King Features Syndicate in the context of Cable television in the United States


King Features Syndicate in the context of Cable television in the United States

⭐ Core Definition: 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.

King Features Syndicate is a unit of Hearst Holdings, Inc., which combines the Hearst Corporation's cable-network partnerships, television programming, distribution activities, and syndication companies. King Features' affiliate syndicates are North America Syndicate and Cowles Syndicate.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Mickey Mouse (comic strip)

Mickey Mouse is an American newspaper comic strip by the Walt Disney Company featuring Mickey Mouse and is the first published example of Disney comics. The strip debuted on January 13, 1930, and ran until July 29, 1995. It was syndicated by King Features Syndicate until 1990, when Disney switched to Creators Syndicate, which distributed the strip until 2014 (in reruns after 1995).

The early installments were written by Walt Disney, with art by Ub Iwerks and Win Smith. Beginning with the May 5, 1930, strip, the art chores were taken up by Floyd Gottfredson (often aided by various inkers), who also either wrote or supervised the story continuities (relying on various writers to flesh out his plots). Gottfredson continued with the strip until 1975.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Blondie (comic strip)

Blondie is a comic strip created by American cartoonist Chic Young. The comic strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband Dagwood, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).

Young wrote and drew Blondie until his death in 1973, when creative control passed to his son Dean Young. A number of artists have assisted on drawing the strip over the years, including Alex Raymond, Jim Raymond, Paul Fung Jr., Mike Gersher, Stan Drake, Denis Lebrun, Jeff Parker, and (since 2005) John Marshall. Despite these changes, Blondie has remained popular, appearing in more than 2,000 newspapers in 47 countries and translated into 35 languages. From 2006 to 2013, Blondie was also available via email through King Features' DailyINK service.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Bringing Up Father

Bringing Up Father is an American comic strip created by cartoonist George McManus. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it ran for 87 years, from January 2, 1913, to May 28, 2000.

The strip was later titled Jiggs and Maggie (or Maggie and Jiggs), after its two main characters. According to McManus, he introduced these same characters in other strips as early as November 1911.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Popeye

Popeye the Sailor Man is a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appearing on January 17, 1929, in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre. The strip was in its tenth year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed sailor quickly became the lead character, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the early 1930s. Popeye became the suitor of longtime Thimble Theatre star Olive Oyl, and Segar introduced new supporting characters such as adopted son Swee'Pea and friend J. Wellington Wimpy, as well as foes like the Sea Hag and Bluto.

Following Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre (later renamed Popeye) was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments on Sundays, written and drawn by R. K. Milholland. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories. In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer Studios, which later became Paramount's own Famous Studios, continued production through 1957. Cartoons produced during World War II included Allied propaganda, as was common among cartoons of the time. These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Buck Rogers

Buck Rogers is a science fiction adventure hero and feature comic strip created by Philip Francis Nowlan first appearing in daily American newspapers on January 7, 1929, and subsequently appearing in Sunday newspapers, international newspapers, books and multiple media with adaptations including radio in 1932, a serial film, a television series, and other formats.

The Buck Rogers strip, published 1929–1967 and syndicated by John F. Dille Co. (later called the National Newspaper Syndicate), was popular enough to inspire other newspaper syndicates to launch their own science fiction strips. The most famous of these imitators was Flash Gordon (King Features Syndicate, 1934–2003); others included Brick Bradford (Central Press Association, 1933–1987), Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire (Watkins Syndicate, 1935–1941), and Speed Spaulding (John F. Dille Co., 1940–1941). The Buck Rogers strip also probably inspired developing a strip based on John Carter of Mars (United Feature Syndicate, 1941–1943) which was introduced in 1941 though based on an Edgar Rice Burroughs character first seen in 1912.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Mary Worth

Mary Worth is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and artist Dale Connor, and initially appeared under the pseudonym "Dale Allen". Ken Ernst succeeded Connor as artist in 1942.

Mary Worth is associated with an older comic strip, Apple Mary, sometimes subtitled Mary Worth's Family, which dates from 1934 and features the character "Apple Mary" Worth, as well as several supporting characters who would continue into the new strip.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Silly Symphony

Silly Symphony (also known as Silly Symphonies) is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the Silly Symphonies were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music. As such, the films usually did not feature continuing characters, unlike the Mickey Mouse shorts produced by Disney at the same time (exceptions to this include Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and Three Orphan Kittens, which all had sequels). The series is notable for its innovation with Technicolor and the multiplane motion picture camera, as well as its introduction of the character Donald Duck, who made his first appearance in the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen in 1934. Seven shorts won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

Many of the shorts were adapted into print mediums. Starting in 1932, a Silly Symphony newspaper comic strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate, as well as a Dell comic book series and numerous children's books.

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King Features Syndicate in the context of Rembrandt Films

Rembrandt Films is a Czech production company founded by American film producer William L. Snyder in 1949, and revived by Adam Snyder in 1995. It began as an importer of films from Europe and expanded into animated film production.

Gene Deitch directed for the company both his own films and cartoons outsourced from American studios such as MGM (Tom and Jerry), and King Features Syndicate (Popeye, Krazy Kat, Snuffy Smith and Beetle Bailey).

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