Subsidiary | |
Industry | Email syndication |
Fate | Merged with Comics Kingdom |
Founded | 2006 |
Founder | Jay Kennedy |
Defunct | December 2013 |
Headquarters | , |
Products | Comic strips |
Services | Email comic strips directly to subscribers |
Owner | Hearst Communications |
Website | dailyink |
DailyINK was an online service created by King Features Syndicate to email many classic and current comic strips directly to subscribers for an annual fee of $19.99. King Features described it as "the all-inclusive subscription service for the true comics fan." On a web site and via email, the DailyINK service made available more than 90 vintage and current comic strips, panels, games, puzzles and editorial cartoons. [1]
Confronted by newspaper cutbacks, King Features began explore new venues, such as placing comic strips on mobile phones. In 2006, it launched DailyINK, an online service which initially billed subscribers $15 annually. A subscription showed up as a charge from Reed Brennan Media Associates, the online merchant for DailyINK. Each week, Reed Brennan Media Associates, a unit of the Hearst Corporation, edited and distributed more than 200 features for King Features. [2]
Contemporary DailyINK strips ran the gamut from The Amazing Spider-Man to Zits . The vintage strips initially included Bringing Up Father , Buz Sawyer , Flash Gordon , Krazy Kat , The Little King , The Phantom and Rip Kirby . King Features editor Jay Kennedy introduced the service early in 2006, commenting:
In December 2013, Daily INK was relaunched as part of the new Comics Kingdom website. [3] [4] [5]
With 11,000 subscribers by June 2010, more vintage strips were added to DailyINK, including Barney Google , Beetle Bailey , Big Ben Bolt , Brick Bradford , The Heart of Juliet Jones , Jackys Diary , The Katzenjammer Kids , Little Iodine , Mandrake the Magician , Office Hours, Quincy and Radio Patrol . On November 15, 2010, a subscription rate increase to $19.99 was announced, effective December 15, 2010, with applications available on iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, plus a "new and improved" DailyINK in 2011. The redesign was by Blenderbox. [6]
Features added in 2011 included original publication dates, forum topics and a blog, mostly promotional but also with authoritative "Ask the Archivist" posts exploring comic strip history. The "Last 7" feature enables the reader to see a week's worth of comics on a single page. On the right side of the home page, collapsible activity boxes show what’s happening on the site: “Most Saved Today” lists the strips DailyINK users have added to their scrapbooks. “Most Active” indicates which strips are being shared on Facebook, Twitter and StumbleUpon. “Recent Comments” shows what users are saying about the strips. The "Scrapbook" feature allows one to save individual favorites to a personalized scrapbook for later viewing. A tiny calendar above each strip makes it possible to read or reread all strips of the previous year.
On the site, the strips appear larger than they do in emails, as noted in the site's FAQ: "The new DailyINK site displays comics much larger than before. In fact, they’re bigger now than when zoomed on the original site. Therefore a zoom function is no longer needed." Despite this claim, small details are sometimes lost because the strips cannot be enlarged. Traditionally, Sunday strips have always been published larger than daily strips, and that tradition continues here. However, Bill Griffith's Zippy , in an odd technological twist by DailyINK, is displayed small on Sunday and large in the dailies.
In 2012, Jackys Diary was dropped from DailyINK, and the Archivist explained, "Unfortunately, we no longer have the rights to publish the strip." [7]
In April 2012, DailyINK began carrying the original Mort Walker and Dik Browne Hi and Lois in addition to the current Hi and Lois by Chance Browne, Brian Walker and Greg Walker.
On January 13, 2012, the DailyINK app was voted as the People’s Champ in the Funny category in the 2011 Pixel Awards. Established in 2006, the Pixel Awards honor sites and apps displaying excellence in web design and development. Other nominees in the Funny category: JibJab Media Inc, Threaded, Snowball of Duty: White Opps and SoBe Staring Contest. [8]
Webcomics are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Modern Tales was a webcomics subscription service active from 2002 to 2012. Joey Manley was the website's publisher and original editor. The site featured a roster of approximately 30 professional webcomic artists. Shaenon Garrity, one of the site's original artists, took over as the publication's editor in 2006. Other Modern Tales artists included Gene Luen Yang, James Kochalka, Dorothy Gambrell, Harvey Pekar and Will Eisner.
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.
Buz Sawyer is a comic strip created by Roy Crane. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it had a run from November 1, 1943 to October 7, 1989. The last strip signed by Crane was dated 21 April 1979.
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays.
Webcomics Nation was a webcomic hosting and automation service launched on July 29, 2005 by Joey Manley. Unlike Manley's previous webcomic sites, Webcomics Nation was based on user-generated content and relied on online advertisement revenue, which increased in viability in the second half of the 2000s. Webcomics Nation quickly became Manley's most financially successful website, and encouraged him to turn his Modern Tales sites partially free as well. Manley began merging Webcomics Nation into Josh Roberts' ComicSpace in 2007, but this process took longer than hoped and Webcomics Nation eventually closed down in 2013.
Terry Beatty is an artist who has worked as a penciler and inker in the American comic book industry, where he is perhaps best known for his co-creation the female detective Ms. Tree.
Big Ben Bolt is a comic strip that was syndicated from February 20, 1950 to April 15, 1978. It was drawn by John Cullen Murphy, written by Elliot Caplin, and distributed by King Features Syndicate. The strip followed the adventures of boxer and journalist Ben Bolt.
Radio Patrol was a police comic strip carried in newspapers from August 7, 1933 to December 16, 1950 in the dailies, with a Sunday strip that ran from November 25, 1934 to October 20, 1946. It was created by artist Charles Schmidt and writer Eddie Sullivan, who both worked for the Boston American. Sullivan was a newspaper reporter who specialized in crime reporting.
GoComics, from Andrews McMeel Universal, is a website launched in 2005 by the digital entertainment provider Uclick. It was originally created as a distribution portal for comic strips on mobile phones, but in 2006, the site was redesigned and expanded to include online strips and cartoons. GoComics publishes editorial cartoons, mobile content and daily comics. GoComics.com is the web's largest catalog of syndicated newspaper strips, political cartoons and webcomics, offering free new content every day.
Jay Malcolm Kennedy was an American editor and writer. The author of The Official Underground and Newave Comix Price Guide, he was a long-time editor at King Features Syndicate, eventually rising to the position of editor-in-chief.
Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog is a comic strip by Jonathan Mahood about ten-year-old Skip Smalls, his friend Lila, and Bleeker, his electronic dog. The strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate.
Paul Ryan was an American comic artist. Ryan worked extensively for Marvel Comics and DC Comics on a number of super-hero comic book titles. He is best known for his 1991 to 1996 run as penciler on Fantastic Four, which represents his longest association with an individual comic book series. From 2005 until his death in 2016, Ryan penciled and inked the daily newspaper comic strip The Phantom for King Features Syndicate.
Sam and Silo is an American comic strip created by Mort Walker and Jerry Dumas, which began on April 18, 1977. The series is a "continuation" or a spin-off of Sam's Strip (1961-1963), as it uses the same characters. Dumas was solely responsible for the strip from 1995 and drew it until his death in 2016.
Jack Mendelsohn was an American writer-artist who worked in animation, comic strips and comic books. An Emmy-nominated television comedy writer and story editor, he had numerous credits as a TV scripter, including Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Three's Company, The Carol Burnett Show and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Among his work for feature films, he was a co-screenwriter of Yellow Submarine (1968). In 2004, the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild gave him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Amazing Spider-Man was a daily comic strip featuring the character Spider-Man which was syndicated for more than 40 years. It was a dramatic, soap opera-style strip with story arcs which typically ran for 8 to 12 weeks. While the strip used many of the same characters as the Spider-Man comic book, the storylines were nearly all originals and did not share the same continuity. A consistently popular strip, it was published from 1977 to 2019.
Reed Brennan Media Associates (RBMA) is a service owned by Hearst Communications, and was a unit of Hearst Holdings, Inc., that handles current King Features Syndicate comic strips and columns. Reed Brennan was established in 1993.
Tina's Groove was a comic strip by Rina Piccolo with a restaurant setting. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, it began in 2002. The comic strip ended its run on July 2, 2017.
Andrews McMeel Syndication is an American content syndicate which provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and various other content. Some of its best-known products include Dear Abby, Doonesbury, Ziggy, Garfield, Ann Coulter, Richard Roeper and News of the Weird. A subsidiary of Andrews McMeel Universal, it is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. It was formed in 2009 and was given its current name in January 2017.
ArcaMax Publishing is a privately owned, American syndication service that provides editorial content, columns & features, comic strips, and editorial cartoons via email. Labeled the "premier publisher of consumer syndicated content online," ArcaMax also produces co-branded newsletters with corporate clients.