British boys' magazines

Magazines intended for boys fall into one of three classifications. These are comics which tell the story by means of strip cartoons; story papers which have several short stories; and pulp magazines which have a single, but complete, novella in them. The latter were not for the younger child and were often detective or western in content and were generally greater in cost. Several titles were published monthly whereas the other two categories were more frequent.

In 1828 in London, and in 1829 in Boston, an encyclopedia for boys by William Clarke was published, titled The Boy's Own Book: A Complete Encyclopedia of all the Diversions, Athletic, Scientific, and Recreative, of Boyhood and Youth. According to sports historian Robert William Henderson, "It was a tremendous contrast to the juvenile books of the period, which emphasized piety, morals and instruction of mind and soul; it must have been received with whoops of delight by the youngsters of both countries." The encyclopedia was frequently updated and reprinted through the end of the century.

With the growth of education in the later part of the 19th century (universal education started in England in 1871), demand was growing for reading material aimed at the juvenile market. The first known edition of what would later become known as a "story paper" had been the unsuccessful monthly Young Gentleman's Magazine, published in 1777 and discontinued after six editions. The first story paper to make an impact was The Boys' and Girls' Penny Magazine, first published in September 1832.

The first successful serial publication aimed at boys alone, and one of the most influential, was Samuel Beeton's weekly Boy's Own Magazine, published from 1855 to 1890. Between 1855 and 1920, over a dozen weekly serials by various publishers were created with the copycat title Boys' Own.

Other story papers begun midcentury included Every Boy's Magazine in 1863, and in 1866, Boys of England. Numerous competitors quickly followed, including Boy’s Leisure Hour, Boys Standard, Young Men of Great Britain, etc. As the price and quality of fiction was the same, many of these storypapers also fell under the general definition of penny dreadfuls (also known as "penny bloods" or "blood and thunders" in their early days). Few of these publications lasted more than a couple of years.

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