Original Art from the “Sloperies”

[1] Ally Sloper in Close-Up. William Baxter original, 
ink on lightweight paper, 1886.

American publisher Bill Leach has been collecting Ally Sloper original art since the 1980s. His mother’s maiden name was Sloper, so “what started out as a minor interest has become a major addiction.” Along with Dennis Cunningham, founder of Weirdom fanzine, later Weirdom Illustrated, Bill Leach ran the graphic print shop Grafitti Graphics in Clearlake, California, from 1977 to ’87.

In 1986 Leach bought all of the Rich Corben art Cunningham had in his possession and republished Corben’s Tales from the Plague, originally published in Weirdom Illustrated no. 13 in 1969. Corben supplied a new cover and “I got Corben to use my face on the torch wielding maniac, so I have that on my resume now!…” With Barry Cunningham, brother of Dennis, he published four issues of County Comix in 1981-82, featuring Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Clearlake titles.

[2] Heads of the People. Full-page William Baxter cartoon, Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, Oct 23, 1886, one of his last for the paper.

ABOUT 150 years ago, Judy (subtitled: ‘or The London Serio-Comic Journal’) began to be published in London, its first issue was dated 1 May 1867, its last 23 October 1907. The comic character Ally Sloper F.O.M. (Friend of Man) came into the world on 14 August 1867 in a comic page with the strange title “Some of the Mysteries of Loan and Discount,” by author-artist Charles Henry Ross.

FUN. Then, in 1870, the comic journal Fun, rival to the weeklies Punch and Judy, was bought by the Dalziel Brothers, a long-established family firm of wood-engravers, the largest in London at the time. The firm was started in 1840 by the two brothers George (b.1815) and Edward Dalziel (b.1817). In 1872 the Dalziels also purchased the title Judy. Edward’s son, Gilbert Dalziel became its business conductor. In 1883 Charles Henry Ross sold all rights to his Ally Sloper character to Gilbert Dalziel of Dalziel Brothers, who then launched Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday with proprietor W.J. Sinkins on May 3, 1884. This publication ran until September 9, 1916. It was revived unsuccessfully in 1922 and again in 1948. The address of its editorial offices was given as “The Sloperies,” 99 Shoe Lane, EC. The first years, primary art was by William Giles Baxter or W.G.B. (1856-88), who drew Sloper in 1884-86. He left at the end of 1886 to work on a different project, but then died in mid-1888, alcohol was given as the cause. According to Bill Leach, William Fletcher Thomas (1862-1922) had been drawing Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday covers even before Baxter, and took over full time in late-1886 upon Baxter’s leave. 


NO FUN. The Dalziel Brothers who bought those magazines in the 1870s, saw their wood-engraving business dwindle during the 1880s photomechanical reproduction revolution, and went bankrupt in 1893.    

[3] “May Your X-MAS Day Be Happy, and Your Bills Be Light.” Original William Thomas art, 1899.

[4] Bill Leach with the William Thomas original.

[5] The “Sloperies” – Editor’s Bell. Sloper and Freedom. Original William Baxter art, 1880s, 32 x 25 cm.

[6] “Billstickers will be prosecuted!” Original William Baxter art, Christmas 1880s, 33 x 27 cm.

[7] The Eastern Crisis. – Grease: Its Use and Abuse. Full-page William Baxter strip of cartoons, Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday, Feb 6, 1886.

[8] A Cabinet Council at “The Sloperies.” Full-page William Baxter cartoon, Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, Aug 21, 1886.

[9] Turning over a New Leaf. William Baxter cover, Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, Jan 2, 1886.

[10] Our Contempo-Raree Show. Businessman Gilbert Dalziel pictured by Houghton, FUN, May 21, 1895.

[11] Bound volume, Gilbert Dalziel’s signature, 1886.

Illustrative Art

Illustrative Art: Past and Present,

by Hume Nisbet,

The Gentleman's Magazine, March 1892.

The two illustrations I used are by William Giles Baxter, who died in 1888. Nisbet is probably referring to his successor William Fletcher Thomas version of Ally Sloper.

William Giles Baxter (1856-1888)

William Giles Baxter was born in 1856 in the South of Ireland of English parents. His father failed at establishing a factory for making of starch from potatoes and the family moved to America. They soon returned to England where his father died. Baxter was apprenticed to a Manchester architect but left after his indenture period was over. At twenty-one he published a series of lithographed pictures called “Buxton Sketches.”

In 1877, in Manchester, he was hired by publisher J. A. Christie to illustrate and edit a local comic weekly entitled Comus (afterwards altered to Momus) which featured a number of portraits of life-sized heads called “Studies from Dickens.” Momus lasted until 1882 and Baxter moved to London where he produced political and humorous Christmas cards for the market with a partner Alfred Gray. His cartoons began appearing in Judy; or, the London Serio-comic Journal in 1883 and he was tapped to produce Ally Sloper cartoons for Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday in July 1884, cartoons which won him a large following.

Baxter seceded from Half-Holiday and in conjunction with Sloper creator Charles Henry Ross started a short-lived comic journal called Choodle, and was joint publisher and cartoonist on Charles Ross’s Variety Paper in 1887. He died 22 June 1888 of consumption and was buried at Kensal Green cemetery. He was 32 years old.

William Baxter (1856-1888)

William Giles Baxter was born of English parents in the south of Ireland in 1856 and spent his childhood in America and Derbyshire. His father had failed in establishing a factory for the making of starch from potatoes. After the death of his father he was apprenticed to a Manchester architect. When his indenture period was over he abandoned architecture for art, and at the age of twenty-one published a series of lithographic pictures entitled “Buxton Sketches.”

Baxter first attracted notice in 1879 when he established the weekly comic periodical Comus (afterwards altered to Momus,) published in Manchester. He specialized in comic portraits and drew a series of nearly life-sized heads called “Studies from Dickens” for that paper. When Momus failed in 1883 he moved to London where with a friend and brother artist he designed political and humorous Christmas cards. 

Baxter began contributing to Judy; or, the London Serio-Comic Journal, under Charles Henry Ross, but really came to prominence on Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday published by Gilbert Dalziel. Baxter breathed new life into CHR’s creation Ally Sloper with his large, masterly full-page cover illustrations and double-page interior spreads. Later he seceded from that journal and in conjunction with C. H. Ross, creator of Sloper, he started Choodle, which had a short life due to a breakdown in the artist’s health.

Like Ross he was an amateur actor. He died at age 32 on 2 June 1888 of ‘rapid consumption.’ In August 1888 Gilbert Dalziel issued from 99 Shoe-lane “Fifty Sloper Cartoons,” for a shilling, as a souvenir of the late artist. In June 1889 Baxter’s work was exhibited at the Royal Institute, Picadilly “Works of English Humourists.” The show had only a few works by Hogarth but devoted an entire gallery to the work of Thomas Rowlandson. Also featured were works by Cruikshank, Leech, Phiz, Seymour, Furniss, Tenniel, Sambourne, Keane, Fred Barnard, Charles Green, and Du Maurier. At the same time Cassell’s put on a black and white exhibition of magazine illustrators at the Memorial Hall on Farrington-street.

*Baxter letters courtesy Don Kurtz