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gwladysstreet

16th April 2015, 12:46
Did anyone else think that the definition offered in Cryptic 1142, 53 across was not quite right?
"Writer (new, unknown, and very bad) for old comic?" (5,8) Answer "Penny dreadful."
I have always understood penny-dreadfuls, or penny-bloods, to have been (19th century) lurid stories of crime and horror, not comics.
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mamya

16th April 2015, 12:52
Snap!
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jazzgirl

16th April 2015, 12:53
;0)
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gwladysstreet

16th April 2015, 17:21
Sorry Jazzgirl I don't understand ;0).
My Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, (15th edition) does not call penny-dreadfuls comics.
My OED, Second Edition, Vol 111, CHAM- CREEKY, p536, has the entry, under the sub-heading 'comic papers:' 1910, H.G. Wells, Mr Polly, "one of those inspiring weeklies that dull people used to call 'penny dreadfuls, admirable weeklies crammed with imagination that the cheap boys' 'comics' of today have replaced."
Vol X1,of the OED, OW- POISANT, p484, gives five examples of the historical use of penny-dreadful and not one defines it as a comic.
In Eric Patridge's A Dictionary of Slang, 1974 Edition, it is defined as a sensational story or print, and was obsolete by 1910 .
Comics to me are The Dandy, Beano, Viz and so on.
The nearest in form to Victorian penny-dreadfuls were the boys' comics of the 40s and 50s, Rover, Wizard, and Hotspur, being largely textual with few illustrations. Penny dreadfuls were not meant to induce mirth, which is what I take comics to be.
And having read over what I have just written, I can't help thinking that I shoulda stood in bed.
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jazzgirl

16th April 2015, 17:24
;0) is a smiley, as Mamya had posted an identical thread and said "snap!"
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bernie

16th April 2015, 17:27
;0) is what's known as an emoticon (emotion/icon).
If you look at it sideways it resembles a smiling face winking. There are others.
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bernie

16th April 2015, 17:28
Snap jazzy! :-)
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jazzgirl

16th April 2015, 17:29
Chambers shows that comics can also be serious, even horrific
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