British boys' magazines facts for kids

The Boy's Own Paper, front page, 11 April 1891

Magazines intended for boys fall into one of three classifications. These are comics which tell the story by means of strip cartoons; story papers which have several short stories; and pulp magazines which have a single, but complete, novella in them. The latter were not for the younger child and were often detective or western in content and were generally greater in cost. Several titles were published monthly whereas the other two categories were more frequent.

Selected publications

Story papers

Adventure
Aldine Adventure Library
The Boys’ Friend (1895 to 1927)
Boys’ Fun
The Boys’ Herald
Boys’ Journal
The Boys’ Leisure Hour
Boys’ Magazine
Boys of the Empire
Boys of England (1866 to 1899)
The Boy’s Own Magazine (1855 to 1890)
Boy's Own Paper (1879 to 1967)
The Boys’ Realm
The Bullseye
The Champion
Chums (1892 to 1934)
Detective Weekly
Every Boy’s Magazine (from 1862)
The Gem (1907 to 1940)
The Greyfriars Herald
The Halfpenny Marvel
The Magnet (1908 to 1940)
The Marvel
The Modern Boy
Nelson Lee Library
Oracle
The (Penny) Popular
Pluck
Schoolboys’ Own Library
The Skipper
The Thriller
The Triumph
The Union Jack
The Vanguard (1907 to 1909)
Young Britain
The Young Englishman
The Wizard

The Big Five (Tuppenny Bloods)

Thomson's Adventure (1921 to 1961
Thomson's Hotspur (1933 to 1959) – Red Circle School stories
Thomson's Rover (1922 to 1961)
Thomson's Skipper (1930 to 1941)
Thomson's Wizard (1922 to 1963)

Comics

Thomson's The Beano (1938 to present) – strip comic
The Champion (1939–45 at least; 1922 to 1955 probably)
Thomson's The Dandy (1937 to 2012) – strip comic
Eagle (1950 to 1994, with a gap) – strip comic
Tiger (1954 to 1985) – strip comic

Other

Modern Wonder; later Modern World (1937 to 1941)