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King of the Comics: One Hundred Years of King Features Syndicate
Krazy Kat! Popeye! Flash Gordon! Beetle Bailey! Blondie! Prince Valiant! Hagar the Horrible! Barney Google and Snuffy Smith! Baby Blues! Mutt & Jeff! Zits! Juliet Jones! Buz Sawyer! Steve Canyon! Bizarro! Hi & Lois! Maggie & Jiggs! Johnny Hazard! There are simply too many to list because King Features has had a more illustrious and long-lasting history than any newspaper syndicate, even as it continues to lead the way into the digital age and beyond. This book is a centennial birthday bash hosted by Dean Mullaney, Bruce Canwell, and Brian Walker, with contributions by Brendan Burford, Lucy Shelton Caswell, Jared Gardner, Ron Goulart, Jeffrey Lindenblatt, Carl Linich, Paul Tumey, and Germund von Wowern. More than just comics, it s a celebration of the profound impact that King Features has had on popular culture!"
- GenresComicsHistoryNonfiction
288 pages, Hardcover
First published October 27, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 27, 2022
This isn't the kind of book you digest in one sitting like a lion taking down a gazelle. It contains essays on the formation and history of King Features Syndiate and reprints galore of newspaper comis from the dawn of King Features to today. Some of them are well known and some not as well known as they should be. Ponytail looks awesome yet there are no collections of it save a couple in the 1960s. I was pleased to see some Polly and Her Pals reprinted.
August 23, 2016
A series of essays covering the life of King Features Syndicate, a major distributor of comics strips all over the world, and now a licensing and web distributor of comic strips. The essays are by different experts in the field and cover the variety of cartoonists and internationally famous strips and characters the syndicate has run since the late 1890's.
Media mogul, William Randolph Hearst was intimately involved with his publications and saw how cartoons and regular features could draw in the newly literate working classes. His shadow affects the first half of the book.The decline of newspapers in the later 2Oth century and the rise of digital media have changed the syndicated fetures market considerably.
Like most IDW ( Idea and Design Works) books this is beautifully designed and presented.. But it is by its nature a bit "once over lightly" in places. The strip reproductions are beautifully done , but some of the earlier tab sections should have been reproduced a bit larger .
A readable history of one of the major organisations in 19th and 20th Century media and a survey of America's fascination with the comics.
NB while the Hearst syndicates existed from the 1890's on, they were combined under the King Features banner in 1915.the book covers the period prior to this as well as the official "hundred years" period of the title.
Media mogul, William Randolph Hearst was intimately involved with his publications and saw how cartoons and regular features could draw in the newly literate working classes. His shadow affects the first half of the book.The decline of newspapers in the later 2Oth century and the rise of digital media have changed the syndicated fetures market considerably.
Like most IDW ( Idea and Design Works) books this is beautifully designed and presented.. But it is by its nature a bit "once over lightly" in places. The strip reproductions are beautifully done , but some of the earlier tab sections should have been reproduced a bit larger .
A readable history of one of the major organisations in 19th and 20th Century media and a survey of America's fascination with the comics.
NB while the Hearst syndicates existed from the 1890's on, they were combined under the King Features banner in 1915.the book covers the period prior to this as well as the official "hundred years" period of the title.
August 27, 2024
Fantastic history of King Features Syndicate, the premier comic strip publisher that produced everything from "Popeye" to "Prince Valiant". A great collection of articles and history along with some beautiful reprints of many of their classic strips, all shown beautifully in this oversized format. Great read for any comic strip fan.
March 17, 2016
Fun. Hearst launched the King Features Syndicate a hundred years ago. This oversize coffee-table book documents a century of comics published by King Features. Context and history come from the essays that introduce each era.
A hundred years ago, cartoonists introduced bright colors, speech balloons, sequential panels and recurring characters for comics that appeared in weekend newspapers. Daily black-and-white strips evolved quickly, which appealed to the commuting city workers. Styles included story strips and gag-a-day.
Along the way, Dr Seuss published comic strips for a season in the mid-thirties, with early shades of his fantastic language and characters who we would meet later in his books.
King published many romance and action strips for years. Jay Kennedy joined King in the late eighties to bring edgier cartoons to the syndicate. Bizarro and Zippy, among others, still publish as edgy, surreal and absurdist comics.
After studying sculpture and conceptual art at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Jay Kennedy earned a degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin. As an active member of the Pail and Shovel Party, Jay drew posters and flyers for the group. He also took part in one of the famous pranks, the nineteen seventy-eight planting of pink flamingoes on Bascom Hill. Jay roomed with mutual friends, who introduced us on that Halloween in Madison.
A hundred years ago, cartoonists introduced bright colors, speech balloons, sequential panels and recurring characters for comics that appeared in weekend newspapers. Daily black-and-white strips evolved quickly, which appealed to the commuting city workers. Styles included story strips and gag-a-day.
Along the way, Dr Seuss published comic strips for a season in the mid-thirties, with early shades of his fantastic language and characters who we would meet later in his books.
King published many romance and action strips for years. Jay Kennedy joined King in the late eighties to bring edgier cartoons to the syndicate. Bizarro and Zippy, among others, still publish as edgy, surreal and absurdist comics.
After studying sculpture and conceptual art at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Jay Kennedy earned a degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin. As an active member of the Pail and Shovel Party, Jay drew posters and flyers for the group. He also took part in one of the famous pranks, the nineteen seventy-eight planting of pink flamingoes on Bascom Hill. Jay roomed with mutual friends, who introduced us on that Halloween in Madison.
December 24, 2015
Comic strips and info about cartoonists for (as the title says) 100 years
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews