Green’s Dictionary of Slang

those pages which newspapers reserve for comic strips; thus the comics themselves.

1904		‘O. Henry’ Cabbages and Kings 198: Yes, the man was a ringer for the pictures of the fat Weary Willie in the funny papers.
1913		J. London John Barleycorn (1989) 6: He is the type that gives rise to the jokes in the funny papers.
1928		J. O’Connor Broadway Racketeers 64: That thing belongs in the funny papers, along with the Yellow Kid and Buster Brown.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 6: Have I time to have you read me about Danny Dreamer in the funny papers? [Ibid.] 196: A kidnapper with a black moustache, like Desperate Desmond in the funny papers.
1946		H.A. Smith Rhubarb 120: It’ll get more laughs than La Gardy reading the funny papers.
1950		E. Hemingway letter 9 July in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 700: You sounded sort of faintly beat-up [...] so this is just a letter like the funny papers to build you up.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 205: I could join the grape-eating hoboes and read the funnies with them.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 60: There is no big connection [...] That’s funny-paper stuff.
1974		Jrnl & Courier (Lafayette. IN) 11 Feb. B4/3: The New republic accused him of inserted ‘fascism’ in the funnies.
1988		(con. 1940s) C. Bram Hold Tight (1990) 8: The city looked straight out of the planet Mongo in the funny papers.
1991		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper From The Inside 131: What have you got there, the funny pages?
1996		(con. 1948) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 103: Florek had seen a ‘Ripley’s Believe It Or Not’ in the funny pages once.
2008		J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 159: ‘It’s a pretty big paper. They even have color funnies [...] and a crossword puzzle’.