The entrepreneurial Edwin J. Brett created the first full-coloured story paper in 1888. James Henderson had already experimented with colour covers for his 1887 Funny Folks Christmas number. But the Boys Of The Empire was a weekly publication, consisting of 16 pages, of which 8 were printed in colour. Click here to view an inside page.

As clever and skillful as it was, it didn't catch the imagination of the public. It was produced in colour for its first 51 issues, after this it was printed black on mauve paper.

Maybe the idea was simply too radical for the times and, because it just looked so different, people didn't class it as a story paper. Or maybe the price tag of 1½d was just too much money for a piece of casual literature.

Either way, it's now good to admire the vibrant colours of a publication which is so old.