Want some more classic comedy reading? Well, in case you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new – and wonderful – issue of Comique magazine out now, for free download. The magazine is a collaborative effort by some of the heavy hitters in the film comedy community: researchers, authors and experts like Paul Gierucki, David B Pearson, Richard M Roberts, Edward Watz, Lea Stans and more.

Well, actually, the word ‘magazine’ doesn’t really do this justice. At almost 250 pages, it’s longer than many books. Richard M. Roberts’ superb – and definitive – article on Lloyd Hamilton comes in at almost 100 pages, for instance. And then there’s an extra twenty pages of Hamilton’s filmography!

Hamilton is the perfect cover star for the issue – he’s a totem for the kind of superb, but neglected, comedians that Comique (like The Lost Laugh) is aiming to celebrate, rehabilitate and put into the limelight once more. Among the other wonderful comedy second (and third) bananas getting their dues here are Polly Moran, Vernon Dent and Louise Fazenda. It’s also great that there are plenty of female performers, so often neglected next to male comedians, being celebrated here. Miss Fazenda, especially, is a great talent who deserves the quality article that Lea Stans has contributed here.

The remit isn’t just silent comedy, but extends into the sound era with an article on Ted Healy by Robert Fender. There’s even a discourse on Abbott & Costello’s TV series by Edward Watz.

I also really enjoyed the articles putting a bit of a personal spin on the film history, and making a tangible connection between the authors and the films they are writing about. Paul Gierucki’s article on Minta Durfee Arbuckle, for instance, and Edward Watz’s memories of working with the notorious Raymond Rohauer.

As well as the text, the whole magazine is chock full of wonderful, high quality still photos, posters and other reproduced artefacts. It’s also designed beautifully. So much work has clearly gone into the publication that it’s astounding – and very generous – that it is being given away for free. So, do download it and enjoy it, and then – as always – tell your friends about it, share it on whatever media/forum you use, and make sure that the word gets out.

Head to Internet Archive to download the issue (and the two previous ones) here: https://archive.org/details/comique-the-classic-comedy-magazine-volume-ii-number-i-issue-3-2025