Judge (magazine)

Front page of "Judge" magazine, 12 August 1882, featuring a cartoon by "JAW" concerning aid rendered by the American navy during the Bombardment of Alexandria.

Judge was a weekly magazine published in the United States between 1881 and 1947. It was formed in 1881 by artists who had seceded from Puck Magazine. The founders included:

• James Albert Wales, a cartoonist
• Frank Tousey, publisher of dime novels
• George H. Jessop, an author

The first printing of Judge was on October 29, 1881, during the Long Depression. It was 16 pages long and printed on quarto paper. While it did well initially, it soon had trouble competing with its rival, Puck. By the 1900s, the magazine had become successful, reaching a circulation of 100,000 by 1912.

Edward Anthony was an editor in the early 1920s. Anthony was later co-author of Frank Buck's first two books, Bring 'em Back Alive and Wild Cargo.

Harold Ross was an editor of Judge between April 5 and August 2, 1924. He used the experience on the magazine to start his own in 1925, The New Yorker. The success of The New Yorker as well as the depression put a lot of pressure on the magazine. It became a monthly magazine in 1932 and ceased circulation in 1947.

Judge was resurrected in October 1953 as a 32-page weekly. David N. Laux was President and Publisher with Mabel Search as Editorial Director and Al Catalano as Art Director. Contributors included Arthur L. Lippman and Victor Lasky. There were sections with light-hearted essays on sport, golf, horse racing and theatre, TV and radio, bridge and current books; submissions from college magazines and a crossword puzzle among single panel cartoons and humorous pieces. There were several political sections; one-liners, cartoons and longer essays with mostly a conservative bent, in a style foreshadowing Emmett Tyrrell of today's The American Spectator.

Gallery

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  A 1899 cover of Judge magazine showing a cartoon of U.S. President William McKinley

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  A 1906 cover of Judge magazine showing a cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt by Eugene Zimmerman.

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  First Reborn Judge, October 26, 1953, cover by David Wasserman.