Biography:

Founded in 1859 by popular New York publishers Street & Smith, Phunny Phellow was an inexpensive and popular comic magazine, known for printing a high volume of cartoons.  It distinguished itself from rivals by running half of its pages with woodcut cartoons, while similar papers relied on prose jokes.  Phunny Phellow was known for running on low-quality paper, its poor engravings, and plagiarized jokes, but it was the first to regularly run cartoons by Thomas Nast, who was simultaneously but intermittently submitting cartoons to high-brow publications like Harper’s Weekly.  Nast was contracted to illustrate Phunny Phellow’s front page, back page, and center spread each month, although he did not sign his illustrations for the publication, explaining that he didn’t want to be associated with its poor engraving quality. Still, Nast was allowed ample room at Phunny Phellow to develop his skills as a cartoonist. Nast terminated his contract at the comic magazine when he was offered on at Harper’s Weekly in 1873. Phunny Phellow ceased publication in 1879.