KFS Blue Books

History

Among its forties and fifties promotional material, King Features Syndicate printed booklets called "Blue Books" which were a sort of catalog of their main comic characters. These booklets were intended make newspaper publishers aware of the choice of comics distributed through the syndication company.

This kind of material - also used by others comics syndicates - was sent only to professional publishers. The "Blue Books" printed by "King Features Syndicate " contain samples of daily strips and Sunday pages as well as samples of other articles and columns.

The 1943 Blue Book

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The 1946 Blue Book

11.25 x 16.5" spiral-bound softcover / 88 pages featuring features daily strips (bl.& w.), Sunday pages (color) distributed by the syndication company in 1945. It also contains sports articles, crosswords. To note an half-page promo with photo of Milton Caniff mentionning his next creation "Steve Canyon", an adventure comic strip beginning on January 13, 1947.

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  1946 Blue Book cover

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  1946 Blue Book back cover

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  Mandrake presentation page (daily strip October 12, 1945)

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  Written Texts

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  KFS character ("The Phantom" Sunday page)

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  Alex Raymond creations (Sunday pages)

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  Mandrake presentation page (Sunday page June 17, 1945)

The 1949 Blue Book

9.5 x 12" spiral-bound softcover / 140 presentation pages printed as fold-outs in bl.& w. and full color featuring KFS 1948 daily strips and Sunday pages, also including articles about sports or fashion. Also presented full page arts by the most famous artists of the Company.

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  1949 Blue Book cover

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  Mandrake + others daily strips sample

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  Mandrake presentation page

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  page sample of Sunday page

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  KFS character ("The Phantom") presentation page.

The 1954 Blue Book

9.5 x 12" spiral-bound softcover / 138 presentation pages printed as fold-outs in bl.& w. and full color featuring KFS 1953 daily strips and Sunday pages, also including articles about sports or fashion. Also presented full page arts by the most famous artists of the Company and a full page promotional insert for modern retelling of "The Old Testament".

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  1954 Blue Book cover

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  1954 Blue Book back cover

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  page samples of daily strips

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  sample of Sunday page.

The 1955 Blue Book

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The 1961 Blue Book

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  1961 Blue Book cover

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  page samples of daily strips

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  page sample of Sunday page.

Foreign Blue Books

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  France

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  Italy

After the Blue Books...

Not exactly "Blue Books" but very similar as promoting KFS material (see page [[1]]) :

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  1974

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  1975

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  1979 KFS Catalogue