Modern Sketch was a series of cartoon magazines (Manhua漫画) published from 1934 until 1937, during the time of the Republic of China.
The whole 39 issues of the magazine were published by the Shanghai Shidai (Era) Books Company.
It was founded by cartoonists Zhang Guangyu (张光宇) and Lu Shaofei (鲁少飞).
The magazine mainly published traditional satirical cartoons,
metropolitan sketches, and comic strips.
The layout, typeface, and advertising design of the magazine can still be used as a great reference today.
▪︎ Editors:
◆ Zhang Guangyu (1900-1965) was a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
From 1918 on, Zhang studied in Shanghai and designed advertising for the Nanyang Tobacco Company,
the British American Tobacco Company and others.
He designed covers for Shanghai Cartoons (Shanghai manhua 上海漫画) and other journals.
◆ Lu Shaofei (1903–1995), a native of Shanghai County, Jiangsu Province, was a famous cartoonist.
His father was a folk painter. He first studied with his father and then furthered his studies in Shanghai.
He joined the Northern Expeditionary Army, worked as a propagandist, and was a prolific painter at that time.
Serving as the editor-in-chief of "Modern Sketch" in the 1930s,
he united and cultivated a large number of cartoonists.
▪︎ About this Archive:
This archive is a collection of all 39 issues of Modern Sketch's cover pages.
Due to data scarcity, the only complete copy of this magazine series in China is in the library of Peking University.
In this archive, issues 3, 21, and 27 are in black and white; all the rest of the issues are in color.
