Minute Movies : A Complete Compilation, 1927-1928

Plot

This wholly remarkable, almost unparalleled strip (there were only two feeble imitations in the 1920s, both short-lived) brought the charm and gaucherie of the silent cinema to the daily comic page, presenting endless programs of mildly satirical take-offs on silent feature films, newsreels, travelogues, and animated cartoons within the compass of its daily ten to sixteen panels of intricately-detailed but crisply clear graphic continuity. Inventing his own studio and cast of major players fitted to the basic parts found in most silent features, Ed Wheelan first called his strip "Midget Movies" in the early 1920s, then changed the title to the better-known "Minute Movies" when he took control of his feature at the close of that decade. Followed by hundreds of thousands of movie and strip fans at the height of its fame and wide newspaper distribution, the strip died almost as precipitously as the silent films to which it was wedded thematically in the early 1930s. A notably memorable part of its era, and an essential element in any analysis of popular response to the movies of its time, Minute Movies is represented in this collection by a typical year of continuity from the peak period of its fame.