Humorama

Humorama It had to happen. The chalky cheap but charming covers of the Humorama Line went slick on the cover in the 1970s. Worse yet, the models were now wearing clothes with more than one color! (A small step up...as you can see, the brother's Goodman still weren't ready to spring for REAL color, cheap bastids.)

Sigh. End of a pulp era...but the biggest change, other than Bill Ward's drawings getting worse, was that the models were now NUDE. Black and White nude, but NUDE. Sign of the times. Now that cuts down on your available talent pool...most of those anonymous swedes of the 1950s wouldn't work topless, so the line had to start running, (I hate to say it....forgive me...some skanks. That's right...gone were the glamor girls, but bring in the trailer trash.

Stare Magazine 1972 Collection Victor Minx

WHAT WAS HUMORAMA?

The Humorama line was a small offshoot of Martin Goodman's empire known as Timely Features. Goodman eventually produced Marvel comics, but his first bucks were made with pulp western tales in the 1930s. Cowboys, horses, bandits and oats were good for Goodman, and he was eventually responsible for nearly 100 monthly titles. Enough to turn the nation's virgin forests into a pile of pulp to be delivered to your local newsstand on a regular basis. Today the vast majority of them are in landfills, but a loyal group of fans stick them in bags and file them in boxes.

Humorama was the dirty comics and pasty pin-ups sprout of Timely Features, a mere speck in Goodman's vast empire of stapled popular ooze. He let his brother Abe run the show. Martin made big bucks on True Detective type stuff and the Marvel line, but Abe's Humorama line delivered enough dough to sustain a dozen titles every month for YEARS.

Most of the Humorama digests had onomatopoeia titles. Reading the list sounds like a Three Stooges soundtrack. Extensive bibliographic records for the rags seem to be missing...I guess the Library of Congress was more concerned with National Geographic. Each issue delivered 35 cents worth of cuties and cartoons. You would think the endless number of titles published would saturate the market, but they were dirt cheap to produce and the artists were paid big squat. So were the models, which included Bettie Page and Julie Newmar along with a hoard of country-raised "starlets" who never made it. Who knows how many great-grandmothers have a crusty issue of Zip or Snappy in the attic with their brief moment of fame in their briefs. Someday someone will scan each issue, index the names and make them famous all over again. Some of the cartoonists already are...Bill Ward, Dan DeCarlo, Bill Wenzel, but a hundred more you've never heard of. I'm doing my best to give them a little attention.

Below is a list of the Humorama digests. This site collects articles and items from the Jim Linderman collection of Humorama drawings and more.

Breezy • Cartoon Parade • Comedy • Eyeful of Fun • Fun House • Gaze • Gee-Whiz • Humorama • Instant Laughs • Jest • Joker • Laugh Circus • Laugh Digest • Laugh Riot • Popular Cartoons • Popular Jokes • Romp • Stare • Snappy • Zip

Humorama

Stare goes Slick Sorta. Horrors of Humorama Art of the Early 1970s.

Master Cartoonist Dan DeCarlo for Humorama Snappy 1958

Bettie Page Quips and Pips Humorama Art 1958

Bettie Page in Red Humorama Back Page

Another Bill Kresse Masterpiece for Humorama

The Jillco Refrigerator Invented 1954 Humorama Art

Snappy from Humorama