Tagged: King Features Syndicate

People Are Pissed About…

People Are Pissed About…

  • News
  • June 30, 2007

Popeye by Bud Sagendorf, reprinted in newspapers last Wednesday but originally published a couple decades ago. In fact, Bud Sagendorf has been dead for 12 years. No, it wasn’t a suicide.

About a dozen years ago, Popeye cartoonist Bobby London got fired for a storyline that set-up a minor, passing joke reference to abortion, without even employing the word. It was so subtle it didn’t offend King Features editors at the time; they dutifully sent it along to subscribing newspapers. When somebody objected, London got aborted from the strip.

Olive survived both gags. She will be appearing later this year in a commercial for Prego pasta sauce.

Yep. "Prego."

Artwork copyright King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

 

Mandrake Gestures Cinematically

Mandrake Gestures Cinematically

Perhaps the comics’ first "costumed" hero, Mandrake The Magician, is headed to the big screen once again.

The creation of Lee Falk (who created The Phantom in 1936, two years after starting Mandrake) and artist Phil Davis, Chuck Russell is directing the new effort. Fans might best remember his work helming The Mask. Mindfreak star Criss Angel is involved in the magic stuff.

Mandrake had made it to the movie serials in 1939 with Warren Hull (The Spider) in the lead and Anthony Herrera played the magician (with Ji-Tu Cumbuka as Lothar) in a 1979 made-for-teevee flick that featured Harry Blackstone Jr.  The comic strip is still running, being written and drawn by long-time Falk associate Fred Fredricks.

At one time Fererico Fellini was set to do a Mandrake film, but I suspect the prospect made owners King Feature Syndicate weep.

Artwork copyright King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.

Who’s your daddy, Dagwood?

Who’s your daddy, Dagwood?

They’re about to throw the book at Blondie.

Blondie: The Complete Bumstead Family History by strip writer Dean Young (son of Chic Young, Blondie’s real daddy) and Melena Ryzik have penned the definitive tale of the world’s most heavily circulated newspaper comic strip. Even if you find today’s efforts rather mundane, Blondie started out as a continuity strip: the story of millionaire Dagwood Bumstead and his love for jazz-age flapper Blondie – despite the threat of being disinherited by his family! 

Yep, Blondie’s roots are dark, indeed. Personally, I want to find out what happened to Daisy’s many, many pups. They all disappeared, you know. Hmmmm…

According to Amazon.com: It’s all here in this definitive book for the Blondie fan: Blondie and Dagwood, their children Alexander and Cookie, their neighbors Herb and Tootsie Woodley, the family dog Daisy, Dagwood’s boss Mr. Dithers, the mailman Mr. Beasley, and the neighborhood kid Elmo Tuttle. The book includes early history; Dagwood at work, Blondie’s starting her catering business, favorite cartoon strips, and the story of Chic and Dean Young, the creators of Blondie.

Blondie: The Complete Bumstead Family History comes out this August.

(Artwork copyright King Features Syndicate. All Rights Reserved.)

Let’s get Squashy!

Let’s get Squashy!

  • News
  • April 14, 2007

In case you thought Zippy was kinda normal, King Features will be launching a new strip, My Cage, on May 6th.

My Cage is a twist on "MySpace," except that it has a bit of a manga-style influence. Drawn by Melissa DeJesus and written by Ed Power, My Cage is about Norman, a young 20-something platypus who wanted to be a world famous writer. Like all too many writer wannabees, he is stuck in a crappy middle-management job. However, he does have a  girlfriend, a pet amoeba named Squashy, and the usual compliment of oddball co-workers.

Some 30 newspaper have picked up the feature, including the Houston Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Chicago Sun-Times, St. Paul Pioneer Press and Madison (WI) Capital Times. No doubt you’ll be able to check it out at the Post-Intelligencer‘s website, one of the best places for the online reading of newspaper comic strips: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/fun/

Jay Kennedy RIP

Jay Kennedy RIP

  • News
  • March 16, 2007

According to an announcement from the Hearst Corporation, King Features Syndicate editor-in-chief Jay Kennedy died yesterday while on vacation in Costa Rica. He was 50 years old.

"Jay had a profound impact on the transformation of King Features as a home for the best new and talented comic strip creators in the country," said Bruce L. Paisner, executive vice president, Hearst Entertainment & Syndication. "He was an extremely creative talent himself and we are indebted to him for all he did."

Kennedy joined King Features in 1988 as deputy comics editor and became comics editor one year later. He was named editor in chief in 1997. He previously served as cartoon editor of Esquire magazine,and was a humor book agent and a cartoon consultant and editor for magazines and publishers, including People. In 1985, Kennedy guest edited r the "European Humor" issue of The National Lampoon.

Kennedy wrote articles about the history of cartooning, and profiled cartoonists and contemporary comics for magazines including New Age Journal, Heavy Metal, New York, The IGA Journal, and Escape, an English bi-monthly. He was also the author of "The Underground Comix Guide," published in 1982.

Before graduating with a sociology degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Kennedy studied sculpting and conceptual art at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.

I recall having corresponded with Kennedy on several occasions, probably asking some questions or other about women cartoonists at King Features, and always found him knowledgeable and pleasant.  ComicMix offfers our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.

Comic strip creates a ruckus

Comic strip creates a ruckus

  • News
  • February 26, 2007

Tom Spurgeon is the go-to guy for coverage of comics that raise a ruckus.  Today he reports that "an episode of Funky Winkerbean from late last week that hinted at a soldier in Iraq falling prey to an IED in what was actually a video game led to a complaint by a soldier in one case and concern by editors in both. This in turn led to a call from one of the editors to King Features demanding a better heads-up on sensitive material or they would cancel all of their King Features material, and an apology sent to each paper by Tom Batiuk." 

Spurgeon also notes that the Korean-American community in Los Angeles is protesting what it perceives as anti-Semitism in Lee Won-bok’s Distant Countries and Neighboring Countries.  Needless to say, it should be seen as a very positive thing that comics continue to have the power to enrage as well as inspire.

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