View source for Ally Sloper's Half Holiday

{{Short description|British comics magazine}}
{{italic title}}
{{infobox comic book title
| image = AllySloper'sHalfHoliday.jpg
| caption = 19th-century issue of the British comic magazine ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday''
| format = weekly
| genre =
| Humor = y
| publisher = Gilbert Dalziel
| date = 3 May 1884 {{ndash}} 9 September 1916
| issues = 1,679
| creators = 
| main_char_team = [[Ally Sloper]]
}}
'''''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday''''' was a [[British comic]]s magazine, first published on 3 May 1884. It is regarded to be the first [[comic strip]] magazine to feature a recurring character.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Birch|first1=Dinah|title=The Oxford Companion to English Literature|date=24 September 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|page=240}}</ref> 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 satirical magazine ''[[Judy (satirical magazine)|Judy]]'' &ndash; created by writer and fledgling artist [[Charles Henry Ross]] and inked and later fully illustrated by his French wife [[Émilie de Tessier]] under the [[pseudonym]] "Marie Duval"<ref name=Encarta>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570388/Comics.html|title=Comics|encyclopedia=Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia|date=2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623070311/http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761570388/Comics.html |archive-date=2008-06-23 }}</ref> (or "Marie Du Val";<ref name=alberta>[https://web.archive.org/web/20131113154031/http://exhibits.library.ualberta.ca/streetprint_sloper/ Ally Sloper Web Exhibit: "Ally Sloper’s Rise in Early Comic Culture"], [[University of Alberta]]. Retrieved 5 July 2014.</ref> sources differ).

The "half holiday" referred to in the title was the practice in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] [[United Kingdom|Britain]] of allowing the workers home at lunchtime on a Saturday, a practice that also established the kick-off times of [[Football (soccer)|football]] matches.

==Publication history==
The black-and-white weekly [[British comics|comic paper]] ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'', typically of eight tabloid pages and priced one [[penny]],<ref name=Encarta /> 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 proprietor 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Andy's Early Comics Archive: Ally Sloper |url=http://bugpowder.com/andy/e.ally.sloper.01.html |accessdate=21 August 2005 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050511083415/http://bugpowder.com/andy/e.ally.sloper.01.html |archivedate=May 11, 2005 }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book | author=Sabin, Roger | title=Adult Comics: An Introduction | publisher=Routledge | year=1993 | isbn=0-415-04419-7|page=19}}</ref>

Although the weekly initially ceased publication on 9 September 1916, after 1,679 issues, it was later revived between 5 November 1922 and 14 April 1923,<ref>{{cite web | title=Comics UK - British Comic History | url=http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/History/HistoryMain.asp?PassedEra=Comics%201 | accessdate=21 August 2005 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513084938/http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/History/HistoryMain.asp?PassedEra=Comics%201 | archive-date=13 May 2006 | url-status=dead }}</ref> and again from 1948 to 1949, each attempt failing to capture the imagination of the British public as the original once had.<ref name=Toonpedia>{{cite web | title=Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Ally Sloper | url=http://www.toonopedia.com/sloper.htm | accessdate=21 August 2005 }}</ref>

In 2001, a copy of the first issue of ''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'' fetched £3,600 at an English auction house.

==Contributors==
[[William Giles Baxter]]<ref name=BritishMuseum>{{cite web | title=The British Museum: Factsheets | url=http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/pd/factsheets/modcart.html | accessdate=21 August 2005 }}</ref> took over art duties for the Sloper character with issue 13.<ref>{{cite web|title=Comic creator: William G. Baxter |url=http://www.lambiek.net/baxter_wg.htm |accessdate=21 August 2005 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405220916/http://lambiek.net/baxter_wg.htm |archivedate=5 April 2005 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[William Fletcher Thomas]]<ref name=BritishMuseum /> became the artist on the Ally Sloper strips following Baxter's death in 1888.<ref name=Toonpedia />

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.<ref>{{cite web | title=Casebook: Jack the Ripper - Responses to the Ripper Murders: Letters to Old Jewry | url=http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-lpresponses.html | accessdate=21 August 2005 }}</ref>

[[Thomas Burke (author)|Thomas Burke]] contributed stories.<ref>{{cite web | author=Rose, Jonathan | title=Intellectuals Among the Masses; Or, What Was Leonard Bast Really Like? | work=The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes | url=http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/rose1.html | accessdate=21 August 2005 }}</ref>

During 1908 [[C. H. Chapman]]  illustrated the Ally Sloper character. Chapman was better known as the artist that drew [[Billy Bunter]] from 1911 until ''[[The Magnet]]'' folded in 1940. He continued to illustrate Billy Bunter in books through the 1950s.

==Influence==
''Ally Sloper's Half Holiday'' 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.{{cn|date=March 2023}} It helped establish the financial viability of the medium and codified the British form to an extent visible many years later in publications such as ''[[Viz (comic)|Viz]]''.

== Alan Class' ''Ally Sloper'' magazine ==
[[Alan Class Comics]] published four issues of ''Ally Sloper'' magazine in 1976–1977. Edited by comics historian [[Denis Gifford]], ''Ally Sloper'' demonstrated great affection for old British comics, comic strips, and artists. With the cover [[tagline]], "First British comic hero 1867, First British comic magazine 1976," ''Ally Sloper'' contained an eclectic mix of strips and articles. Some were in the style of British comic strips from the early 20th century, while others were created by classic artists such as [[Frank Hampson]]'s "[[Dan Dare|Dawn O'Dare]]" and [[Frank Bellamy]], who provided ''Swade'', a three-page black-and-white wordless western story, for issue #1 (his last work, as he died before completing the second strip). Also featured were newer British artists such as [[Kevin O'Neill (comics)|Kevin O'Neill]] (issue #2) and [[Hunt Emerson]] (issue #4).
 
Although the ''Alley Sloper'' comic magazine was critically acclaimed by the fan press,<ref name=interview>{{cite web |first= |last= |url=http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2007/08/04/exclusive-an-interview-with-alan-class/ |title=An Interview with Alan Class by Terry Hooper |publisher=ComicBitsOnline |date= |accessdate= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817195520/http://www.comicbitsonline.com/2007/08/04/exclusive-an-interview-with-alan-class |archive-date=2009-08-17 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>  it suffered from poor distribution and insufficient public interest, and the title disappeared from the market after only four issues.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.bl.uk/popups/ally1884.html Cover image held by the British Library]
*[http://exhibits.library.ualberta.ca/streetprint_sloper/ ''Ally Sloper'']: A collection of 108 cartoons digitized by the University of Alberta Libraries

[[Category:1880s comics]]
[[Category:1977 comics endings]]
[[Category:Comics magazines published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British humour comics]]
[[Category:Defunct British comics]]
[[Category:Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Magazines about comics]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1884]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1916]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1922]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1923]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1948]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1949]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1976]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1977]]
[[Category:Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom]]