Industry news for the professional cartoonist
King Features has launched it’s third feature of 2006 (Retail and Pajama Diaries being the first two). The new feature is a Sunday only called Heaven’s Love Thrift Shop by Kevin Frank. Heaven’s love focuses on the the characters (Wilson, Cassidy, and Dag) who run a charitable thrift shop which supports outreaches including a soup-kitchen and homeless shelter.
The topic for this In Focus article has been rolling around in my mind for a few months now. Since October, when I started this blog, I�ve read several reports (usually around end of financial quarters) that bemoan the dropping circulations and overall readership of the newspaper. How was this trend affecting the big six syndicates who sell editorial cartoons and comic strips?� Because their business is so closely dependent on the health of the newspaper industry � what were syndicates doing to grow their business in this climate and ultimately, how would these trends affect the current or future syndicated cartoonist?
United Media has announced that Ted Rall has joined them and will help acquire and develop comics and text features…. Ted has his ear to the ground and he knows where to look to find more edgy content that appeals to younger readers and addresses the needs of today.”Editor and Publisher also has filed a story.
Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip ?Dilbert?, will address the Assemblly Technology Expo (ATExpo 2006) as the keynote…
Ziggy celebrates 35 years on the comics page, which debuted on June 28, 1971. The comic is distributed to over…
From a story out of Reuters comes news that Warner Home Video has negotiated a deal with Hearst Entertainment and King Features for worldwide distribution rights to all of Popeye’s theatrical shorts and television cartoons…. Warner also has licensed the exclusive rights to 220 Popeye made-for-TV animated shorts produced from 1960-62, 65 episodes of “The Continuing Adventures of Popeye,” produced from 1978-81 (and consisting of 161 animated shorts) and 26 “Popeye & Son” shorts produced in 1987.The Popeye theatrical slate includes 120 black-and-white shorts (106 of them produced by Fleischer Studios, the other 14 by Famous Studios) and 111 Technicolor cartoons (three produced by Fleischer Studios and 108 produced by Famous Studios).Warner will now have to begin preservation and restoration.
King Feature’s DailyINK has added five more comics to their list of features subscribers can subscribers to. The new features are: Beetle Bailey, Bringing up Father, Buz Sawyer, Flash Gordon, and Rip Kirby.
According to their new blog (authored by Derek, Dir. of Web Operations) the site is the combination of Universal’s uComics.com and GoComics.com web sites. Aside from the obvious visual changes, the new site uses a Flash-based comic reader to thwart would be copyright violators.
Dave Astor of Editor and Publisher has a great write up regarding the upcoming transition in leadership at Universal Press Syndicate when Lee Salem succeeds Bob Duffy as president of the company.
From the press release:The lively team of characters in the comic strip include Ronaldinho?s brother Asis; sister Daisy, number one fan Diego, his mother and two lovable dogs named Champ and Fireball. Readers can follow their adventures on and off of the soccer field in this daily and Sunday comic strip.De Sousa has already taken Ronaldinho to star status in publishing, licensing, animation, television syndication and social campaigns.
Patrick McDonnell has helped raise $12,000 for the Corbett Tiger Reserve in Ramnagar, India, according to Editor and Publisher.Visitors to the Muttscomics.com store donated $2,000 (in $1 increments), which was matched by McDonnell. That $4,000 total was then matched twice by The Corbett Foundation and the World Wildlife Foundation of India.
Kirk Anderson has been added to the Universal Press line up of editorial cartoonists according to Editor and Publisher…. Paul Pioneer Press from 1995 to 2003 before being laid off.
An inside source at Universal Press Syndicate has alerted me that Lee Salem has been promoted to President of the…
Universal Press has issued a press release to announce that Bill Amend has put out a new FoxTrot collection. This…
Arlo and Janis creator Jimmy Johnson posted on his website that he exerienced a mild heart attack earlier this week….