The Barker, launched in Toronto in 1934, described itself as “Canada’s National Humorous Magazine.” Indeed, in its use of cartoons and bits of humorous miscellany, it resembled the wave of U.S. satire magazines (like Hooey and Ballyhoo) that swept across New York publishing a couple of years earlier. My friend (and University of Toronto Professor of English) Heather Murray tells me that the editor and publisher of The Barker, Louis J. Robinson, would shortly be involved in another, more journalistic publication, City Lights. The first issue of The Barker is reproduced below.
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