Slylock Fox & Comics for Kids

Last updated
Slylock Fox
Author(s)Bob Weber Jr.
Website https://www.slylockfox.com
Current status/scheduleRunning
Launch dateMarch 29, 1987;37 years ago (1987-03-29)
Syndicate(s) King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)Puzzles and children's activities

Slylock Fox is a daily comic strip created by Bob Weber Jr. [1] and published by King Features Syndicate. Bob Weber Jr. is the son of Bob Weber Sr., creator of the comic strip Moose & Molly . The target audience is young children. According to the official website, Slylock Fox appears in nearly 400 newspapers with a combined readership of over 30 million. [2]

Contents

Overview

Slylock Fox regularly features a logic puzzle presented in a single panel. Slylock, an anthropomorphic fox detective, is constantly matching wits against a variety of criminals, including Count Weirdly, Shady Shrew and Slick Smitty. The strip does not normally use dialogue; instead, text accompanying the illustration informs the reader of a problem Slylock must solve. These often include escaping from a dungeon, locating stolen goods, or determining who committed a crime through visual clues or logical inconsistencies. The puzzle solution is printed upside down.

Slylock is assisted by sidekick Max Mouse. Max wears pink shorts and a matching bowler hat. He functions as Slylock's foil, being distracted at the crime scene or coming to a false conclusion, only to be corrected by Slylock.

A varied cast of witnesses, victims, policemen and criminals fill in the rest of Slylock's world. These characters' names usually contain either some form of alliteration, a type of animal, a profession, or a personality trait. This allows Weber to quickly establish a scene and set up a mystery using very little space. Some notable examples include Deputy Duck, Roxy Rabbit, and Shady Shrew. Most of these characters are seen once and/or never again.

Slylock's name is likely an homage to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Like Sherlock, Slylock is traditionally depicted with a magnifying glass and a blue deerstalker hat; also, he wears a blue suit and cape.

The Slylock Fox logic puzzles appear only in Sunday and Monday strips. The Tuesday to Saturday strips consist of spot the difference puzzles, trivia challenges, how-to-draw tutorials, and other activities. The Sunday edition features both Slylock and the activities.

Main characters

In addition to a large cast of one-time characters, the strip has a handful of heroes and villains.

Protagonists

Antagonists

Media

The now-defunct Slylock Fox website featured many additional Slylock mysteries that have never been printed, in addition to other activities. The site was voted an "Educational Best Bet" by USA Today and received an award for "Best of the Net" from About.com in April 1999. [3] The site currently redirects to the official page for Weber's other comic strip, Oh, Brother! .

An iPhone game titled Slylock Fox Spot the Differences was made available for download on the App Store in 2011. The game allowed users to play fifty of Bob Weber Jr.'s favorite spot the differences puzzles in a digital format. [4] Due to the restrictions on compatibility with later versions of iOS, the game was delisted from the marketplace in 2018.

Collections

Reprints of the different activities featured in the strip are distributed through the Slylock Fox official store. [5]

Film adaptation

In September 2022, it was reported that King Features will be adapting Slylock Fox into an animated feature film. Evan Daugherty will write and produce and CJ Kettler will executive produce. [6]

Legacy

Your Drawing

Art of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character Diego Brando, drawn by creator Hirohiko Araki, submitted to the Your Drawing feature. Slylock Fox Araki Diego.jpeg
Art of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure character Diego Brando, drawn by creator Hirohiko Araki, submitted to the Your Drawing feature.

A notable feature of the Sunday editions of the strip is Your Drawing, a child-submitted artwork space which in recent years has been utilized by older readers of the strip to submit artwork of their own or of fictional characters that many might recognize. In late 2021, the strip saw an influx of submissions from fans of manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure , containing artwork from both fans and series creator Hirohiko Araki, the latter's without expressed permission from franchise copyright holders. [7] [8] [9]

Weber Jr., via the strip's social media accounts, frequently interacts with fans who have submitted artwork to Your Drawing and who create fan art of the comic. Through his posts, readers discovered he was aware of the rise in JoJo submissions. In a Reddit post on r/comics, a user tagged JoJo fan subreddit r/UnexpectedJoJo in response to a Your Drawing submission of Giorno Giovanna from the Golden Wind arc of the series. In response, Weber Jr. replied, through the official Slylock Fox repost account, "Good eye! Have an upvote." [10]

Appearances in other strips

Slylock Fox and Cassandra Cat guest starred in a week of My Cage comic strips in October 2007.

Stephan Pastis parodied the format of Slylock Fox in his comic strip Pearls Before Swine on January 13, 2008; [11] Weber reciprocated by having Rat and Pig, the two main characters from Pearls, appear in Slylock on February 3 of that year. [12] Pastis repeated with another parody on April 24, 2016. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comic strip</span> Short serialized comics

A comic strip is a sequence of cartoons, 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.

<i>Encyclopedia Brown</i> Book series

Encyclopedia Brown is a series of books featuring the adventures of boy detective Leroy Brown, nicknamed "Encyclopedia" for his intelligence and range of knowledge. The 29 books in the children's literature series were written by Donald J. Sobol, with the first book published in 1963 and the last published posthumously in 2012. In addition to the main books, the Encyclopedia Brown series has spawned a comic strip, a TV series, and compilation books of puzzles and games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gardner Fox</span> American comics writer

Gardner Francis Cooper Fox was an American writer known best for creating numerous comic book characters for DC Comics. He is estimated to have written more than 4,000 comics stories, including 1,500 for DC Comics. Fox was also a science fiction author and wrote many novels and short stories.

