Puck was America's first successful humor magazine

Humor magazine

A humor magazine is a magazine specifically designed to deliver humorous content to its readership. These publications often offer satire, but some put an emphasis on cartoons, one-liners or humorous essays.-Out-of-print humor magazines:...

 of colorful cartoon

Cartoon

A cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...

s, caricature

Caricature

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...

s and political satire

Political satire

Political satire is a significant part of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where such arguments are expressly...

 of the issues of the day. It was published from 1871 until 1918.
The weekly magazine was founded by Joseph Ferdinand Keppler

Joseph Ferdinand Keppler

Joseph Ferdinand Keppler , was an Austrian-born American cartoonist and caricaturist, who greatly influenced the growth of satirical cartooning in the United States.-Early life in Europe:...

 in St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. It began publishing English and German language editions in March, 1871. Five years later, the German edition of Puck moved to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where the first magazine was published on September 27, 1876. The English language edition soon followed on March 14, 1877.

The English magazine continued in operation for more than 40 years under several owners and editors until it was bought by the William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst

William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

 company in 1916.