Chad Carpenter has signed with King Features for an international syndication of his comic strip Tundra, according to E&P.
The 1991-launched strip, self-syndicated by cartoonist Chad Carpenter in the U.S. and Canada, currently appears in nearly 150 newspapers. Under the new deal with King, “Tundra” will now also be distributed to papers around the world.
“Tundra,” which is inspired by Carpenter’s upbringing in Alaska, takes a skewed look at nature and its quirky inhabitants. The cartoonist still lives in Alaska, in a small town about 45 miles from Anchorage.
His humor comic’s characters include Sherman, a squirrel whose schemes and activities often result in chaos; Dudley, a well-intentioned but not-too-bright bear; Chad, a struggling cartoonist who’s the constant victim of Dudley and Sherman’s actions; Andy, a quick-witted lemming; and Whiff the skunk.
Just so we’re clear, King will only distribute this feature to international papers. Chad Carpenter will continue to self-syndicate to US and Canadian newspapers.
“Tundra” gets better every year–congratulations to Chad for this next step. And it’s nice to see a home-grown Alaskan compete in the world marketplace.
Roger Maynard
Haines, Alaska.
Thanks Roger!
I appreciate the kind words. I’ll do my best not to embarrass the state of Alaska.
With warm wishes,
Chad
Love the strip, and ashamed to say I had never heard of it prior to this.
It opens up the whole self syndication debate all over again, which is a thread in itself.
If anyone would like to check out the work I’m posting this link.
http://www.tundracomics.com/pages/framebody.htm
Yep, I really like it! I wish you well! Great stuff.
“It opens up the whole self syndication debate all over again, which is a thread in itself.”
I think that’s a topic Guy Gilchrist can explain in great detail, since he has (had?) a strip or two distributed through self-syndication.
Chad, Great strip–Best of luck!
Congrats, Chad! 150 papers through self syndication…that’s better than some syndicates can and have done!
Could you tell us how you went about your self syndication success? It’s pretty darn impressive, especially in this era of a shrinking newspaper market…
I agree with Eric. I’d love to hear how Chad grew the strip to 150 papers. My strip appears in about 5 law enforcement magazines and papers and that’s about it, with the addition of a few publications that ask to print specific strips on specific topics to run with various law enforcement related articles. But to distribute a strip yourself so widely is exceptional!
Congratulations Chad!
I hope the international market does well for you. Tundra is a great strip.
Thanks for the kind words of support from everyone – It does my fragile cartoonist ego good.
I didn’t get today’s strip…please explain
Hi Liz, the person is camping in a trailer. The bears are using a giant can-opener to open up the trailer to get him out.
Animals are always learning to adapt to our modern world in order to find food.