The Ambassador (comic strip)

The Ambassador was a short-lived newspaper comic strip created by Otto Soglow, which ran from May 28, 1933, to September 2, 1934.[1]

The Ambassador
A 13-panel, black-and-white installment of Otto Soglow's comic strip The Ambassador.
A 13-panel, black-and-white installment of Otto Soglow's comic strip The Ambassador.
Author(s)Otto Soglow
Current status/scheduleConcluded
Launch dateMay 28, 1933
End dateSeptember 2, 1934
Syndicate(s)King Features Syndicate
Genre(s)Gag-a-day, pantomime comics
Followed byThe Little King

In 1931, Soglow introduced his Little King character in The New Yorker. William Randolph Hearst was determined to see The Little King syndicated by his own King Features Syndicate, but contractual obligations prevented the transfer of the strip. Soglow solved the conflict by selling Hearst a temporary, nearly-identical strip: The Ambassador.[2]

When Soglow's contract with The New Yorker expired in 1934, The Little King was able to immediately resume as a King Features Sunday strip on September 9 of that year, only a week after the final appearance in The New Yorker. Having outlived its purpose, The Ambassador was cancelled.

Characters and story

A forerunner for the King's arrival in the form of an Ambassador, the same pantomime format was employed with similar situations in the characters and gags. Differences between the two strips were subtle, and the art style was identical. When the time came to change the title from The Ambassador to The Little King, readers could not be certain if it was the Little King who had arrived into Hearst syndication or the Ambassador who had removed a disguise.[3]

References
  1. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 52. ISBN 9780472117567.
  2. Time Magazine (September 17, 1934). "Old King, New Kingdom". Archived from the original on October 23, 2007.
  3. Gardner, Jared, The Comics Journal (October 29, 2007). "Otto Soglow and The Ambassador (excerpt)".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) from The Comics Journal #286
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