196 FAMOUS FUNNIES
He secured a deal with Gulf Oil to create a tabloid-sized comic book giveaway that
would be available at its gas stations. Eventually Wildenburg and his associates real-
ized that the Sunday comics pages they had been using for promotional materials
could be reduced so that two pages could fi t on the standard tabloid-sized paper.
Later the pages would be assembled and stapled into a convenient pamphlet. Gaines,
a commission-only salesman, worked to interest other companies to advertise using
comic books. Among those child-oriented businesses that distributed these free
books were Kinney Shoes, Canada Dry, and Wheatena. Th e print runs for these 64-
page color comics generally ranged between 100,000 and 250,000 issues. By the end
of 1933, Eastern had sold more than 30 million pages of comics through these pro-
motions. Gaines was then inspired to sell these comics to children directly. He and
Wildenburg approached the F. W. Woolworth Company, one of America’s original
fi ve-and-dime stores, as a possible outlet for their comics. However, the company
declined, stating that the proposed 10-cent cover price was not a good value for its
customers. In 1934, the Wildenburg and Gaines convinced the American News Com-
pany to distribute a monthly comic book to newsstands across the nation. Th eir fi rst
comic was called Famous Funnies and was an immediate sales triumph. Th ey printed
200,000 copies of the initial issue and were pleased when they sold 90 percent of the
books. Although Eastern Color lost more than $4,000 on Famous Funnies #1, the title
began to net a profi t within a year.
At fi rst Famous Funnies contained reprints of popular newspaper comic strips. Th ese
features included Mutt & Jeff , the successful daily comic strip that debuted in 1907;
Toonerville Folks , a comedy strip that premiered in 1913 and showcased the conductor
and passengers of the rickety Toonerville Trolley; and Hairbreadth Harry , a comic melo-
drama that had appeared in newspapers since 1906. Other popular strips featured in
the fi rst issue of Famous Funnies included Dixie Duggan , Th e Bungle Family , Nipper , and
S’Matter Pop? Th e comic’s cover also boasted that “games—puzzles—magic” could be
found within its pages. Except for an original two-page text story, there was no original
content in the earliest issues.
Over time, the contents of Famous Funnies changed as features were added or
removed from the book. Cartoonist Victor E. Pazmino, who signed his work “VEP,”
contributed numerous gag cartoons and later a feature about a traveling, verse-speaking
sailor named Seaweed Sam. Nearly all of the comic book’s covers during its fi rst seven
years were drawn by Pazmino. During the third year of its publication, Famous Fun-
nies acquired several popular comics strips from the Associated Press syndicate, such as
Th e Adventures of Patsy , Dickie Dare , Oaky Doaks , and Scortchy Smith. Later, Joe Palooka ,
Buck Rogers , and Big Chief Wahoo were added to the roster. Unfortunately, many of
these strips suff ered in terms of presentation. To fi t the new comic book standard for-
mat, the newspaper strips were usually enlarged, colored, and re-lettered. Word balloons
and captions were edited; panels were redesigned so as to better fi t the pages. While the
arrangement of the strips may not have been ideal, for many readers, Famous Funnies was
the only means by which they might view this material.
