Humorama: South of the Border Broken Jokes Humorama like RotoChiste

Roto Chiste translates to "broken joke" a super cheap Humorama-like digest from south of the border. This issue from 1963. It was a low budget operation, and the pinup photograph was tipped in…glued on the issue cover later in the printing process. Broken Joke was not adverse to swiping comics from Bill Wenzel and Pete Wyma from the states, but they were printed with translated captions. The rear cover shows Mamita ignoring the beans to gaze on her television love.

RotoChriste Girlie Gag Digest from Mexico 1963 Collection Jim Linderman

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

South of the Border Broken Jokes Humorama like RotoChiste

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