This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2008) |
Formerly | Universal New Media (1996–1997) |
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Type | Web syndication |
Founded | 1996 |
Founder | Andrews McMeel Universal |
Defunct | September 2009 |
Fate | Merged with Universal Press Syndicate to form Universal Uclick |
Successor | Andrews McMeel Syndication |
Headquarters | , |
Services | Sold "digital entertainment content" for personal computers, the World Wide Web, mobile phones |
Parent | Andrews McMeel Universal |
Subsidiaries | GoComics ThePuzzleSociety.com UclickGames.com |
Website | www |
Type of site | Comics |
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Owner | Universal Uclick |
URL | http://www.uclick.com |
Commercial | Yes |
Registration | Optional |
Uclick LLC was an American corporation (a division of Andrews McMeel Universal) selling "digital entertainment content" for the desktop, the web and mobile phones. Uclick operated several consumer websites, including the comic strip and editorial cartoon site GoComics and the puzzle and casual game sites ThePuzzleSociety.com and UclickGames.com.
Uclick content included comic strips, editorial cartoons, puzzles, casual games, manga, comic books, syndicated columns, photography and illustration. Uclick content was distributed online through consumer and news web portals such as Yahoo!, MSNBC.com, New York Times, washingtonpost.com, CNN, USA TODAY, and AOL. Comic strip and cartoon content from Uclick was available online and on mobile phones through the company's website, Uclick.com.
In July 2009, Uclick merged with Andrews McMeel's Universal Press Syndicate (UPS) to form Universal Uclick [1] (now known as Andrews McMeel Syndication).
Universal New Media was formed in 1996 by Andrews McMeel Universal; it was renamed Uclick a year later. [2]
Beginning in January 2009, Andrews McMeel Universal suffered a series of layoffs due to department consolidation and corporate restructuring. These layoffs led to Uclick's July 2009 merger with UPS [3] to form Universal Uclick. [4]
As the digital entertainment division of Andrews McMeel Universal, Uclick was the official online distributor of all comic strips syndicated by Andrews McMeel Universal's newspaper syndication division, Universal Press Syndicate. Uclick also owned and operated GoComics, a comics aggregate website featuring not only comic strips currently syndicated by Universal Press Syndicate, but also webcomics, discontinued titles such as Calvin and Hobbes , The Boondocks , and Bloom County , original works like The New Adventures of Queen Victoria and Bleeker: The Rechargeable Dog , and a selection of syndicated comic strips from Creators Syndicate and Tribune Media Services.
In October 2008, Uclick launched a GoComics gadget for iGoogle which allowed users to read comic strips on their iGoogle pages. [5]
Uclick distributed daily puzzles and crazy games through consumer and news web portals as well as through its own puzzle and game portals, The Puzzle Society and UclickGames. Uclick products included crosswords and other word games, number placement puzzles like Sudoku and Kakuro, jigsaw puzzles and other casual games.
Uclick-syndicated columns and text features were distributed online through consumer and news web portals as well as through Uclick's syndicated column and text feature consumer site, uExpress.com.
In 2006, Uclick launched the United States’ first comic book reader application for mobile phones. [6] The introductory line of titles included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Five Fists of Science , Gødland , PvP , and Too Much Coffee Man . In July 2006, Uclick announced the launch of a mobile phone version of Guilstein, a manga and anime title that had never been published in any form in the U.S. [7] In July 2007, Uclick launched Thunder Road, the first comic book produced solely for mobile phone distribution in the U.S. [8] Uclick later added titles from Devil's Due Publishing, Image Comics, IDW Publishing, and independently published books such as Jeff Smith's Bone.
William Boyd Watterson II is an 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 comic syndication and licensing, 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.
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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 and distribution activities, and syndication companies. King Features' affiliate syndicates are North America Syndicate and Cowles Syndicate.
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United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media from 1978 to 2011, and is now a division of Andrews McMeel Syndication. United Features has syndicated many notable comic strips, including Peanuts, Garfield, Li'l Abner, Dilbert, Nancy, and Marmaduke.
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A comic strip syndicate functions as an agent for cartoonists and comic strip creators, placing the cartoons and strips in as many newspapers as possible on behalf of the artist. A syndicate can annually receive thousands of submissions, from which only two or three might be selected for representation. In some cases, the work will be owned by the syndicate as opposed to the creator. The Guinness World Record for the world's most syndicated strip belongs to Jim Davis' Garfield, which at that point (2002) appeared in 2,570 newspapers, with 263 million readers worldwide.
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