Every two years about this time King Features releases their Syndicate Directory.
They have recently released the 2019 Directory edition (in pdf).
Some notes:
Maritsa Patrinos gets credit in the Six Chix entry,
and Wayno gets same with the Bizarro listing.
Maritsa took on duties this year, Wayno last year.
Rina Piccolo gets Rhymes With Orange credit.
Rina was named a Hilary collaborator in 2017.
Some hiccups:
In 2017 it was Dan Davis taking on Crankshaft art,
and Jeff Weigel starting the Sunday Phantom drawing;
but neither gets their names on the entries in this new edition.
Dan did get credit in the 2017 Directory.
The Crankshaft entry is assigned to Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers.
Chuck Ayers has returned but on the Funky Winkerbean strip,
which has a lone Batiuk credit in the new Directory.
Eric Reaves, signed Hi and Lois artist since 2017, gets no credit.
Strips dropped since the 2017 edition:
Hazel
Henry
Piranha Club
Tina’s Groove
Deflocked – moved to Andrews McMeel, but listed here in the ending copyright notices
Strips added since 2017 edition:
Daddy Daze
Macanudo
They’ll Do It Every Time – dropped in 2017, now returned
Wha?
Kevin Frank’s Heaven’s Love Thrift Shop was dropped from the Directory a couple versions ago and is not on the Comics Kingdom site, but for some reason is still listed on the KFS homepage.
Online Only:
Last December Intelligent Life by David Reddick ceased print syndication but remained a part of KFS as an online only offering. It seems to be joined by others.
Bill Holbrook’s Safe Havens and Patrick Roberts’ Todd the Dinosaur are both now listed as “online only.” I had no idea these two strips were not being offered to print clients. When did that happen?
Reprints:
Among the reprint titles offered are Tiger, Bringing Up Father, Mandrake and others.
The good news? The Amazing Spider-Man entry does not include the “reprint only” notice. So, I guess, they are still planning on bringing back new episodes sometime. (The current Mysterio sequence ends in a couple weeks, will news strips begin or will it continue with reprints into the Hobgoblin story?)
Bill Holbrook’s Kevin and Kell, offered as a reprint online only strip, is not listed.
Upsetting:
I was a bit miffed that they didn’t list the KFS executives as they had previously.
I know a few have left since 2017 and would have liked to see the current hierarchy.
For those interested:
post script:
The King Features Weekly Service doesn’t
seemed to have changed (yet?).
The last change there was in 2015 when
some new features were introduced and some
older features were discontinued.
The change to Safe Havens’ status was made last fall. It continues daily, Monday-Saturday, and it just had a collection published entitled “Samantha’s Whale.”
http://www.lulu.com/shop/bill-holbrook/samanthas-whale/paperback/product-24078981.html
Thanks for that Bill. For historians can you give us the last date Safe Havens was offered to print clients.
I believe it was the week of Dec. 3-8, 2018. In all other respects, though, it still continues.
I miss the annual Editor & Publisher Syndicate Directory.
Thanks Bill. I added it to the 2018 Newspaper Comics: Debuts, Departures, and the Dearly Departed list, with the note (and link) that it continues as a webcomic. https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2018/12/31/2018-comic-strip-departures/