Mike Smith

I’m still trying to process the 80th Annual Reuben Awards. For three days in Columbus, Ohio; cartoonists, illustrators, wirters, animators, editors, and fans came together to celebrate the people who make this art from so special. The National Cartoonists Society was founding in 1946, and there was something really meaningful about marking 80 years in a city with such a deep connection to cartooning history. Columbus was an amazing host. Between the National Cartoonists Society conference, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and the energy around Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, the whole weekend felt like a love letter to the craft. And honestly, I felt like a kid in the candy store! Working with King Features means I get to be around some truly legendary creators, but imposter syndrome definitely creeps in sometimes. Then you find yourself standing in a room with cartoonists whose work you’ve admired for years, talking shop, sharing a laugh, or watching them draw for a crowd, and it all becomes altogether rewarding. King Features was proud to be represented by an incredible group of nominees: Ricardo Siri, better known as Liniers (Macanudo), Ricardo Martinez (Goomer), […]

For Father’s Day, we did something a little different on Inside the Kingdom. Instead of sitting down with one cartoonist or creator, I gathered a few of our King Features editors for a roundtable about dads, father figures, family strips, and the comics that shaped how we think about all of it. That sounds more formal than it was. Really, it was a group of people who spend their days reading, editing, thinking about, and caring for comics, talking about the funny-page dads who stuck with us. The ones we grew up reading. The ones who remind us of our own families. The ones who are trying their best, even when their best involves a bad joke, a nap, a sandwich, or an absolutely doomed attempt to understand their kids. And that became the heart of the conversation: comics are really good at showing dads in small, specific, human moments. Not perfect dads. Not grand speeches. Not the polished version of fatherhood that only exists in commercials where everyone is wearing linen and the grill somehow works. Comic strip dads are funnier than that. Messier than that. More familiar than […]