Comic strip syndication

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. As of 2017, the leading strip syndicates are Andrews McMeel Syndication, King Features Syndicate, and Creators Syndicate, with the Tribune Content Agency and The Washington Post Writers Group also in the running. Andrews McMeel syndicates more than 150 comic strips and news features. Andrews McMeel also owns and operates GoComics, a website featuring comic strips currently syndicated by Andrews McMeel, as well as discontinued titles such as Calvin and Hobbes, The Boondocks, and Bloom County; webcomics such as Pibgorn and Kliban; plus a selection of syndicated comic strips from Creators Syndicate and Tribune Content Agency. King Features syndicates 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5,000 newspapers worldwide. Creators syndicates close to 60 strips and 20 editorial cartoonists. In Syd Hoff's The Art of Cartooning, King Features Syndicate comics editor Sylvan Byck, who served in that position for more than 25 years, observed that King Features received more than a thousand strip proposals annually, but chose only one each year. Byck offered some tips regarding strip submissions, including the creation of central characters with warmth and charm and the avoidance of "themes that are too confining," as he explained: Although characterization is the most important element of a comic, the cartoonist also must cope with the problem of choosing a theme for his new strip.