Editing King Features Syndicate (section)

== William Randolph Hearst's involvement ==
{{more citations needed|section of purported correspondence excerpts|date=August 2015}}
In 1941, King Features manager Moses Koenigsberg wrote an autobiographical history of the company entitled ''King News''. William Randolph Hearst paid close attention to the comic strips, even in the last years of his life, as is evident in these 1945–46 correspondence excerpts, originally in ''Editor & Publisher'' (December 1946), about the creation of ''Dick's Adventures in Dreamland'' — a strip that made its debut on Sunday, January 12, 1947; written by former ''Daily News'' reporter Max Trell and illustrated by Neil O'Keefe (who also drew for King Features a strip based on [[Edgar Wallace]]'s ''Inspector Wade of Scotland Yard''):<ref>[http://toonopedia.com/dicksadv.htm ''Dick's Adventures in Dreamland''] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20150404112133/http://toonopedia.com/dicksadv.htm |date=April 4, 2015 }} at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20150404112133/http://toonopedia.com/dicksadv.htm Archived] from the original on March 24, 2015.</ref>

: Hearst to King Features president J. D. Gortatowsky (December 28, 1945): "I have had numerous suggestions for incorporating some American history of a vivid kind in the adventure strips of the comic section. The difficulty is to find something that will sufficiently interest the kids… Perhaps a title — "Trained by Fate" — would be general enough. Take [[Paul Revere]] and show him as a boy making as much of his boyhood life as possible, and culminate, of course, with his ride. Take [[Betsy Ross]] for a heroine, or [[Barbara Fritchie]]… for the girls."

: King Features editor [[Ward Greene]] to Hearst: "There is another way to do it, which is somewhat fantastic, but which I submit for your consideration. That is to devise a new comic… a ''dream'' idea revolving around a boy we might call Dick. Dick, or his equivalent, would go in his dream with Mad Anthony Wayne at the storming of Stony Point or with Decatur at [[Tripoli, Libya|Tripoli]]… [This would] provide a constant character… who would become known to the kids."

: Hearst to Greene: "The dream idea for the American history series is splendid. It gives continuity and personal interest, and you can make more than one page of each series… You are right about the importance of the artist."

: Greene to Hearst (enclosing samples): "We employed the dream device, building the comic around a small boy."

: Hearst: "I think the drawing of ''Dick and His Dad'' is amazingly good. It is perfectly splendid. I am afraid, however, that similar beginning and conclusion of each page might give a deadly sameness to the series… Perhaps we could get the dream idea over by having only the conclusion on each page. I mean, do not show the boy going to sleep every time and then show him waking up, but let the waking up come as a termination to each page… Can you develop anything out of the idea of having Dick the son of the keeper of the [[Statue of Liberty|Liberty Statue]] in New York Harbor? I do not suggest this, as it would probably add further complications, but it might give a spiritual tie to all the dreams. The main thing, however, is to get more realism."

: Greene: "We do not have to show the dream at the beginning and end of every page… If we simply call the comic something like ''Dreamer Dick'', we would have more freedom… Some device other than the dream might be used… A simple method would be to have him curl up with a history book."

: Hearst: "If we find [the first series] is not a success, of course we can brief it, but if it is a success it should be a long series."

: Greene: "I am sending you two sample pages of ''Dick's Adventures in Dreamland'' which start a series about Christopher Columbus."

: Hearst: "In January, I am told, we are going to 16 pages regularly on ''Puck, the Comic Weekly''. That would be a good time to introduce the Columbus series, don't you think so?"

The last strips Hearst personally selected for syndication were [[Elliot Caplin]] & [[John Cullen Murphy]]'s ''[[Big Ben Bolt]]'' and [[Mort Walker]]'s ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'';<ref name=Warren>Warren, James. [https://www.poynter.org/news/grand-tribute-golden-era-cartoons "A grand tribute to a golden era of cartoons,"] ''Poynter'' (January 2, 2018).</ref> Hearst died in 1951.