Lafave Newspaper Features

Lafave Newspaper Features was a syndication service that operated from 1931 to 1963. It was founded by Cleveland businessman Arthur J. Lafave and specialized in comic strips and gag cartoons. It is most well known for syndicating Clifford McBride's Napoleon and Uncle Elby. The syndicate also distributed Louise Davis' column Today's Etiquette.

Lafave Newspaper Features
FormerlyArthur J. Lafave
IndustryPrint syndication
Founded1931 (1931)
FounderArthur J. Lafave
Defunct1963 (1963)
Headquarters2042 E. 4th St,
Cleveland, Ohio
,
U.S.
Key people
Arthur J. Lafave, Jr.
ProductsComic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons
OwnerArthur J. Lafave

History

Lafave launched the syndicate in 1931, and in 1932 signed McBride's Napoleon and Uncle Elby, successfully distributing the strip for twenty years.[1] In the mid-1940s, the strip was carried by 80 newspapers. Other strips Lafave launched in the 1930s — like Jimmy Caborn's Little Rodney and Jim Lavery's Aladdin McFadden — didn't fare so well.

American Adventure, by historian Bradford Smith and artists Dan Heilman and later Edwin Haeberle, was syndicated from 1949 to 1951.[2]

In 1952, McBride's widow Margot Fischer McBride and new artist Roger Armstrong took Napoleon and Uncle Elby to the Mirror Enterprises Syndicate.[1] Lafave reacted by signing a flurry of new strips, including Dick Huemer[3] and Paul Murry's Buck O' Rue (1951–c. 1953),[4] and John Duncan's Jungo (1954), neither of which proved popular. Lafave had moderate success with Steve Feeley and Ed Kuekes'[5] Do You Believe (1955-1962); and "Dr. B.C. Douglas" (Dr. Michael Anthony Petti)[6] and Frank Thorne's[7] Dr. Guy Bennett (launched in 1957), which changed its title to Dr. Duncan in 1961, running under that title until 1963. In 1957, Lafave also brought over the Australian comic strip The Potts by Jim Russell (also changing its title in 1961 to Uncle Dick), syndicating the strip until 1962; it appeared in 35 U.S. newspapers.

Lafave Newspaper Features went defunct in c. 1963 shortly after the death of its founder.

Lafave Newspaper Features strips and panels

References
  1. Knoll, Erwin. "Napoleon Strip Moves To Mirror Syndicate," Editor & Publisher (September 20, 1952).
  2. Holtz, Allan. "Obscurity of the Day: The American Adventure," Stripper's Guide (February 08, 2006).
  3. Daily Variety 186(1):24, (December 6, 1979).
  4. McMaster, Jane. "Buck O'Rue, A Wild West Travesty, Appears," (1951). Archived at "News of Yore: Buck O'Rue Launched," Stripper's Guide (May 31, 2007).
  5. "Ed Kuekes". Lambiek Comiclopedia. Lambiek. April 11, 2008. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  6. "New Medical Strip to Start," Boston Traveler (October 4, 1957). Archived at "News of Yore: A 'Prescription' for Writing Comics," Stripper's Guide (October 21, 2014).
  7. Thorne entry, Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999. Accessed Dec. 4, 2017.
  8. Knoll, Erwin. "Napoleon" Strip Moves To Mirror Syndicate," Editor & Publisher (September 20, 1952). Archived at Stripper's Guide. Accessed Oct. 31, 2018.
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