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Home arrow The Pioneers

The Pioneers
Page 13 of 35

Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Covers and interior strips from Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (Gilbert Dalziel, 1888,1889 and 1892) Art: Main cover cartoons by WF Thomas. Generally agreed to be the first comic ever produced. Ally Sloper was a hind of Victorian Viz, and starred the wording class anti-hero Alexander Sloper, seen above getting his ear tweahed for ogling the nudes at a Royal Academy show, and opposite receiving a watery comeuppance. By demonstrating the huge appeal of music hall-style slapstick, the title opened up a whole new market.
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday
Sloper was a vehicle through which cartoonists could comment upon Victorian leisure. When he was on 'half holiday', he visited the local pub, the races, and, above all, the seaside. Often he did this alone, but sometimes he was accompanied by his daughter, Tootsie" (the first female character to be successful in a comic), and his Jewish friend Ikey Mo. Together, they enjoyed to the full what spare time industrial capitalism allowed them, and in this sense, the comic was about 'letting go', and forgetting the travails of urban, working life. By the same token, political point-scoring was never the aim. There was no implication of class war, or even of a questioning of the power of one's social superiors. The comic was thus not in the tradition of the radical broadsheets.
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