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William Boyd Watterson II is a retired American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes at the end of 1995 with a short statement to newspaper editors and his readers that he felt he had achieved all he could in the medium. Watterson is known for his negative views on licensing and comic syndication; his efforts to expand and elevate the newspaper comic as an art form; and his move back into private life after he stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes. Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. The suburban Midwestern United States setting of Ohio was part of the inspiration for Calvin and Hobbes.
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoon, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st century, these have been published in newspapers and magazines, with daily horizontal strips printed in black-and-white in newspapers, while Sunday papers offered longer sequences in special color comics sections. With the advent of the internet, online comic strips began to appear as webcomics.
Calvin and Hobbes is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed broad and enduring popularity, influence, and academic and philosophical interest.
A cartoon is a type of illustration that is typically drawn, sometimes animated, in a unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor; or a motion picture that relies on a sequence of illustrations for its animation. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, and in the second sense they are usually called an animator.
Gary Larson is an American cartoonist, environmentalist, and former musician. He is the creator of The Far Side, a single-panel cartoon series that was syndicated internationally to more than 1,900 newspapers for fifteen years. The series ended with Larson's retirement on January 1, 1995. In September 2019 his website alluded to a "new online era of 'The Far Side.'" On July 8, 2020, Larson released three new comics, his first in 25 years. His twenty-three books of collected cartoons have combined sales of more than forty-five million copies.
The Far Side is a single-panel comic created by Gary Larson and syndicated by Chronicle Features and then Universal Press Syndicate, which ran from December 31, 1979, to January 1, 1995. Its surrealistic humor is often based on uncomfortable social situations, improbable events, an anthropomorphic view of the world, logical fallacies, impending bizarre disasters, references to proverbs, or the search for meaning in life. Larson's frequent use of animals and nature in the comic is popularly attributed to his background in biology. The Far Side was ultimately carried by more than 1,900 daily newspapers, translated into 17 languages, and collected into calendars, greeting cards, and 23 compilation books, and reruns are still carried in many newspapers. After a 25-year hiatus, in July 2020 Larson began drawing new Far Side strips offered through the comic's official website.
A cartoonist, also known as a comic strip creator, comic book artist, graphic novel artist, or comic book illustrator, is a visual artist who specializes in drawing cartoons or comics. Cartoonists include artists who handle all aspects of the work and those who contribute only part of the production. Cartoonists may work in a variety of formats, including booklets, comic strips, comic books, editorial cartoons, graphic novels, manuals, gag cartoons, illustrations, storyboards, posters, shirts, books, advertisements, greeting cards, magazines, newspapers, and video game packaging.
Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, political cartoons, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites. The syndicates offer reprint rights and grant permissions to other parties for republishing content of which they own and/or represent copyrights. Other terms for the service include a newspaper syndicate, a press syndicate, and a feature syndicate.
King Features Syndicate, Inc., is a 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 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.
Non Sequitur is a comic strip created by Wiley Miller starting February 16, 1992 and syndicated by Andrews McMeel Syndication to over 700 newspapers. It is also published on gocomics.com and distributed via email.
The Prehistory of The Far Side: A 10th Anniversary Exhibit is a book chronicling the origin and evolution of The Far Side, giving inside information about the cartooning process and featuring a gallery of Larson's favorite Far Side cartoons from the 1980s.
United Media was a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. Its core businesses were the United Feature Syndicate and the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
Close to Home is a daily, one-panel comic strip by American cartoonist John McPherson that debuted in 1992. The comic strip features no ongoing plot, but is instead a collection of one-shot jokes covering a number of subjects that are "close to home", such as marriage, children, school, work, sports, health and home life. "Home" achieved it's greatest peak in popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s, when several newspapers picked up the strip to replace the retired The Far Side. As of 2021, it runs in nearly 700 newspapers worldwide.
Australian comics have been published since 1908 and Australian comics creators have gone to produce influential work in the global comics industry,
Winnie Winkle is an American comic strip published during a 76-year span (1920–1996). Ten film adaptations were also made. Its premise was conceived by Joseph Medill Patterson, but the stories and artwork were by Martin Branner, who wrote the strip for over 40 years. It was one of the first comic strips about working women. The main character was a young woman who had to support her parents and adopted brother, serving as a reflection of the changing role of women in society. It ran in more than 100 newspapers and translations of the strip's Sunday pages were made available in Europe, focusing on her little brother Perry Winkle and his gang.
The Far Side Gallery 5 is the fifth and final anthology of Gary Larson's The Far Side comic strips. Cartoons from previous collections Cows of Our Planet, The Chickens are Restless, and The Curse of Madame "C" are featured, all of which were printed from 1992–1994. The foreword was written by Jane Goodall, who was commonly satirized in Larson's comics. The cover shows several flies in a movie theater watching a movie, in which a fly was calling for help because it was in a spoonful of tomato soup about to be swallowed by a person.
The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to early precursors such as Trajan's Column, in Rome, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Bayeux Tapestry.
The Argyle Sweater is an American daily comic strip written by Scott Hilburn, a native of Garland, Texas. The strip has been syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate since April 2008.
Chuckle Bros was a single-panel comic created by brothers Brian and Ron Boychuk.
"Cow Tools" is a cartoon from Gary Larson's The Far Side, published in October of 1982. It depicts a cow standing in front of a table of bizarre, misshapen implements with the caption "Cow tools." The cartoon confused many readers, who wrote or phoned in seeking an explanation of the joke. In response to the controversy, Larson issued a press release clarifying that the thrust of the cartoon was simply that, if a cow were to make tools, they would "lack something in sophistication." It has been described as "arguably the most loathed Far Side strip ever."
References
- ↑ Williams, Greg (28 September 2003). "High Hopes". Tampa Tribune.
- ↑ Wineke, William R. (3 January 2005). "Cartoon with shades of 'Far Side' debuts today, also 'Mutts' is added to State Journal pages by popular demand". Wisconsin State Journal.
In fact, Endore-Kaiser and Perry, 34, originally wanted to call their cartoon "Cow Tools," after a famous Larson cartoon, but that proved too much for Larson's lawyers, who sent them a cease-and-desist letter.
