The Victorians are usually painted as prim, proper and repressed. Yet it was in Victoria’s Britain that the comic paper was born and her subjects eagerly devoured their ‘Penny Dreadfuls’ and ‘Comic Cuts’. Originally published in 1976, this first ever compilation of Victorian comics is culled from England’s largest collection by its curator Denis Gifford. In these pages many forgotten figures of fun (such as Ally Sloper, Chokee Bill, Airy Alf and Bouncing Billy) live again, not to mention such notorious episodes as the assault on the Albert Memorial by the Ball’s Pond Banditti and the capture of Pretoria by Weary Willie and Tired Tim.

This book is a re-issue originally published in 1976 and contains comics from the Victorian era. The language used is therefore a reflection of its time and no offence is meant by the Publishers to any reader by this re-publication.