Comics UK

I picked this up yesterday for three quid, most Victorian magazines had two covers one of which was usually on coloured paper and featured mostly adverts. But notice how different the colour external cover is to the more adult one underneath. These magazines were humour mags for adults and were a precursor to children's comics. Comic Cuts and Puck started out as adult publications.

I remember last Christmas there was some controversy as to the classic red Father Christmas costume being created by Coca Cola in the early 1900s, well this might predate that.

it raises the question: was the red costume a product of the most widely applicable colour across the media? rather like dennis's red/black jumper

stevezodiac wrote:I remember last Christmas there was some controversy as to the classic red Father Christmas costume being created by Coca Cola in the early 1900s, well this might predate that.

I heard that too, but surely Father Christmas' coat was depicted as red because he was wearing the pelt of a deer or something? It was only later it became toned down as some sort of red cotton suit with a fur trim. (I'm just guessing. I'm sure the truth is on the internet somewhere.)

However, a child's favourite colour is usually red so it's often used as the dominant colour on comics and characters.

Lew

From what I can remember St. Nick's outfit was said to have been more commonly rendered in blue before the Coca Cola adverts finally fixed the matter in the public's mind.

- Phil R.

I googled Santa's cozzie (sic) and got this:

These early Christmas cards of the 19th Century were black and white until colour printing was invented in the 1860s. Each year Harpers magazine was famous for their pictures of Santa each year. Thomas Nast, their illustrator, was asked to think of a colour for Santa Claus' costume for the first colour image of Santa Claus. Thomas Nast first chose brown furs because he thought this colour would keep Father Christmas warm. However the editors thought that the brown colour did not show off his colours enough so he chose the brighter colour of red.

Isn't it a funny old world, five minutes ago i'd never heard of Thomas Nast, but just googled him and found he illustrated for Harper's Weekly, an American magazine. He did lots of Civil War drawings and I have a great interest in the American West and the Civil War. It says he was the creator of the classic Santa Claus image.

snopes.com has an article on the subject too (in fact it has a whole section dedicated specifically to coca-cola!). Apparently there was a whole gang of multi-coloured Santa's at one point!