Literary magazines appeared earlier than humorous ones, that is why nobody was surprised that funny pictures devoted to literary topics were published in those editions. Sometimes a caricature and an accompanying text were created by an artist and a writer, so the drawing was a kind of mutual work. This tradition was going on for years, especially in the "Krokodil" magazine.

In the XIXth century literature used to be the centre of social life. Writers and poets were the rulers of progressive people's minds. The men of letters, their works, and contradictions were the unlimited source for caricaturists. (M. Nevakhovich. " Procession to the cathedral of Glory"; N. Stepanov, a series of drawing in the album "Acquaintances" devoted to the visit of A. Dumas to Russia). The writers drew in albums, manuscripts, and letters themselves.

In 1868 M. Znamenski published a series of caricatures "Russian-Slavonic Olympus" in the "Iskra" magazine. It was a parody of A. Ostrovsky characters. M.Znamensky drew I. Turgenev as a tree overgrown with mushrooms. A. Pushkin , I. Goncharov and others were mocked, too. In the beginning of 1870s A. Lebedev created a series of satiric lithographs of Russian writers. A. Dolotov drew a caricature of N. Nekrasov, S. Lubovnikov mocked Russian censorship (1874). Controversy between F. Dostoevsky and M. Saltikov-Tshedrin (1863-1864) caused the publication of many caricatures.