2024 King Features Syndicate Directory

King Features Syndicate has released the 2024 Directory displaying their offerings to newspapers.

From King Features:

From its many popular comic strips and panels to columns by well-known personalities, incisive editorial cartoons to a wide variety of puzzles and games, King Features covers the world with informative, entertaining features for today’s readers.

We’ll highlight their comic strip and panel pages here.

The major change from the 2023 Directory is the loss of The Lockhorns, confirming the panel’s switch to AMS. Others not included this year that were there last year are The Amazing Spider-Man and Pros & Cons both of which were discontinued this past year. Tundra is not listed, King Features had the international (non-North America) distribution rights to that comic’s Sunday issues. No more?

Funny Online Animals went on “hiatus” in March 2023. #Sales is still appears at Comics Kingdom but not above.

There are some other features listed and currently available at the Comics Kingdom site (at the bottom of this page) that are not included in the 2024 Directory: the two Bob Mankoff Presents cartoon pages and K.C. Green’s God’s Hands. Plus the two, to borrow a comic book description, mini-series of a few years ago Flash Forward and Popeye’s Cartoon Club. MazeToons appears in The Directory’s puzzles and games section.

So does that mean everything in the Directory is available to hard copy newspapers, bulletins, and magazines? Unsure but I don’t think so. As far as I know Rae the Doe and Intelligent Life remain online-only. Newly added this year is Legend of Bill which is also (afaik) only available digitally (the November 30, 2023 installment of Bill pretty much confirms that as one doesn’t change the size and shape of a syndicated comic).

Counting Legend of Bill there are a dozen comics added to the 2024 Directory that weren’t in the 2023 edition.

The recently announced strips available for print of Flash Gordon, Comiclicious, Never Been Deader, Mara Llave: Keeper of Time, Alice, and Insanity Streak are all new to the 2024 Directory; as well as the earlier Beware of Toddler and Olive & Popeye.

Also new are Break of Day, Dumplings, and Willy Black. Will we soon see press kits revealing that these three will be syndicated to print outlets? Time will tell.

The changing, or not, credits – 2024 vs. 2023: Scott Ketchum has been added to the Dennis the Menace roster of creators; Chris Browne (r.i.p.) remains as credited cartoonist for Hägar the Horrible; Loren Fishman retains his “guest artist” status on Mallard Fillmore; Randy Milholland (and Bud Sagendorf) replaces Hy Eisman on Popeye; and Gary Brookins, not Ben Lansing, is still credited on Shoe. Should I mention that Scott Underwood, who co-signs the Sunday Slylock Fox is not recognized? (By the way in 2023 it was Slylock Fox and Comics For Kids, in 2024 it is simply Slylock Fox.)

Oddity: the classic offering of Bringing Up Father by Frank Johnson is the only comic in the 2024 Directory not included on the King Features Syndicate/Comics Kingdom comics list (again, scroll down).

Like last year KFS political cartoonists are not given individual notice but are grouped into a third page inset.