The trade in single-sheet caricatures and illustrated texts dates from the advent of printing itself in the fifteenth century: from elaborately decorated indulgences to almanacs, from political sketches to love songs, pictures and text have always offered both visual and mental stimulation. Literacy was not absolutely essential in the buyer, as illustrations were an integral part of the meaning presented by the whole page as a single unit. By the eighteenth century the illustrated satire saw a much more complicated interplay of text and image, and often demanded a fairly sophisticated grasp of political or social issues on the part of viewers. Ultimately, though, there is not too much space between the savage political cartoons of Thomas Rowlandson and the ‘Big Cuts’ drawn by John Tenniel for Punch (1841–2001) in the 1850s. In both, cultural references abound, opinions are strong, and exaggeration is assumed. What does distinguish the work of Tenniel and others like him is the environment in which their work appeared.

The mass readership enjoyed by nineteenth-century illustrated periodicals enabled a highly complex approach to satire and spawned a plethora of titles aimed at all classes, with price points to match. The many imitators of Punch (such as Judy [1867–1910] or Ally Sloper's Half Holiday [1884–1916]) used – with rather less finesse – the same format as the original. Characters from one satirical paper might show up in another, or grow so large as to require their own venue, as in the case of Ally Sloper, whose main character originated in Judy, a magazine produced by the same editors.

This transference was unique to illustrated periodicals and resulted in an often uneasy balance of text and image towards the end of the century, as in both comic and more serious ‘news’ periodicals illustrations could easily overwhelm text. For instance, the spectacular success of the Illustrated London News (1842–1989, cited elsewhere in this chapter as ILN) ushered in an acceptance of the world as mediated, and therefore controlled, by the imaginative renderings of some of the finest artists of the day. The ILN also contributed towards the reversal of the importance of text and image near the end of the century in such magazines as the Graphic (1869–1932), which offered enormous lithographs or wood engravings that physically dominated the page and forced text into an ever smaller area.