Boys of Bircham School

Bircham would lead to Canem Academy, and Spankem School and Thrashem ...

The Young Englishman’s Journal No. 1 was published April 13, 1867. The Boys of Bircham School commenced in No. 8, written by George Emmett and partly illustrated by Harry Maguire. Next: Vane Ireton St. John's Who Shall be Leader? Or, the Schooldays of Frank and Hal.

Tom Wildrake's Schooldays

Boys of Bircham School, by George Emmett, which began 8 June 1867 in the Young Engishman’s Journal,* is generally acknowledged to be the first penny dreadful boys’ school story, father to Tom Wildrake, Jack Harkaway, Tom Merry, Billy Bunter and scads of others. Emmett’s Bircham School led to another school story, Tom Wildrake’s Schooldays, which began in the Sons of Britannia in Volume I sometime in 1870.

In August 1872 the serial was taken over by E. Harcourt Burrage who sent Tom Wildrake out to sea. Every boys school story from now on would follow this pattern, first the heroes schooldays then a setting out to sea and foreign adventures. Burrage may have been influenced by Vane Ireton St. John who was the real pioneer of the school/sea adventure with Who Shall be Leader? Or, the Schooldays of Frank and Hal, appearing in The Boys’ of England from November 1866.

Tom Wildrake’s Schooldays was soon issued in sixty-four weekly parts for a total of 890 pages. The pictures below from the Sons of Britannia serial is actually Part II of the serial for 14 March of 1871, Vol.II No. 48.

The Authors Own Edition was advertised in Boys of Britannia on February 25, 1871.

*The Young Englishman’s Journal No. 1 April 13, 1867 to March 9, 1870 was incorporated with No. 1 of The Sons of Britannia on March 14, 1870.

Aladdin and Alice

In addition to the comic strips drawn by Joan Lintott and Nan Fullarton there were two by Anne Drew HERE, and another, An Adventure in Nursery land, was written by Muriel Olyott and illustrated by Walter Cunningham.

Strongbow the Mighty II

Strongbow the Mighty by Ron Embleton, 1957.

Whip the Wind

Sons of Brittania No. 26, “Whip the Wind,” by Silvershot (George Emmett) author of “My Adventures Among the Prairie Indians,“ “Red Hugh, the Backwoodsman,“ &c. Sept. 5, 1870.

Gale of the "Gundagai"

It's 1947 and the war in the Pacific is over. Who are the madmen setting off small nuclear explosions on the island? Gale of the "Gundagai" and his crew are determined to find out!

Humorous Artists of Australasia

Snoodles III

Snoodles II