Pick of Punch

"Punch", or The London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humor and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration. After the 1940s, when its circulation peaked, it went into a long decline, closing in 1992. It was revived in 1996, but closed again in 2002. The term "cartoon" to refer to comic drawings was first used in Punch in 1843, when the Houses of Parliament were to be decorated with murals, and "cartoons" for the mural were displayed for the public; the term "cartoon" then meant a finished preliminary sketch on a large piece of cardboard, or cartone in Italian. "Punch" humorously appropriated the term to refer to its political cartoons, and the popularity of the Punch cartoons led to the term's widespread use. Alan Coren was the magazine's editor from 1978 - 1987. Coren (1938 - 2007) was an English humorist, writer and satirist who was well known as a regular panelist on the BBC radio quiz The News Quiz and a team captain on BBC television's Call My Bluff. Punch material was collected in book formats from the late nineteenth century, which included Pick of the Punch annuals with cartoons and text features. This one is for the year 1983.