In Russia just after the victory over Napoleon an illustrated ABC "Gift for children in memory of 1812" was published. Some of 34 engraved and painted pictures were anti-Napoleon caricatures by I. Terebenev (pictures by I. Ivanov and A. Venetsianov were also used). In 1835 "Amusing ABC" by K. Zeletsov was printed, in a year Ц "Funny ABC" with D. CruikshankТs caricatures was published in France.

Artists of "World Art" group made a valuable contribution to the creation of books for children, so they did not stay indifferent to ABC. In 1904 A. Benoiss, a wise and fun-loving person, the leader of "World Art" group, issued "ABC in Pictures", G. Narbut, one of the "World Art" group, published "Ukrainian ABC" with ironic illustrations. In 1911 J. Lada, a famous Check caricaturist, published "My ABC".

Humorous writers also used the form of ABC in their works. In 1913 Sasha Tchyorni created "Alive ABC", later V. Mayakovski Ц "Soviet ABC". During the Civil War he illustrated his poems with funny pictures in "Okna ROSTA" (Russian Telegraph Agency").

The Soviet power tried to improve the Russian ABC, and annuled the letter "- " as obsolete.

A lot of illustrators of childrenТs books drew ABC; L. Brodati, one of "Krokodil" artists, created "ABC of ChildrenТs Demands"; his colleague E. Migunov published ABC of "negative" characters (dependants, intriguers, lazy-bones, etc).

Some grotesque and "funny" letters can be met even in manuscripts. Later, in the XIXth century different figures of people and animals were drawn as letters, e.g. the titles of some satiric magazines ("Eralash", "Iskra", "Punch",etc.) were presented like that. In 1840s G. Gagarin used this technique in illustrations to V. SollogubbТs "Tarantas"; in 1853 P. Sokolov drew an ingenious title of GogolТs story. Each letter was a funny picture, e.g. "A" Ц a fat woman in a nightcap, etc.

Many modern artists use unique "hand-made" funny letters in their works in contrast with computer graphics. They also create different types : "cat", "animal", "sports", etc. Such "letter" fantasies impress children greatly. J. Maccoli drew letters looking like different machine parts for the title of the book "How Mechanisms Work". G. Svetozarov published his unusual ABC in "Leninskie Iskri" (Lenin Sparks") newspaper in 1980s. Some curious things happened: a photographer of butterflies collected "Wing ABC", he found almost all the letters on the butterfliesТ wings.

The artists of posters can't help using the experience of creating funny letters and compositions. In N. Akimov's poster "Laughter and Tears" the words are turning into two fellows Ц joyful and sad.