| Ally Sloper's Half Holiday | |
|---|---|
 19th-century issue of the British comic magazine Ally Sloper's Half Holiday | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Gilbert Dalziel |
| Format | weekly |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 3 May 1884 – 9 September 1916 |
| No. of issues | 1,679 |
| Main character(s) | Ally Sloper |
Ally Sloper's Half Holiday was a British comics magazine, first published on 3 May 1884. It is regarded to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character.[1] Star Ally Sloper, a blustery, lazy schemer often found "sloping" through alleys to avoid his landlord and other creditors, had debuted in 1867 in the satirical magazine Judy – created by writer and fledgling artist Charles Henry Ross and inked and later fully illustrated by his French wife Émilie de Tessier under the pseudonym "Marie Duval"[2] (or "Marie Du Val";[3] sources differ).
The "half holiday" referred to in the title was the practice in Victorian Britain of allowing the workers home at lunchtime on a Saturday, a practice that also established the kick-off times of football matches.
- ^ Birch, Dinah (24 September 2009). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 240.
- ^ "Comics". Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-06-23.
- ^ Ally Sloper Web Exhibit: "Ally Sloper’s Rise in Early Comic Culture", University of Alberta. Retrieved 5 July 2014.