‘Heathcliff’ Licensed for new Round of Animation
Although he arrived first in 1973, Heathcliff was pretty quickly eclipsed as king of the cartoon cats by Garfield, who arrived just five years later. Created by George Gately, the strip was filled with gentle humor and was quickly added to papers turning him into a quiet star. The strip can be found in over 1000 newspapers via the Creators Syndicate.
After Gately passed away, the strip as taken over by his nephew, Peter Gallagher in 1998. Now, FitzRoy media has signed a comprehensive licensing deal with Gallagher that will include animated feature films, direct-to-DVD releases and location based entertainment projects.
The tabby has previously been seen in animated form starting with a 1980 animated series from Ruby-Spears which is noteworthy only because it was Mel Blanc’s last original voice role. DIC revived the character for a new series in 1984.
Additionally, Marvel’s Star Comics imprint release a comic book adaptation with new longer adventures which lasted for a healthy 56 issues.