King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles, and games to nearly 5,000 newspapers worldwide. King Features Syndicate also produces intellectual properties, develops new content and franchises, like The Cuphead Show!, which it produced with Netflix, and licenses its classic characters and properties.
Company type
1914
Comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons
North America Syndicate
Cowles Syndicate
King Features Syndicate is a unit of Hearst Holdings, Inc., which combines the Hearst Corporation's cable-network partnerships, television programming and distribution activities, and syndication companies. King Features' affiliate syndicates are North America Syndicate and Cowles Syndicate.
Content distribution[edit]
King Features Syndicate's content distribution division distributes more than 150 different comics, games, puzzles, and columns, in digital and print formats, to nearly 5,000 daily, Sunday, weekly and online newspapers and other publishers. Comic properties include Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Dennis the Menace, The Family Circus, Curtis, Rhymes with Orange, Arctic Circle, Macanudo, and Zits.[24] The division additionally offers services for smaller publishers and community papers, including pagination and colorization services through its sister company, RBMA.[25]
In March 2018, to mark International Women's Day, many King Features cartoonists included messages about female empowerment and other topics that resonated with them.[26]
In April 2020, Bianca Xunise became the first black woman to join the team of female creatore behind King Features strip Six Chix.[27] Six Chix was first syndicated by King Features in May 2019, after King Features saw strip creator Maritsa Patrinos' work online.[28]
In June 2020, King Features started syndicating webcomic Rae the Doe.[29] In the same month, cartoonists from King Features, along with artists from Kirkman's, Andrews McMeel Syndication and National Cartoonists Society, hid symbols in their Sunday strips as a tribute to essential workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.[30][31]
In September 2020, King Features relaunched comic strip Mark Trail, originally launched in 1946, with cartoonist Jules Rivera, author of comic strip Love, Joolz, at the helm.[32]
Many King characters were adapted to animation, both theatrical and television cartoons.[33] Strips from King Features were often reprinted by comic book publishers. In 1967, King Features made an effort to publish comic books of its own by establishing King Comics. This short-lived comic-book line showcased King's best-known characters in seven titles:
The comics imprint existed for a year-and-a-half, with titles cover-dated from August 1966 to December 1967. When it ended, the books were picked up and continued by Gold Key Comics, Harvey Comics, and Charlton Comics.
In 1967, Al Brodax, then the president of King Features, pitched The Beatles manager Brian Epstein on turning their hit song "Yellow Submarine" into an animated movie. The film was widely considered to be the first animated film for adult audiences.[34]
In addition to extensive merchandising and licensing of such iconic characters as Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, and Popeye, King Features has diversified to handle popular animation and TV characters (from "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and "Howdy Doody" to "Mr. Bill" and "Mr. Magoo"), plus publicly displayed, life-sized art sculptures — "CowParade", "Guitarmania" and "The Trail of the Painted Ponies." King Features also represents David and Goliath, an apparel and accessories line popular with teenagers.
King Features additionally licenses outdoor apparel brand PURENorway,[35] Moomins, Icelandic lifestyle brand Tulipop,[36] ringtone character Crazy Frog[37] and South Korean animated character PUCCA.
As a sales tool, the King Features design team created colorful strip sample folders resembling movie press kits. With rising paper costs and the downsizing of newspapers, the comic-strip arena became increasingly competitive, and by 2002, King salespeople were making in-person pitches to 1,550 daily newspapers across America. King was then receiving more than 6,000 strip submissions each year, yet it accepted only two or three annually. Interviewed in 2002 by Catherine Donaldson-Evans of Fox News, Kennedy commented:
One of the first original animation projects of King Features Animation is The Cuphead Show! for Netflix, an animated series based on the video game Cuphead by Studio MDHR, known for its use of fully hand-drawn characters and animations in the style of Fleischer Studios. The series had started development since July 2019,[39] and was released on February 18, 2022.
In June 2019, 20th Century Studios and The Walt Disney Company announced the production of an animated film based on the comic strip Flash Gordon. Taiki Waititi was attached to direct and John Davis was announced as the producer.[40]
On May 11, 2020, it was announced that a Popeye movie is in development at King Features Syndicate with Genndy Tartakovsky coming back to the project.[41]
In November 2020, a Hagar the Horrible animated series was announced, written by Eric Zibroski, who wrote and produced the ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat.[42]
Digital platforms[edit]
DailyINK (2006–2013)[edit]
Confronted by newspaper cutbacks, King Features has explored new venues, such as placing comic strips on mobile phones. In 2006, it launched DailyINK. On a web page and via email, the DailyINK service made available more than 90 vintage and current comic strips, puzzles, and editorial cartoons.[43] The vintage strips included Bringing Up Father, Buz Sawyer, Flash Gordon, Krazy Kat, The Little King, The Phantom, and Rip Kirby. King Features editor-in-chief Jay Kennedy introduced the service early in 2006, commenting: