| Formerly | Atlantic Syndication (2004–2010) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Print syndication |
| Founded | 1933 (1933) |
| Founder | Joshua B. Powers |
| Defunct | 2010; 16 years ago (2010) |
| Fate | Merged withUniversal Press Syndicate as part ofUniversal Uclick |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | United States |
| Products | Comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons |
| Owner | The Evening Post Publishing Company (1933–2004) Universal Press Syndicate (2004–2010) |
Editors Press Service (EPS; later known asAtlantic Syndication) was an Americanprint syndication service ofcolumns andcomic strips that was in operation from 1933 to 2010. It was notable for being the first U.S. company to actively syndicate material internationally. Despite surviving for more than seven decades, EPS was never a large operation, characterized by comic strip historianAllan Holtz as a "hole-in-the-wall outfit."[1]
Editors Press Service was founded in 1933 by Joshua B. Powers in partnership withThe Evening Post Publishing Company, to provideLatin American newspapers with comics strips, cooking features, and other material, in exchange for ad space that Powers would in turn sell to U.S. companies. Powers was reportedly a former U.S. government agent whose beat wasSouth America.[citation needed]
Chilean political figureCarlos Dávila was associated with EPS from its foundation in 1933. Sebastian Tomas Robles, son of Peruvian composer and ethnomusicologistDaniel Alomía Robles, was a staff cartoonist for EPS beginning in 1933.
CartoonistMort Leav began his professional career in 1936 with EPS, supplying illustrations in the period 1937 to 1940 for articles syndicated toSouth Americannewspapers.[2]
From 1936 to 1940, Editors Press published the weeklycomic bookWags in the U.K. (partnering withT. V. Boardman) and Australia.[3]Wags #1 (Jan. 1937) is notable for featuring the debut ofSheena, Queen of the Jungle.[4][5] She was created byJerry Iger, who ran his own small studio, Universal Phoenix Features (UFP), and who commissionedMort Meskin to produce prototype drawings of Sheena.[6]
Comic strips syndicated by EPS at various points in the 1940s includedCaptain Wings,Doctor X, andOlly of the Movies.
After a long hiatus which last from the 1950s through most of the 1980s, Editors Press got back into comic strip syndication in the 1980s and '90s. Starting in 1989 they began syndicating aTom and Jerry strip, produced mostly by Kelley Jarvis,[7] which ran until 1994. At that point the company picked upThe Flintstones by Karen Machette, which it inherited from theMcNaught Syndicate.[8] Editors Press syndicatedThe Flintstones until 1998.
In 2004, the Evening Post Publishing Company sold Editors Press Service to theUniversal Press Syndicate (UPS), which renamed itAtlantic Syndication.[9]
In 2010, Atlantic was merged with UPS as part ofUniversal Uclick.[10] International syndication continued with representation ofThe Christian Science Monitor News Service,GlobalPost, London'sThe Independent news service, and a fashion and celebrity news service calledThe Daily.[10]