The Register and Tribune Syndicate was a syndication service based in Des Moines, Iowa, that operated from 1922 to 1986, when it was acquired by King Features to become the Cowles Syndicate affiliate. At its peak, the Register and Tribune Syndicate offered newspapers some 60 to 75 features, including editorial cartoonistHerblock, comic strips, and commentaries by David Horowitz, Stanley Karnow, and others. Throughout the 1940s the syndicate distributed the weekly "The Spirit Section," a 16-page tabloid-sized newsprint comic book supplement eventually sold to 20 Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million copies. The Register and Tribune Syndicate's most successful comics feature was The Family Circus, eventually distributed to more than 1,000 newspapers; other long-running strips included Channel Chuckles, Jane Arden, The Better Half, and Tumbleweeds.
History
Origins
In 1922, The Des Moines Register publisher Gardner Cowles, Sr.' son John Cowles Sr. launched the Register and Tribune Syndicate. The manager was Henry Martin, who served in that capacity until 1960. Jane Arden was the syndicate's first breakout hit, launching in 1927 and eventually running until 1968. Charles E. Lounsbury became the syndicate's chief editor in 1930, serving in that capacity until his death at age 84 in 1952.
Supplier to comic books
In 1937 the Register and Tribune Syndicate partnered with two other syndicates, the McNaught Syndicate and the Frank Jay Markey Syndicate, as well as with entrepreneur Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, to provide material to the burgeoning comic book industry; many of the syndicate's strips found their way into Arnold's Feature Funnies. In 1939, Cowles Media Company and Arnold bought out the McNaught and Markey interests.
In the 1940s, Will Eisner's The Spirit debuted as the main feature of a 16-page Sunday supplement known colloquially as "The Spirit Section". Launched June 2, 1940, this was a tabloid-sized newsprint comic book sold as part of eventually 20 Sunday newspapers with a combined circulation of as many as five million copies. In a 2004 interview, Eisner elaborated on the origins of the supplement: The Spirit Section generally included two other, four-page strips, plus filler material. Eisner was the editor, but also wrote and drew most entries — after the first few months, he had the uncredited assistance of writer Jules Feiffer and artists Jack Cole and Wally Wood, though Eisner's singular vision for the strip was a unifying factor. The Spirit Section continued until October 5, 1952.
Later years
's television-themed panel Channel Chuckles was launched in 1954; he debuted The Family Circus in 1960. Bob Barnes' The Better Half debuted in 1956. The Old West-themed Tumbleweeds launched in September 1965. That same year, the Syndicate broke new ground when it picked up Morrie Turner's Wee Pals, the first comic strip syndicated in the United States to have a cast of diverse ethnicity, dubbed the "Rainbow Gang." Beginning in 1977, the Syndicate was the unofficial home of Marvel Comics strips, including The Amazing Spider-Man, Conan the Barbarian, Howard the Duck, and The Incredible Hulk. In 1985, the syndicate was merged into its parent Cowles Media Company. In 1986, the syndicate was sold to Hearst Publications for $4.3 million, becoming a division of King Features Syndicate.
