'Les Trois Couleurs'

 

a French Children's Magazine

 

'Les Trois Couleurs' (the Three Colors - of the French flag) was a newly published children's magazine that especially played on patriotic sentiments. Profusely and colorfully illustrated by very talented artists, it started selling on the news-stands in early 1915, appearing weekly. It contained many stories, both short and serialized, in what was at the time the accepted comic-book sytle : a series of independent illustrations with not altogether too long captions of text. Aside from these illustrated stories there were also many colorful stand-alone drawings of heroic and dramatic events calculated to inspire an aspiration to heroisma and patriotism in French youth.

As befitting a children's magazine, the main protoganists were often youngsters with boy-scouts, nurses and orphans playing a favored role as vailliant and brave sons and daughters of France. To say that most stories and exploits were highly unlikely to have occured would be an understatement. Nevertheless such was the accepted way of things at the time and the wonderfully colorful and dramatic illustrations are a delight to view in themselves.

By war's end during 1918, the magazine started publishing material that did not pertain to the war as such. Paper and printing quality markedly declined as well with color illustrations appearing only on the back and front covers.

see also 'Enfants Heroiques : Les Trois Couleurs'

 

outer bindings of the first and fourth volumes

 

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