Capt. Billy's Whiz-Bang

The beginning of an empire, this was the first publication put out by Wilford Fawcett, beginning in 1919. Fawcett Publications would later become one of the largest magazine & comic book empires in the United States.  Whiz-Bang contained jokes from vaudeville acts and other sources, and it was not odd at all to find humor that would today be considered sexist, racist, irreligious and otherwise "politically incorrect."

All the magazines shown here are from my own collection.

Click an image and look at the web address of the scan to determine its date. The dates will be shown year first. So, for example, "argosy19250110" should be read: 1925, January 10th. "famousfantasticmys194406" was printed: 1944, June.

			colophon, back cover "Explosion of Pedegreed Bull"

Previous          Home               Database Index               Pulps Index             Next

(A stanza from the song "Ya Got Trouble" from the Broadway musical "The Music Man.")

      Trouble, trouble, trouble, trouble...

Mothers of River City
Heed that warning before it's too late
Watch for the tell-tale signs of corruption
The minute your son leaves the house
Does he rebuckle his knickerbockers below the knee?
Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger?
A dime novel hidden in the corncrib?
Is he starting to memorize jokes
From Cap'n Billy's Whizbang?
Are certain words creeping into his conversation?
Words like... swell?
And... 'so's your old man'? 

Well if so, my friends, ya got trouble
    Oh, we got trouble
Right here in River City
    Right here in River City
With a capital 'T' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for 'pool'
    That stands for pool