The Funnies

The Funnies (1929-1930)
The Funnies #28 (September 13, 1930). Cover art by Victor E. Pazmiño (signed).
Publication information
Publisher	Dell Publishing
Schedule	weekly
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	1929–1930
Number of issues	36

The Funnies vol. 2 (1936-1942)
The Funnies vol. 2, #1 (Oct. 1936), featuring Major Hoople of Gene Ahern's Our Boarding House. Cover artist unknown.
Publication information
Publisher	Dell Publishing
Format	Ongoing series
Publication date	As The Funnies: 1936–1942 As New Funnies: 1942–1962
Number of issues	64

The Funnies was the name of two American publications from Dell Publishing, the first of these a seminal, 1920s precursor of comic books, and the second a standard 1930s comic book.

In 1929, George T. Delacorte Jr.'s Dell Publishing, founded eight years earlier, began publishing The Funnies, described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert". Comics historian Ron Goulart describes the 16-page, four-color, newsprint periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than a true comic book. But it did offer all original material and was sold on newsstands".

The magazine ran 36 weekly issues, published Saturdays from January 16, 1929, to October 16, 1930. The cover price rose from 10¢ to 30¢ with issue #3. This was reduced to a nickel from issue #22 to the end.

The Funnies helped lay the groundwork for two subsequent publications in 1933: Eastern Color Printing's similar proto-comic book, the eight-page newsprint tabloid Funnies on Parade, and the Eastern Color / Dell collaboration Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, considered by historians the first true American comic book.

Dell Publishing's second publication by this name was a standard American comic book published during the 1930s and 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books. A rival to Eastern Color's successful comic-book series Famous Funnies, it similarly reprinted newspaper comic strips, mostly NEA-syndicate comics such as Alley Oop, by V. T. Hamlin, and Captain Easy, by Roy Crane, as well as others including Mutt and Jeff, by Bud Fisher, and Tailspin Tommy, by Hal Forrest. Packaged by Max Gaines and editor Sheldon Mayer, it ran 64 issues (cover-dated Oct. 1936 - May 1942).