.<ref>See [http://journals.mup.man.ac.uk/cgi-bin/pdfdisp//MUPpdf/NCTF/V30I2/300001.pdf Schoch, Richard, ''Performing Bohemia'' (2004)] (copy downloaded 13 October 2006). {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

===Gaining a market and relations with other papers===
After months of financial difficulty and lack of market success, ''Punch'' became a staple for British drawing rooms because of its sophisticated humour and absence of offensive material, especially when viewed against the satirical press of the time. ''[[The Times]]'' and the Sunday paper ''[[News of the World]]'' used small pieces from ''Punch'' as column fillers, giving the magazine free publicity and indirectly granting a degree of respectability, a privilege not enjoyed by any other comic publication. ''Punch'' shared a friendly relationship with not only ''The Times'', but also journals aimed at intellectual audiences such as the ''[[Westminster Review]]'', which published a 53-page illustrated article on ''Punch''{{'}}s first two volumes. Historian [[Richard Altick]] writes that "To judge from the number of references to it in the private letters and memoirs of the 1840s...''Punch'' had become a household word within a year or two of its founding, beginning in the middle class and soon reaching the pinnacle of society, [[royal family|royalty]] itself".<ref>See Altick, Richard. ''Punch: The Lively Youth of a British Institution, 1841–1851'' ([[Ohio State University Press]], 1997), 17.</ref>

[[File:True humility.png|thumb|upright=1.4|right|"True Humility": Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones"; Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent!"<br /><div style="text-align: right;">[[George du Maurier]], 1895<ref>''Punch'', 9 November 1895, p. 222</ref></div>]]
Increasing in readership and popularity throughout the remainder of the 1840s and '50s, ''Punch'' was the success story of a [[threepence (British coin)|threepenny]] weekly paper that had become one of the most talked-about and enjoyed periodicals. ''Punch'' enjoyed an audience including [[Elizabeth Barrett]], [[Robert Browning]], [[Thomas Carlyle]], [[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward FitzGerald]], [[Charlotte Brontë]], [[Queen Victoria]], [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert]], [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Emily Dickinson]], [[Herman Melville]], [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], and [[James Russell Lowell]]. ''Punch'' gave several phrases to the [[English language]], including [[The Crystal Palace]], and the "[[Curate's egg]]" (first seen in an 1895 cartoon by [[George du Maurier]]). Several British humour classics were first serialised in ''Punch'', such as the ''[[Diary of a Nobody]]'' and ''[[1066 and All That]]''. Towards the end of the 19th century, the artistic roster included [[Harry Furniss]], [[Linley Sambourne]], [[Francis Carruthers Gould]], and [[Phil May (caricaturist)|Phil May]].<ref name=vicweb>[http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/pva44.html Punch, or the London Charivari (1841–1992) — A British Institution], Philip V. Allingham; Contributing Editor, [[Victorian Web]]; Faculty of Education, [[Lakehead University]], [[Thunder Bay, Ontario]].</ref> Among the outstanding cartoonists of the following century were [[Bernard Partridge]], [[H. M. Bateman]], [[Bernard Hollowood]] (who also edited the magazine from 1957 to 1968), Kenneth Mahood, and [[Norman Thelwell]].

Circulation broke the 100,000 mark around 1910, and peaked in 1947–1948 at 175,000 to 184,000. Sales declined steadily thereafter; ultimately, the magazine was forced to close in 2002 after 161 years of publication.<ref name="mle">John Morrish, Paul Bradshaw, ''Magazine Editing: In Print and Online''. Routledge, 2012. {{ISBN|1136642072}} (p. ƒƒ32).</ref>

''Punch'' was widely emulated worldwide and was popular throughout the [[British Empire]]. The experience of Britons in British colonies, especially in India, influenced ''Punch'' and its iconography. Tenniel's ''Punch'' cartoons of the 1857 [[Indian Rebellion of 1857|Sepoy Mutiny]] led to a surge in the magazine's popularity. India was frequently caricatured in ''Punch'' and was an important source of knowledge on [[Indian subcontinent|the subcontinent]] for British readers.<ref>Ritu G. Khanduri. [http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/authors/246935 Caricaturing Culture in India: Cartoons and History in the Modern World]. 2014. Cambridge University Press</ref>

=== Later years ===
[[File:Father Christmas Up-To-Date, Punch, Dec 1896.jpg|thumb|right|1896 cartoon by [[John Tenniel]] of [[Father Christmas]] driving an early car]]

''Punch'' material was collected in book formats from the late 19th century, which included ''Pick of the Punch'' annuals with cartoons and text features, ''Punch and the War'' (a 1941 collection of WWII-related cartoons), and ''A Big Bowl of Punch'' – which was republished a number of times. Many ''Punch'' cartoonists of the late 20th century published collections of their own, partly based on ''Punch'' contributions.

In early 1996, businessman [[Mohamed Al-Fayed]] bought the rights to the name, and ''Punch'' was relaunched later that year.<ref name="mle" /><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/18/world/whack-whack-whack-reborn-punch-pounded.html Whack! Whack! Whack! Reborn ''Punch'' Pounded] Warren Hodge, ''[[The New York Times]]'', 18 September 1996. Retrieved 16 March 2013.</ref> The new version of the magazine was intended to be a spoiler aimed at ''[[Private Eye (magazine)|Private Eye]]'', which had published many items critical of Fayed. ''Punch'' never became profitable in its new incarnation, and at the end of May 2002, it was announced as once more ceasing publication.<ref name="mle" /> Press reports quoted a loss of £16 million over the six years of publication, with only 6,000 subscribers at the end.

Whereas the earlier version of ''Punch'' prominently featured the clownish character [[Pulcinella|Punchinello]] (Punch of [[Punch and Judy]]) performing antics on front covers, the resurrected ''Punch'' did not use the character, but featured on its weekly covers a photograph of a boxing glove, thus informing its readers that the new magazine intended its name to mean "punch" in the sense of a boxing blow.

===''Punch'' table===
In 2004, much of the archives was acquired by the [[British Library]], including the ''Punch'' table. The long, oval, Victorian table was brought into the offices some time around 1855, and was used for staff meetings and on other occasions. The wooden surface is scarred with the carved initials of the magazine's long-term writers, artists, and editors, as well as six invited "strangers", including [[James Thurber]] and [[Charles III]] (then [[Prince of Wales]]). [[Mark Twain]] declined the invitation, saying that the already-carved initials of William Makepeace Thackeray included his own.