Spotlight on newspaper strip layout

The creators

The writer

The author's task was to write a manuscript. Lee Falk wrote the script with dialogues and narrative text, also with a description of the scene and other instructions for the cartoonist. When one read newspaper comics in old newspapers from the 30s and 40s many newspapers had a by-line over the strip: Mandrake the Magician short title by Lee Falk and Phil Davis. This short title is the same in different newspapers on the same day. But this short title is not found at any original art, so most likely it is not written in the script.

One of the few scripts still in existence is from October 27 1996, a page from the Phantom Sunday story "The Lookout". note: The pencil sketches in the script were made by George Olesen.

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  script 1996
  The Phantom

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  the page

The artist

The artist's task was to draw the newspaper comic stripes in high contrast, with black ink on white paper.

By studying original art created by various newspaper comic artists, one sees that the daily strips have a blue color were a dotted pattern later is glued on. This pattern is known as Ben-Day dot pattern or later as Zip-A-Tone, to create a halftone effect. One do not see a corresponding blue color or halftone pattern on the Sunday pages. Nor do one see any hints that the artist envisages which colors will be used on a Sunday page. A small exception can be seen on the back of Alex Raymond's third Flash Gordon page. A small note is written with a typewriter: Note to color man - it is very important that the skin of the inhabitants of the new planet be given a blue tint insted of a flesh tint

In both the dailies and Sundays there is glued on a small copyright mark. The sundays often has a logo glued on the strip.

It has not been established whether it was the artist himself who applied the blue colour on the dailies. But it is unlikely that the artist himself glued on the dot pattern, the copyright mark or the logo.

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  a strip from 1935

King Features Syndicate

The staff

At KFS, a staff was employed to prepare the cartoon artists' drawings so that they could be printed in the newspapers. Such a staff was later in the Marvel universe known as the bullpen.

The preparing was correcting misspellings, (adding blue color as guide for the half tone pattern on the dailies ?), adding the half tone pattern on the dailies, glue on copyright label, adding a logo to the Sunday pages. adding colors for the Sundays - for later color separation. Since the daily strips and Sunday pages was to be printed in slightly different proportions is it possible that part of this work had to be done for each individual variant.

In the USA there were also newspapers in languages other than English, so the strips for these newspapers were also translated by the staff.

Newspapers - layout

Daily strips

In 1934 the size of a broadsheet newspaper spread in the United States were about 711 × 578 mm. Each page was divided into eight columns, where each column is 11 picas (46 mm). The columns is separated with gutters, an empty space of about 10 to 12 points (a pica is 12 points = 4.217 mm).

The first Mandrake story was offered by KFS to the newspapers in a format spanning 6 columns. The width in millimeter is (65 picas x 4.217 mm =) 274.11 mm. That is larger than the height of the 1966 "Mandrake the Magician" comic book series by King Comics.

Newspaper page
column 1	column 2	column 3	column 4	column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician						column 7	column 8

In 1935 the strips were offered in two variants, spanning 5 or 6 columns, and in 1942 a 4 columns variant was added.

Newspaper page
column 1	column 2	column 3	column 4	column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician						column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician					column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician				column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8

By 1945 KFS offered the Mandrake daily stripes only as 4 or 5 columns, adding a 3 column variant in 1946. The 3 column variat was intended to be split in half. So that the last half of the strip came under the first half.

Newspaper page
column 1	column 2	column 3	column 4	column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician					column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician				column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician			column 4	column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8

From 1954 KFS only offered the 4 columns variant.

Newspaper page
column 1	column 2	column 3	column 4	column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8
Mandrake the Magician				column 5	column 6	column 7	column 8

Lee Falk's other comic strip, The Phantom had a corresponding development in size. It started spanning 6 columns in 1936, and 5 columns variant was added in 1939. In 1942 there was only 4 and 5 columns variant. A 3 columns variant was added in 1947. Then, from 1953 there was only the 4 and 5 columns variants.

Differences between the different variants

Comparing the size ratio between the 6 column strip and original art by Phil Davis, one find that the strips printed in the newspapers are slightly higher then the original art (fig. 1) in 1934. Comparing the 5 and 6 column variants of the Mandrake strip in 1935, one find that the 5 column variant is closest to the original art drawn by Phil Davis. The 6-column variant is stretched in height, as seen in the illustration below (fig. 2).

By the end of 1938 it looks like the 5 and 6 columns strips size ratio are identically, but compared to the original they seem significantly stretched in height (fig. 3).

By the end of 1942 the 4 and 5 columns variant are identically with the the original art, but the 4 columns are is slightly stretched in height, while the 5 columns variant are compressed in height (fig. 4).

In 1946 the 4 columns are slightly stretched in height compared with the original (?) art. The 5 columns variant now are reduced in height by cutting away the lower parts of the original (?) art. In the 3 columns variant are reduced in height by cutting away the lower parts, but not as much as seen for the 5 columns. In addition, each panel having more art on the sides of the panels (fig. 5).

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  fig. 1

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  fig. 2

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  fig. 3 (same height)

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  fig. 4 (same height)

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  fig. 5 (same width)

The size of the column (where a column is about 1.83 inches (46 mm) wide) variants was in 1946 stated to:

columns	height inch	height mm	about width mm
3c	4 3/4 inch	120.65 mm	134.94 mm
4c	2 7/16 inch	61.91 mm	181.33 mm
5c	2 1/4 inch	57.15 mm	227.72 mm

Sunday pages

The Sunday pages was intended to be printed in the supplement magazines for the Sunday (or Saturday) edition of the newspapers.

The size of the main newspaper was known as Broadsheet and measures about 29.5 inches × 23.5 inches. The supplement magazines were in two different size: Nordisch which is 22 inches × 16 inches and Tabloid which is 17 inches × 11 inches.

These two variants are known as full page and tabloid, and the Mandrake Sunday pages were sold in both of these formats from the beginning. The difference between these two is not just that they are scaled to fit the format, but a full page variant of a Mandrake Sunday page is wider than the tabloid format.

There are no original drawings from Phil Davis from the earliest years, so it is difficult to determine whether he drew the Sunday pages in a full page or tabliod format. If you compare the two strips by Alex Raymond, "Flash Gordon" and "Jungle Jim", from the third of February 1935, these are drawn in tabloid format. The staff at KFS then rearranged the panels, adding some extra ink to fit a full page. Then they were sold to the newspapers as tabloid "Flash Gordon" and "Jungle Jim" and full page "Jungle Jim"/"Flash Gordon". The earliest known originals drawn by Phil Davis are from August 1939 and these are drawn in tabloid format. So it was probably this format that he drew in from the very beginning.

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  February 3, 1935
  Flash Gordon

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  February 3, 1935
  Jungle Jim

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  February 3, 1935
  full page

In 1942 KFS started to offering the Sunday page also as half pages, and sold the Sundays in three variants: standard page, tabloid page and standard half page. The layout changed so the numbered panels could be rearranged to fit both a full or half page. The last page made for full page only was at April 26, 1942.

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  the last full page layout

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  the first full/half page

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  as half page

By 1945 there was only two variants: tabloid page and standard half page. Interesting, the Sunday pages were now sold as furnished in mat form complete. These are cardboard molds that were sold to the newspapers, which then poured liquid lead into the molds to make the printing plates. If they were to print the strip in color they used four printing plates. One for red, one for yellow, one for blue and one for black.

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  full page

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  half page

By August 1961 a third variant turn up and the Sunday page was now sold in three different formats: tabloid page, standard half page and standard third page. For the Mandrake Sundays this third page was made by dropping the first row of a half page. This "throwaway" panels contain material that is not vital to the main part of the strip.

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  full page

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  half page

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  third page

In 1973 the Sunday page was sold only as standard half page and standard third page. For the Mandrake Sundays this half page was made by dropping the first column of a third page.

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  half page

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  third page

In 1984 the Sunday page was sold as: standard third page, tabloid half page and the small quarter half page. The quarter half page is the same as the third page, but only fills about two-thirds of the width of a newspaper page. The newspaper page could then have four strips in height, as well as room for something else in the remaining space.

Lee Falk's other comic strip, The Phantom had a had a slightly different development in size. Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy drew the Sunday pages in landscape format as they looked for half a page in the newspapers. The KFS staff rearranged the panels to fit a tabloid format and added some extra ink essentially to heighten the panels. So when the Phantom Sundays started in 1939 it was sold in two different format: standard half page and tabloid page. According to "Editor and Publisher" there also was a format to fit a standard page in the years 1939 to 1942 (1944?). By 1945 it was sold as: tabloid page, standard half page and standard third page.

And in 1946 only as standard half page and standard third page, adding the tabloid page again in 1952. A fourth variant turned up in 1966, the small quarter half page. Then a fifth variant in 1971, the tabloid half page.

Final product to be sold to the newspapers

As shown above, only some variants of the dayily strips before 1954 were adjusted/trimmed in height. Otherwise, the original drawings (with the additions by KFS staff) were used in the further process. These processed strips by the KFS staff were then photographed and the negative was transferred to a zinc plate via an etching process. This zinc plate became a master for making molds that could be sent to the newspapers.

Mats

A mat (also known as a flong) is is a mold made of a soft cardboard-like substance. The syndicate made these so that the newspapers could pour liquid lead into them and make their own printing plates. The newspapers received these flonges once a week.

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  sample

KFS proof sheets

These proof sheets came with the mats, as a check on how the strips should look after the newspapers had made their printing plates. It was probably these sheets that were used as a basis when the strips later were adapted for printing in comic books.

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  1936: The Phantom
  6 columns

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  1946: Mandrake
  cropped

Note

• All the products that were made in the process of printing the strips in the newspapers, as well as the newspapers themselves, were counted as fresh produce. Very few products exist today: only a few original drawings, a few molds, a few printing plates, etc.

Sources

• Archive.org: Editor & Publisher 1901-2015 information for the size and years of the Mandrake strips from "Editor and Publisher", Annual directory of features - Newspaper art features: years 1934-1942, 1945-1959 and 1961-2010.
• The Stripper's Guide Dictionary Part 1: Sunday Strips
• Glenn Fleishman: From Artist’s Board to Newspaper Page: How Comics Were Made in the Age of Metal Printing, 1910s–80s YouTube
• Heritage Auctions: Sold original art
• Legion of Andy: BEN DAY DOTS Part 8: 1930s to 1950s—the Golden Age of Comics

See also

• Spotlight on Sunday strip layout