
The character of 3-year-old Jeffy was named and modeled after Keane's youngest child, Jeff. Dolly was a nickname that Thelma Keane called little girls. The character of 5-year-old Dolly was modeled after Keane's daughter and eldest child, Gayle. Keane also modeled Billy after his eldest son Glen, now a prominent Disney animator. The first use of this gag by Keane was in This Week magazine in 1962 in a cartoon titled "Life in Our House" which attributed the childish drawings to his 6-year-old son, Chris. The strips purportedly drawn by Billy are crudely rendered and reflect his understanding of the world and sense of humor. A recurring theme involves Billy as a substitute cartoonist, generally filling in for a Sunday strip. The Los Angeles Times ran a feature article on the Thelma character when Keane updated her hairstyle in 1996. Some panels refer to Bil as a veteran of World War II. With the exception of P.J., no characters have aged appreciably during the run of the strip.īil (named Steve in the early years of the strip) works in an office, and he is believed to be a cartoonist, most likely based on the writer of the strip because he draws big circles on paper, presumably a cartoon version of the Family Circus. Their four children, Billy, Dolly, Jeffy, and P.J., are fictionalized composites of the Keanes' five children. The parents, Bil and Thelma (Thel), are modeled after the author and his wife, Thelma Carne Keane. The central characters of Family Circus are a family whose surname is rarely mentioned (although the cartoon of August 26, 2013, in which Billy refers to "Grandma Keane" and "Grandma Carne" indicates the same surnames as the author's family). Compilations of Family Circus comic strips have sold over 13 million copies worldwide. According to publisher King Features Syndicate, it is the most widely syndicated cartoon panel in the world, appearing in 1,500 newspapers.
#CYNDICATE CASRTOONS SERIES#
The series debuted on February 29, 1960, and has been in continuous production ever since. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from the magazine Family Circle. The Family Circus (originally The Family Circle, also Family-Go-Round) is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and, since Bil's death in 2011, is currently written, inked, and rendered (colored) by his son, Jeff Keane. Humor, gag cartoon, family values, religious (Previous) Register and Tribune Syndicate (1960–1986) A fourth child, P.J., was introduced in 1962. A scarce item never made available to the general public.An early strip featuring (L to R) Daddy (Bil), Dolly, Billy, Mommy (Thel), and Jeffy.
#CYNDICATE CASRTOONS MAC#
Knerr, Charles Kuhn, Fred Lasswell, Clyde Lewis, Mac Raboy, Darrell McClure, George McManus, Otto Messmer, Frank Miller, Bob Naylor, Paul Norris, Neil O'Keeffe, Alex Raymond, Misha Richter, Bob Ripley, Frank Robbins, C D Russell, Otto Soglow, Cliff Sterrett, George Swanson, Hilda Terry, Russ Westover, Chic Young, Elliott Caplan, Lee Falk, Tom Sims, Max Trell. Simms Campbell, Milton Caniff, Fanny Cory, Roy Crane, Phil Davis, Walt Disney, Edwina, Charles Flanders, Don Flowers, Hal Foster, Jim Gary, Frank Godwin, Clarence Gray, Syd Hoff, H.H.


The 64 cartoonists each contribute a full-page specialty drawing published opposite their profile, including Wally Bishop, Dick Brooks, E.

(Only six comic strip writers or artists are not profiled.)
#CYNDICATE CASRTOONS FULL#
It opens with a 5-page profile of King Features Syndicate followed by a photograph & full page profile of 64 cartoonists, 7 continuity writers and 28 feature writers. Likely distributed to newspaper feature editors. This is a rare publication by King Features Syndicate promoting their 1949 roster of comic strip creators and syndicated columnists.
