King of the Royal Mounted

King of the Royal Mounted is an American comics series which debuted February 17, 1935[1] by Stephen Slesinger, based on popular Western writer Zane Grey's byline and marketed as Zane Grey's King of the Royal Mounted. The series' protagonist is Dave King, a Canadian Mountie who always gets his man and who, over the course of the series, is promoted from Corporal to Sergeant. King has appeared in newspaper strips, comics, Big Little Books, and other ancillary items.

King of the Royal Mounted
Author(s)Stephen Slesinger
Romer Grey, Gaylord Du Bois
Illustrator(s)Allen Dean, Charles Flanders, Jim Gary
Current status/scheduleConcluded daily & Sunday strip
Launch dateFebruary 17, 1935 (Sundays), March 2, 1936 (dailies)
End dateFebruary 14, 1954
Syndicate(s)King Features Syndicate
Publisher(s)Big Little Books, Dell Comics
Genre(s)Western, Northern

Zane Grey's son Romer and Slesinger collaborated on many of the stories, and the artwork was produced by Allen Dean, Charles Flanders, and Jim Gary in Slesinger's New York studio. A movie serial was produced in 1942.

Newspaper strip

King of the Royal Mounted started as a Sunday comic strip from King Features Syndicate on Sunday, February 17, 1935.[2] The strip was initially drawn by the comics artist Allen Dean.[3]

Allen Dean previously collaborated with Zane Grey on the original King of the Royal Mounted in 1935 but quit when Romer Grey/Slesinger later took over production, as told to son Allen M. Dean Jr, who was born in 1942.

A daily version was added on March 2, 1936,[1] at which point the Sunday strip was passed on to Charles Flanders, who took over the daily strip as well in April 1938.[4] From 1939, Gaylord DuBois became the writer[5] and Jim Gary became the artist, creating King until it ended on February 14, 1954[1] In the end, it was Jim Gary who became the artist most closely associated with the strip.[2]

Film

Big Little Books
  • King of the Royal Mounted, 1936, Big Little Book GW138-1103
  • King of the Royal Mounted and the Northern Treasure, 1937, Big Little Book GW180-1179
  • King of the Royal Mounted Gets His Man, 1938, Big Little Book GW230-1452
  • King of the Royal Mounted and the Great Jewel Mystery, 1939, Better Little Book SW32-1486
  • King of the Royal Mounted and the Long Arm of the Law, 1942, Better Little Book SW119-1405

Comic books
  • Feature Book #1 (David McKay Publications, May 1937)
  • King Comics (David McKay Publications) — series published 1936–1949
  • Famous Feature Stories (Dell Comics, 1938)
  • Red Ryder (Dell, 1940) — newspaper comic strip reprints
  • Four Color Comics #207, 265, 283, 310, 340, 363, 384 (Dell, 1948–1952) — newspaper comic strip reprints, with Jim Gary cover art
    • King of the Royal Mounted #8–28 (Dell, June 1952–March 1958) — Written by Gaylord Du Bois with art in the Jim Gary style. The series started with issue #8 because the issues published under the Four Color Comics banner were considered the first seven issues.
    • Four Color Comics #935 (Dell, April 1958) — final comic book issue

See also

References
  1. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 227. ISBN 9780472117567.
  2. "King of the Royal Mounted". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on November 18, 2015. Retrieved November 17, 2015.
  3. Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Allen Dean".
  4. Lambiek Comiclopedia. "Charles Flanders".
  5. DuBois interview, David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview #17 (Nov. 1984): "In 1939 I worked as a script writer on King of the Royal Mounted, when Jim Gary was doing the art work".
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