Universal has posted samples and describes the feature in this way:

Take a duck who works as a photographer amongst human beings with crying babies, bridezilla complexes and clueless clients and we’ll show you a portrait of “W.T.Duck,” the comic strip that quickly exploded in popularity with camera aficionados and comics fans on the Web and is now in syndication.

You can see more of W.T. Duck on Aaron’s web site.

UPDATE: Aaron’s been documenting the launch of his strip with animations. Below is his video regarding the name change and announcing some of the papers that have picked him up.

Launch Date: May 5, 2008

Rating (out of 5):

King Features launched it’s second feature of the year yesterday with Deflocked by Jeff Corriveau. The feature sports a cast of four characters, a wayward sheep named Mamet, Cobb, the morally centered dog, Rupert a naive, but devoted companion, and Tucker a “peculiar” boy raised by the dogs.

Jeff cut his comedic teeth doing comedy writing for television. His credits include contributions to “Saturday Night Live”, “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and as head writer for “Talk Soup”. Such a background explains his mastery of the three panel set up, build and punch-line delivery. The three panel dailies are Jeff’s strongest suit.

While I enjoyed the daily writing, I couldn’t help but compare the Deflocked characters Mamet and Rupert to Get Fuzzy’s Bucky and Satchel. The sarcastic sheep, Mamet, is rough, rude and insulting to the other characters, but in the comparison, Bucky wins as a deeper, more callous character. Perhaps it is more believable that a cat could be more cruel than a sheep.

As mentioned, Deflock launched yesterday in papers such as The Arizona Republic, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit Free Press, Orange County Register, Rocky Mountain News, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

In the vein of such successful American strips as PvP and Liberty Meadows, the FLARE comic strip offers a unique and humorous twist on the classic comic book character. “FLARE will be a unique entry into the comic strip medium,” Mallonee says. “It’s emphatically not meant to be your typical ’superhero’ strip. FLARE is romance, humor, and high adventure. It’s all about having bright and shining fun in the battle against darkness and evil.”

You can see samples of the first couple of strips at their website.

H/t: D.D.Degg

United Media is launching a few feature by Keith Knight entitled The Knight Life on May 5th. The political and satirical feature is described as tackling “contemporary issues like consumer culture, bacon, the media, race, family and everything else, gently mocking the minutiae of daily life with self-deprecating humor, honesty and goofiness.”

“Keith Knight became one of the most successful alternative weekly cartoonists in America by drawing honest stories in an honest style everyone can enjoy,” says Ted Rall, Acquisitions Editor for United Media. “The Knight Life moves his amusing take on the autobio genre to the next logical level-a daily strip that hearkens back to the days when the comics were funny, but updated for 21st century weirdness. Lively, smart, relevant, personal and witty, The Knight Life is an essential addition to any comics page in need of more laughs.”

Keith has twice been awarded a Glyph Award (2006, 2007) and the 2007 Harvey Award for Best Comic Strip (for “The K Chronicles”). He creates “(Th)ink,” a weekly comic panel, and is a frequent contributor to Mad Magazine and ESPN The Magazine.

The Argyle Sweater started in 2006 on Comics Sherpa then was quickly promoted to goComcics and then placed under a development contract with Universal Press.

John Glynn, vice president of rights and acquisition editor for Universal Press Syndicate says:

“Scott’s been making a big pot of humor stew where he stirs together dogs, cats, cops, bees, wolves, game shows, bears, telephones, sports, zebras, nursery-rhyme icons and cavemen, topped off with the occasional evil scientist. What comes out of the pot is a grown-up’s comic inspired and drawn with childlike imagination.”

From the description:

It’s school-picture day and Karen has nothing clean to wear. Timmy can’t find his cleats and soccer practice is in 10 minutes. Sam is working from home but his conference call is running an hour late, and Sandy is away on business.

If this scenario seems oh-so-familiar, be prepared to see yourself in the mirror when you read Home and Away, a new daily and Sunday comic strip by Steve Sicula that is being distributed by The Washington Post Writers Group.

The strip features Sam and Sandy Szwyk, typical parents juggling careers and child care. Sam and Sandy find it hard enough to make sure Karen and Timmy are where they need to be when they need to be there (not to mention appropriately dressed); when you factor in their business travel schedules, you’ve got barely managed chaos. That’s why love, respect and a got-your-back support system are the trinity behind Sam and Sandy’s relationship. It’s what they depend upon at home and away.

Despite their mutual support, there are still kinks in the Szwyks’ system. Sam telecommutes, so he handles most of the household chores – for which he would earn an “A” for effort but a “C” for execution. Sandy’s high-paying job logging lots of frequent-flyer miles means that “quality time” with Sam and the kids is all the more important to her. And she’s determined to make it meaningful even if everyone else just wants to stay home and watch cartoons.

Steve has been drawing cartoons in the side for the last 20 years. Currently he is a national sales manager for ViewSonic Corporation.

See samples:

Scott’s feature has an April launch date (I’ll get a specific date soon). Universal Press has posted samples, and of course there are a lot more on gocomics.com

UPDATED: Universal Press has posted a press release regarding Argyle Sweater’s release. The official date is April 7 and early sales include “The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Calgary Herald, Seattle Times, the Portland Oregonian, as well as a host of online sites operated by Media News Group.”

Another note of interest is that the feature will be delivered in both panel or strip format.

Gary’s editorial cartoons are syndicated through Copley News Service and he currently is a designer and illustrator for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He was the Fischetti award winner in 1997. Tony has a wide varied cartooning background in greeting cards, newspapers, and magazines.

The feature launches March 10th.