ALLY SLOPER

The presence of Ally Sloper ( a sort of Victorian Robert Macaire figure for those of you familiar with Daumier's comic creations), was a clue as to the readership of a magazine or comic. He was named after the tendency to slip off when the rent man came to stay. His adventures (usually criminal and slimy) began in JUDY in 1867 by Charles Ross and continued by his wife Marie Duval (monogram MD). He was drawn by later artists and appeared in his own periodical Ally Sloper's Half Holiday in 1884. I once owned a bound copy of early Sloper comics. lent it to a student called Dave Scott to begin his degree essay from the beginning and never saw it again. Are you out there Dave? The characterisation of Ally Sloper was continued by W.G.Baxter (see beneath)

See the exhibition catalogue Penny Dreadfuls and Comics , Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, London, 1983.

Above, each page measures 21 x 27cms.

from left to right

JUDY Aug 3rd 1870

JUDY Aug 24th 1870

JUDY Sept.28th 1870. 1870

 

MORE - MARIE DUVAL

JOSEPH PENNELL ON BAXTER