print syndication founded 1914 founder william randolph hearst headquarters united states products comic strips newspaper columns editorial cartoons owner the hearst corporation website kingfeatures.com king features 1951 christmas card king features syndicate inc. is a print syndication company owned by the hearst corporation that distributes about 150 comic strips newspaper columns editorial cartoons puzzles and games to nearly 5 000 newspapers worldwide . 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 . each week reed brennan media associates a unit of hearst edits and distributes more than 200 features for king features . 1 contents 1 history 2 strip submissions 3 animation comic books and licensing 4 king s dailyink online 5 awards 6 a la carte online comics 7 king features weekly planet 8 comics kingdom 9 king features strips and panels 10 editorial cartoonists 11 columnists 11.1 commentary 11.2 lifestyle and advice 12 sources 13 see also 13.1 affiliated syndicates 13.2 other syndicates 14 references 15 external links history edit this section of purported correspondence excerpts needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . august 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message william randolph hearst s newspapers began syndicating material in 1895 after receiving requests from other newspapers . in 1914 hearst and his manager moses koenigsberg consolidated all of hearst s syndication enterprises under one banner . koenigsberg gave it his own name the german word k nig means king when he launched king features syndicate . production escalated in 1916 with king features buying and selling its own staff created feature material . a trade publication circulation was published by king features between 1916 and 1933 . syndication peaked in the mid 1930s with 130 syndicates offering 1 600 features to more than 13 700 newspapers . 2 in 1941 koenigsberg wrote an autobiographical history of the company entitled king news . hearst paid close attention to the comic strips even in the last years of his life as is evident in these 1945 46 correspondence excerpts originally in editor & publisher december 1946 about the creation of dick s adventures in dreamland a strip that made its debut on sunday january 12 1947 ; written by former daily news reporter max trell and illustrated by neil o keefe who also drew for king features a strip based on edgar wallace s inspector wade of scotland yard 3 hearst to king features president j. d. gortatowsky december 28 1945 i have had numerous suggestions for incorporating some american history of a vivid kind in the adventure strips of the comic section . the difficulty is to find something that will sufficiently interest the kids perhaps a title trained by fate would be general enough . take paul revere and show him as a boy making as much of his boyhood life as possible and culminate of course with his ride . take betsy ross for a heroine or barbara fritchie for the girls . king features editor ward greene to hearst there is another way to do it which is somewhat fantastic but which i submit for your consideration . that is to devise a new comic a dream idea revolving around a boy we might call dick . dick or his equivalent would go in his dream with mad anthony wayne at the storming of stony point or with decatur at tripoli this would provide a constant character who would become known to the kids . hearst to greene the dream idea for the american history series is splendid . it gives continuity and personal interest and you can make more than one page of each series you are right about the importance of the artist . greene to hearst enclosing samples we employed the dream device building the comic around a small boy . hearst to greene i think the drawing of dick and his dad is amazingly good . it is perfectly splendid . i am afraid however that similar beginning and conclusion of each page might give a deadly sameness to the series perhaps we could get the dream idea over by having only the conclusion on each page . i mean do not show the boy going to sleep every time and then show him waking up but let the waking up come as a termination to each page can you develop anything out of the idea of having dick the son of the keeper of the liberty statue in new york harbor i do not suggest this as it would probably add further complications but it might give a spiritual tie to all the dreams . the main thing however is to get more realism . james montgomery flagg s portrait of king features comics editor sylvan byck . greene to hearst we do not have to show the dream at the beginning and end of every page if we simply call the comic something like dreamer dick we would have more freedom some device other than the dream might be used a simple method would be to have him curl up with a history book . hearst to greene if we find the first series is not a success of course we can brief it but if it is a success it should be a long series . greene to hearst i am sending you two sample pages of dick s adventures in dreamland which start a series about christopher columbus . hearst to greene in january i am told we are going to 16 pages regularly on puck the comic weekly . that would be a good time to introduce the columbus series don t you think so in the 1940s ward greene 1893 1956 was king features editor having worked his way up through the ranks . he was a reporter and war correspondent for the atlanta journal for 4 years 1913 17 moving to the new york tribune in 1917 and then the new york journal as correspondent in france and germany 1918 19 . he joined king features in 1921 became a writer and editor of the magazine section in 1925 advancing to executive editor and general manager . vice president bradley kelly 1894 1969 was a comics editor during the 1940s . sylvan byck 1904 1982 was head editor of the syndicate s comics features for several decades from the 1950s until his retirement in 1978 . a king features employee for more than 40 years and comics editor for 33 years byck was 78 when he died july 8 1982 . comic strip artist john celardo 1918 2012 began as a king comics editor in 1973 . in 1973 tom pritchard 1928 1992 joined king features and he became executive editor in 1990 overseeing daily editorial operations and the development of political cartoons syndicated columns and editorial services for king features and north america syndicate . born in bronxville new york pritchard arrived at king features after work as a reporter at the record journal meriden connecticut as feature writer with the hartford times as editor publisher of connecticut s weekly wethersfield post and as executive editor of the manchester journal inquirer in connecticut . he died of a heart attack in december 1992 at his home in norwalk . 4 bill yates was king features comics editor from 1978 to 1988 . in 1978 cartoonist bill yates 1921 2001 took over as king features comics editor . he had previously edited dell publishing s cartoon magazines 1000 jokes ballyhoo for laughing out loud and dell s paperback cartoon collections . yates resigned from king features at the end of 1988 in order to spend full time on his cartooning and he died march 26 2001 . in 1988 yates was replaced by jay kennedy author of the official underground & newave comix price guide norton boatner 1982 . on march 15 2007 kennedy drowned in a riptide while vacationing in costa rica . appointed associate editor brendan burford to the position of comics editor on april 23 2007 . burford who attended the school of visual arts was employed for a year as an editorial assistant at dc comics before joining king features as an editorial assistant in january 2000 . working closely with jay kennedy over a 7 year span he was promoted from assistant editor to associate editor to editor . in 2007 king features donated its collection of comic strip proof sheets two sets of over 60 years accumulation to the billy ireland cartoon library & museum and the michigan state university comic art collection while retaining the collection in electronic form for reference purposes . 5 strip submissions edit when asked to speak in public byck made a point of telling audiences that king features received more than 1 000 strip proposals annually but chose only one each year . however in syd hoff s the art of cartooning stravon 1973 byck offered some tips regarding strip submissions including the creation of central characters with warmth and charm and the avoidance of themes that are too confining as he explained although characterization is the most important element of a comic the cartoonist also must cope with the problem of choosing a theme for his new strip . what will it be about actually it is possible to do a successful comic strip about almost anything or anybody if the writing and drawing are exactly right for the chosen subject . in general though it is best to stay away from themes that are too confining . if you achieve your goal of syndication you want your strip to last a long time . you don t want to run out of ideas after a few weeks or months . in humor strips it is better to build around a character than around a job . for example it is possible to do some very funny comic strip gags about a taxi driver . but a strip that is limited to taxi driver gags is bound to wear thin pretty fast . i d rather see a strip about a warmly funny man who just happens to earn his living as a cabbie and whose job is only a minor facet of his potential for inspiring gags . narrative strips can be and often are based on the central character s job . for example the basis of a private eye strip is the work he does . but even here the strip will only be as successful as the characterization in it . the big question is what kind of a man is this particular private eye 6 animation comic books and licensing edit many king characters were adapted to animation both theatrical and television cartoons . 7 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 7 titles beetle bailey blondie flash gordon jungle jim mandrake the magician the phantom popeye 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 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 size art sculptures cowparade guitarmania and the trail of the