FoxTrot is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Amend. The strip launched on April 10, 1988, and it originally ran seven days a week. From December 31, 2006 onwards, FoxTrot has only appeared on Sundays.

<i>Crazy Magazine</i> Satirical humor publication, 1973–1983

Crazy Magazine is an illustrated satire and humor magazine that was published by Marvel Comics from 1973 to 1983 for a total of 94 regular issues. It was preceded by two standard-format comic books titled Crazy. The magazine's format followed in the tradition of Mad, Sick, Cracked and National Lampoon.

<i>The Family Circus</i> Comic strip

The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and, since Keane's death in 2011, written, inked and rendered (colored) by his son Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from the magazine Family Circle. The series debuted February 29, 1960, and has been in continuous production ever since. According to publisher King Features Syndicate, it is the most widely syndicated cartoon panel in the world, appearing in 1,500 newspapers. Compilations of Family Circus comic strips have sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.

<i>Pearls Before Swine</i> (comics) Comic strip by Stephan Pastis

Pearls Before Swine is an American comic strip written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis. The series began on December 31, 2001. It chronicles the daily lives of an ensemble cast of suburban anthropomorphic animals: Pig, Rat, Zebra, Goat, and a fraternity of crocodiles, as well as a number of supporting characters, one of whom is Pastis himself. Each character represents an aspect of Pastis's personality and worldview. The daily and Sunday comic strip is distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephan Pastis</span> American cartoonist (born 1968)

Stephan Thomas Pastis is an American cartoonist and former lawyer who is the creator of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. He also writes children's chapter books, commencing with the release of Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. The seventh book, It's the End When I Say It's the End, debuted at #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list for Children's Middle Grade Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Features Syndicate</span> American print syndication company

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, and licenses its classic characters and properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bil Keane</span> American cartoonist (1922–2011)

William Aloysius Keane was an American cartoonist best known for the newspaper comic strip The Family Circus. He began it in 1960 and his son Jeff Keane continues to produce it.

<i>VG Cats</i> Webcomic by Scott Ramsoomair

VG Cats is a webcomic written and drawn by Canadian cartoonist Scott Ramsoomair. Published on its own website, it follows the adventures of a pair of anthropomorphic cats, who both have an interest in video games, and often play the roles of characters in popular games that are parodied in the strip.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Orlando</span> Italian-American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist (1927–1998)

Joseph Orlando was an Italian-American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades. He was the associate publisher of Mad and the vice president of DC Comics, where he edited numerous titles and ran DC's Special Projects department.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Media</span> Defunct print syndication service

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Richmond (illustrator)</span> American cartoonist

Tom Richmond is an American freelance humorous illustrator, cartoonist and caricaturist whose work has appeared in many national and international publications since 1990. He was chosen as the 2011 "Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year", also known as "The Reuben Award", winner by the National Cartoonists Society.

Fox Feature Syndicate was a comic book publisher from early in the period known to fans and historians as the Golden Age of Comic Books. Founded by entrepreneur Victor S. Fox, it produced such titles as Blue Beetle, Fantastic Comics and Mystery Men Comics.

<i>Janes World</i> Gay-themed comic strip by Paige Braddock

Jane's World was a comic strip by cartoonist Paige Braddock that ran from March 1998 to October 2018. Featuring lesbian and bisexual women characters, the strip stars Jane Wyatt, a young lesbian living in a trailer in Northern California with her straight male roommate, Ethan, and follows her life with her circle of friends, romances, and exes. Shortly after celebrating its 20th anniversary, publication ended with Jane marrying Dorothy.

The Comics Curmudgeon is an American blog devoted to humorous and critical analysis of newspaper comics. Its author, Josh Fruhlinger, is a freelance writer and editor based in Los Angeles.

Luis "Louis" Cazeneuve was an Argentine-born American comic-book artist. He is best known for co-creating the Marvel Comics character Red Raven, and for his prolific work on the DC Comics characters Aquaman, Shining Knight, the Boy Commandos and others during the 1940s period fans and historians call the Golden Age of Comic Books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrews McMeel Syndication</span> American content syndicate

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 renamed in January 2017.

Bob Weber, Sr., was an American cartoonist, best known for his Moose and Molly comic strip, distributed by King Features Syndicate.

References

  1. "Slylock Fox & Comics". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on May 28, 2024. Retrieved June 19, 2006.
  2. "Slylock Fox official website" . Retrieved June 19, 2006.
  3. Snapshot of official site via Internet Archive
  4. "Slylock Fox iPhone App Limited Time Offer". kingfeatures.com. August 26, 2011. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  5. Slylock Fox at the Slylock Fox Store
  6. Grobar, Matt (September 15, 2022). "Slylock Fox Animated Film Based On Comic Strip In Works From King Features; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Evan Daugherty To Write & Produce". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  7. "Slylock Fox Comic Strip, 4/17/2024". Comics Kingdom . April 17, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  8. "Slylock Fox Comic Strip, 11/7/2021". Comics Kingdom . November 7, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  9. "Slylock Fox Comic Strip, 2/6/2022". Comics Kingdom . February 6, 2022. Retrieved November 17, 2024.
  10. "Slylock Fox & Comics For Kids (Sunday 3/14)". Reddit . March 14, 2021. Retrieved November 17, 2024. u/slylockbot (Bob Weber Jr.): "Good eye! Have an upvote."
  11. The Pearls parody of Slylock on GoComics
  12. Slylock's response to the Pearls parody at the Comics Curmudgeon
  13. "Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for April 24, 2016". GoComics. Retrieved 2022-05-23.