Syndicates: Names amd addresses

Below are the addresses of some syndicates. While there are many more, I only listed the best known. If you wish you can Google "Syndicates" and they will list them all.

Creators Syndicate 5777 W Century Blvd., Suite 700 Los Angeles, Ca 90045

King Features 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY10019-5238

Los Angeles Times Syndicate 218 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, Ca 90012

San Francisco Chronicle 901 Mission Street, San Francisco, Ca 94103

Tribune Media Services 435 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 1400, Chicago, IL 60611

Universal Press Syndicate 4520 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111-7701

The Washington Post Writers Group 1150 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20071-9200

GOOD LUCK and GOD BLESS

Tom

Submitting your comic to syndicates

Like any worthwhile venture, persuading a syndicate to handle your strip is not an easy thing to do. It requires persistence. Below are some guidelines to follow that will help you present your work in a professional manner.

1. Reduce 12, or more (do not exceed 28) of your comic strips down to the size they will appear in the newspaper.

2. Mount 3 or 4 of them on an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of paper. Remember to put the name of the strip, your name, address and phone number on the back of each sheet. This helps should the pages become separated.

3. Place the reduced strips between two pieces of cardboard so they don't bend. Enclose a 9" x 12" envelope with return postage and address.

4. Include a cover letter saying you are submitting 12, or more, comic strips, titled "whatever", for their consideration and that you have enclosed return postage. Thank them for taking time to consider your work and end the letter.

5. Place all in a 9" x 12" envelope, address it and make sure there is proper postage, don't try to guess.

6. Set back and be patient, sometimes it can take as long as 60 days before you hear from them. Remember to keep drawing new strips. If they like them they will want to see more.

If I have overlooked any topic or information that you feel you might need, please contact me at either, thegrandlife@yahoo.com or fatduckie2@aol.com .

Good Luck!!!

Next: Syndicates and their addresses.

Finishing up your cartoon

Using a brush and ink or a felt tip marker, fill in any large dark areas that appear in your strip. Black areas help to tie the composition together.

After the ink is completely dry, go back over your cartoon and correct any mistakes. You can use a brush and opaque white to do this although, sometimes felt marker ink will bleed through, if this happens use white correction tape. You can find this at any art supply store.

To get the gray and shaded areas, use shading sheets. Cut a little larger than the area you want to shade, then, lay it where you want it to be, using a burnisher rub it against the area it is covering, using your x-acto knife, very carefully trim the excess and peel it off. You can ger the burnisher, tape and shadng sheets at most art stores. If you have trouble finding anything, please let me know and I will help.

Next: Preparing your cartoons for submission.

thegrandlife@yahoo.com or fatduckie2@aol.com

Laying out your strip, Part 3

Making sure your ink is completely dry, use your kneaded eraser to erase the pencil lines. Check your comic strip to see if you've forgotten any lines, then draw them in. Also, make sure your lines are bold enough to withstand reduction.

Next: Finishing up your cartoon

Laying out your strip, part 2

Ink in the lettering and your borders. If you are happy with the cartoon artwork, then go ahead and ink that too. If you make a mistake in either the lettering or the artwork all is not lost. As you can see I screwed up in the second panel dialogue. I didn't leave enough room for one of the words and I miss spelled, of all the characters, George. What I am going to do is leave the mistake uncorrected until all the artwork is finished and all the penciling is erased. To correct it now might cause more of a problem later as any corrections might smudge when the cartoon is cleaned up.

Note: I use Higgins Black Magic ink and a Pelikan C-4 nib, as well as a B-6 Speedball pen tip, the nib holders can be purchased at any art store. Kooh-i-noor makes an excellent technical pen, Rapidograph, the most common for cartoons is a #3.

Next; Laying out your cartoon part 3

Laying out the strip

Using your blank penciled strip, lightly pencil in your dialogue and cartoon, then divide the strip into panels. I use an HB pencil, if you use a pencil with too hard a lead it will dig into the paper making it difficult to erase. Back when I first started working on a single panel, I worked with a blue pencil, they do not reproduce. As my sight began to degenerate I had to switch to graphite. If the lead is too soft it may smudge (as shown). If you have trouble with the composition of your cartoon try and approach it from a different angle. There are many different ways to approach a difficult scene.

Next; Laying out your strip part 2

All caught up!!.

THE NEW YEAR MAY NOW BEGIN!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow; Laying out and inking your cartoon