100 years of King Features Syndicate

In October 1895, California newspaperman William Randolph Hearst purchased the struggling New York Journal, intent on competing with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. The following year, after installing a new high-speed multi-color press, he acquired the services of Pulitzer's most popular cartoonist, Richard Outcault. Hearst's American Humorist, an eight-page color comic supplement in the Sunday Journal, featuring Outcault's Yellow Kid as the star attraction, debuted on October 18, 1896.

At the peak of his popularity in 1896 and 1897, the Yellow Kid's toothy grin showed up on hundreds of products, including buttons, crackers, puzzles and fans. The Yellow Kid dramatically demonstrated the selling power of a popular comic character.

The Yellow Kid (1896 – 1898) by Richard Felton Outcault

The...

Following Outcault's departure from the New York Journal in 1898, The Katzenjammer Kids by Rudolph Dirks became the anchor of Hearst's flagship American Humorist comic section.

The Katzenjammer Kids (1897 – 2006) by Rudolph Dirks This drawing...

Veteran cartoonist Frederick Opper joined the Hearst staff in 1899 and was put to work drawing single-panel cartoons for the Sunday supplement.

On March 11, 1900, Opper introduced his first newspaper comic feature, Happy Hooligan, which starred an irrepressible Irish hobo with a tin can balanced on his head.

Cartoonists around the country were soon imitating the successful formula pioneered by Outcault, Dirks and Opper. The unique combination of recurring characters, sequential panels, speech balloons and bright colors eventually came to be known as the "Sunday funnies."

Happy Hooligan (1900 – 1932) by Fredrick Burr Opper Poor dumb...

In New York City, the competition between newspapers continued to rage and metropolitan papers in other cities soon began publishing their own Sunday comic sections. As a result, the Yellow Kid and his fellow comic characters became national celebrities.

Hearst expanded his empire when he launched the Chicago American in 1900, the Los Angeles Examiner in 1903 and the Boston American in 1904.

Barney Google (1919 – Present) by Billy DeBeck At first, Barney...

Outcault's second major creation, Buster Brown, debuted in the New York Herald on May 4, 1902, and switched over to Hearst's New York American on January 14, 1906.

Bud Fisher, who introduced the first successful daily comic strip, Mutt and Jeff, in the San Francisco Chronicle on November 15, 1907, signed with Hearst's Star Company in 1909.

Another pioneer, Jimmy Swinnerton, drew a comic feature, Little Bears, for Hearst's San Francisco Examiner beginning in 1893. "Swin" relocated to New York in 1897 and his Little Bears became The Journal Tigers. He eventually settled in Arizona where he produced Little Jimmy until 1958.

Other prominent artists who worked for Hearst during the early years of the 20th century were political cartoonists Homer Davenport and T.E. Powers, sports cartoonist TAD Dorgan, and strip creators George Herriman (The Dingbat Family), Gus Mager (Sherlocko the Monk), Harry Hershfield (Desperate Desmond), Tom McNamara (Us Boys) and Walter Hoban (Jerry on the Job).

Syndicates had grown steadily since the Civil War, but now, in addition to text features, they started selling comics. The Newspaper Enterprise Association began distributing to the Scripps chain in 1902, and Pulitzer launched his Press Publishing Syndicate in 1905.

Among the other organizations that joined the ranks of long-established syndicates were: George Matthew Adams Syndicate (1907), the Central Press Association (1910), Associated Newspapers (1912) and the Wheeler Syndicate (1913).

On November 16, 1915, Hearst deputy Moses Koenigsberg consolidated all of the Hearst distribution operations within a single company – King Features Syndicate. Named after its founder (the German word "koenig" translates as "king" in English), it has been among the leading comics distributors ever since.

King Features has syndicated more than 200 different comics through...

By 1915, two decades after the first appearance of The Yellow Kid in the New York World, the funnies business was a national institution. Comics appeared, both daily and on Sundays, in virtually every newspaper in the United States. Syndicates distributed the top comic features to over a thousand clients, and the most sought-after creators were well-known celebrities.

Comic characters starred in stage adaptations and animated films, their praises were sung in hit songs, their adventures were collected in books and magazines, and their popular images were used to sell a wide variety of products, ranging from toys and dolls to cigars and whisky.

The syndicates gradually transformed the content of the comics. Urban, ethnic and slapstick humor was complimented by more family-friendly fare.

Bringing Up Father (1913 – 2000) by George McManus The story of...

Polly & Her Pals (1912 – 1956) by Cliff Sterrett The strip...

Thimble Theatre (1919 – Present) by Elzie Segar Thimble Theatre...

Although many of the creations from the first decade, including Happy Hooligan and The Katzenjammer Kids, continued to be among the most popular strips, new titles released in the coming years provided a broader spectrum of choices for readers.

Krazy Kat (1910 – 1944) by George Herriman The story of a...

As the syndicates became more powerful, they were able to attract the best talent. The big distributors quickly snapped up homegrown artists who achieved local notoriety, and the top cartoonists began earning huge salaries. They were also free to work where and when they wanted, and to entertain better offers from competing syndicates.

Betty Boop (1934 – 1937) by Bud Counihan Before becoming an...

Among the successful comic strips that King Features released before and after its founding were Bringing Up Father by George McManus, Krazy Kat by George Herriman, Polly and Her Pals by Cliff Sterrett, Barney Google by Billy DeBeck, Thimble Theatre Starring Popeye by E.C. Segar, Blondie by Chic Young, Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim by Alex Raymond, The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician by Lee Falk, Prince Valiant by Hal Foster and Ripley's Believe It or Not by Robert Ripley.

King also distributed the numerous comic strip adaptations from the Walt Disney Studios, beginning with Mickey Mouse in 1930.

Fortune magazine, in an April 1933 article entitled The Funny Papers, reported that, "Of 2,300 U.S. dailies, only two of any importance (New York Times and Boston Transcript) see fit to exist without funnies. U.S. Funny Paper Inc. grosses about $6,000,000 a year. Some twenty comic-strip headliners are paid at least $1,000 a week for their labors."

Newspaper circulation continued to climb throughout the 1930s, reaching a high of 41,500,000 in

1937, but profits were down due to the loss of advertising revenue after the 1929 stock market crash. Smaller papers struggled to survive and either folded or were absorbed by one of the larger chains. Editor & Publisher reported that between 1924 and 1934, groups owning more than one newspaper had doubled, from thirty-one to sixty-three. These organizations controlled 361 daily papers, which accounted for 37.6 percent of the total circulation.

Prince Valiant (1937 – Present) by Hal Foster The comic strip...

By 1935, the Hearst empire had expanded to twenty-six daily and seventeen Sunday papers in nineteen cities, thirteen magazines, eight radio stations, two motion picture companies, four syndicates and two wire services. Hearst owned two million acres of real estate valued at $56 million, a vast collection of art and antiques, and an estimated personal wealth of $220,000,000.

Financial hardship finally caught up with the organization in 1937, when many holdings, including nine daily papers and five Sunday editions, had to be liquidated to pay off debts.

The outbreak of World War II closed many foreign markets for the major newspaper syndicates. King Features, which had 26 overseas bureaus, was hit the hardest. After the Nazis invaded

Belgium, Holland and France, American comics were banned in most newspapers in those countries. Publishers in England were forced to cancel features due to paper shortages. Currency exchange restrictions, the closing of shipping lanes and the loss of advertising revenue further restricted business.

Shortages of materials, including newsprint and ink, also hurt business on the home front as newspapers began cutting back on the number of comics they printed. The syndicates quickly responded to this threat by offering their comics in reduced sizes. They began distributing daily strips in a four-column width, as well as in the standard five and six-column formats (one column is approximately two inches in width).

The Little King (1934 – 1975) by Otto Soglow The King never had...

Skippy (1925 – 1944) by Percy L. Crosby Originally a series in...

Flash Gordon (1934 – 2001) by Alex Raymond The definitive space...

The Phantom (1936 – Present) created by Lee Falk The stories of...

After the hostilities ended and the foreign markets were restored, international distribution of comics became a growth industry. "We never did any promotion in the South American and European countries," remarked one syndicate manager, "but the war and the GIs' enthusiasm for comics opened up a big field for us there."

Steve Canyon (1947 – 1988) by Milton Caniff Steve was a jet...

The comics industry lost its founding patron when William Randolph Hearst succumbed to a heart condition on August 14, 1951, at the age of eighty-eight. "The Chief" left behind sixteen daily and thirteen Sunday newspapers, eight monthly magazines, a sprawling real estate empire and a priceless collection of art and antiques.

Hearst remained personally involved in every detail of his publishing empire until his death, including the supervision of the comics. All new features had to be approved by him before King Features could sign them up. Mort Walker's Beetle Bailey was the last comic strip he personally green-lighted. When Hearst saw a comic strip he liked that wasn't owned by King, he directed his people to hire the artist away from the current employer with a better offer. Many cartoonists, including Richard Outcault, Winsor McCay and Roy Crane, came under his control in this way.

Ward Greene, who was the editor and general manager of King Features at the time of Hearst's passing, made regular trips from the syndicate offices in New York to his boss' home in California. Hearst would pore over two bound volumes containing all three hundred of the syndicate's features and make comments and suggestions. He frequently suggested plot lines for comic strips and objected to sequences that he disliked.

Buz Sawyer (1943 – 1989) by Roy Crane Another heroic pilot was...

Over half a century before his death, Hearst set the stage for the birth of the medium. On October 17, 1896, the day preceding The Yellow Kid's debut in Hearst's Sunday edition of the New York Journal, a full-page advertisement described the new comics section as "Eight pages of iridescent polychromous effulgence that makes the rainbow look like a lead pipe!" Hearst didn't invent the comics, but his promotional bravado was what sold them to the American public.

A Hearst editor once said that his boss' goal was to make every reader exclaim "Gee whiz!" upon opening the newspaper. That phrase might have been a fitting epitaph for the greatest showman

in the history of journalism.

In the modern era, technological advances such as television and computers and social changes brought about by the baby boom generation, had a major influence on the comics business. Trends within the industry had an even greater impact on cartoonists. The decline of story strips and the increasing dominance of humor features led to both terminated careers and new opportunities. The shrinking size that comics were printed in newspapers posed an ongoing threat to creativity. Other issues – censorship, ownership and merchandising – presented additional challenges.

Corporate mergers also dramatically altered the funnies business. In March 1986, under the leadership of President Joe D'Angelo, King Features absorbed the seventh-largest syndicate, Cowles (formerly known as the Register and Tribune Syndicate). The following February, it purchased News America Syndicate, the third largest comics distributor, from Rupert Murdoch. King, which incorporated the renamed North America Syndicate into its group of companies, now controlled 225 syndicated features, including nine strips and panels with over 1,000 clients.

Beetle Bailey (1950 – Present) by Mort Walker A soldier’s life...

Hi & Lois (1954 – Present) by Mort Walker & Dik Browne .. .. .

Dennis the Menace (1951 – Present) by Hank Ketcham The terror of...

The Family Circus (1960 – Present) by Bil Keane Keane’s real...

Hägar the Horrible (1973 – Present) by Dik Browne Far from...

Among the new acquisitions were Dennis the Menace by Hank Ketchum and The Family Circus by Bil Keane, which were added to established properties like Blondie, Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois, Hägar the Horrible, The Lockhorns, Curtis, The Piranha Club (formerly Ernie) and Zippy th Pinhead.

Jay Kennedy, a former cartoon editor athnd consultant to Esquire, People, National Lampoon and Lear's magazines, took over as comics editor at King Features in 1989. Kennedy, who had represented a number of "alternative" comics artists, promised to compliment King's mainstream features with "edgier" creations. Kennedy would have a major hand in bringing fresh ideas to the syndicate in the 1990s.

The three most successful new strips of the decade – Baby Blues, Zits, and Mutts – blended traditional themes with fresh perspectives. Jerry Scott, Rick Kirkman, Jim Borgman and Patrick McDonnell, the creators of these King-distributed comic strips, were all born during

the postwar years. They helped to revive classic, family-oriented genres and brought quality draftsmanship back to the funnies pages.

Among the other successful creations King launched in the 1990s and 2000s were: Between Friends by Sandra Bell Lundy, Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley, Rhymes with Orange by Hilary

Price, Six Chix by Isabella Bannerman, Margaret Shulock, Rina Piccolo, Anne Gibbons, Benita Epstein and Stephanie Piro, Tina's Groove by Rina Piccolo, Pajama Diaries by Terri Libenson and

Dustin by Steve Kelley and Jeff Parker.

A number of features that had been successful with other distributors also joined the King family, including Sherman's Lagoon by Jim Toomey, Bizaro by Dan Piraro, Mother Goose and Grimm

by Mike Peters and Shoe by Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly.

Zippy the Pinhead (1986 – Present) by Bill Griffith Hollywood...

Curtis (1988 – Present) by Ray Billingsley Drawing from his own...

Rhymes With Orange (1994 – Present) by Hilary Price Hilary...

The emergence of the Internet as a global communications network in the 1990s had parallels to the rise of television in the 1950s.

The new electronic medium presented both a challenge and an opportunity to the comics business. Syndicates, initially concerned about competing with their newspaper clients, eventually set up websites and marketed features directly to Internet subscribers.

Mutts (1994 – Present) by Patrick McDonnell Earl the dog and...

Zits (1997 – Present) by Jerry Scott & Jim Borgman .. .. .

King debuted its first digital destination on January 12, 1998, which was renamed DailyINK in 2004. A new, improved version, Comics Kingdom, was launched in 2008.

Today, the comics claim an estimated 113 million loyal readers in the United States and millions more worldwide. King Features Syndicate is the leading distributor of comics, columns, editorial

cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly five thousand daily, Sunday, weekly and digital newspapers around the globe. President T.R. "Rocky" Shepard and Editor Brendan Burford continue a tradition

of providing quality entertainment to readers that William Randolph Hearst established more than one hundred years ago.

Brian Walker has written, edited and contributed to more than forty books on cartoon art and is the author of the definitive history "The Comics – The Complete Collection." He has served as curator for seventy cartoon exhibitions, is a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art and a part of the creative team that produces the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois.