King Comics

King Comics

Biographical information
Founded:	1966
Country:	USA / English
Website:

History

KFS made an effort to publish comic books of its own by establishing the publishing company King Comics in 1966. This short-lived comic book line showcased King's best-known characters in seven titles: "Beetle Bailey", "Blondie", "Flash Gordon, "Jungle Jim", "Mandrake the Magician", "The Phantom" and "Popeye". "On the Drawing Board" vol. 2 issue 12 (April 1967) included a letter from Bill Harris describing their plans for their "King Comics" series: (extracts...) With the issues that went on sale in December they divorced themselves from the magazine wholesalers and their outlets in favor of toy wholesalers, jobbers and their outlets. To prevent confusion between "King Comics" that were returnable and not they went off-sale completely for awhile. By April 1. "Blondie", "Beetle Bailey" and "Popeye" will go on sale again, under a new marketing setup. The next month "The Phantom" "Mandrake" and "Flash Gordon" will be back, following a bi-monthly schedule. The numbering will continue from the newsstand issues. "King Comics" will be available only in packages of three, one with the humor titles and one with the adventure books.

Mandrake the Magician by King Comics

The Mandrake stories were all new non newspaper stories. In addition to the Mandrake series there was three Mandrake stories as back-up titles in the "Flash Gordon" and "The Phantom" series.

Title	Issues	Year(s)	Note
Flash Gordon	1-11	Sept. 1966 - Dec. 1967	continued by Charlton
Mandrake the Magician	1-10	Sept. 1966 - Nov. 1967
The Phantom	18-28	Sept. 1966 - Dec. 1967	continued from Gold Key, continued by Charlton

Other

Response cards

To give a response to letters "King Comics" made several Response cards with printed text on the back:

"It isn't possibile to answer every letter personally. But we appreciate your ideas and suggestions. Look for answer to questions like yours in the letter pages of future issues.
The Editors KING COMICS