Comic History Comic Strips Exhibits Illustration Syndicates

Wayback Whensday – Sub Hearst

Skip to comments

D. D. Degg Published: May 28, 2025 Updated: April 24, 2026 1 minute 0 comments

Hearst’s International Feature Service

The history of newspaper syndication — and specifically the distribution of cartoons and comic strips — is a story yet to be told, and told well.

Rick Marschall at Yesterday’s Papers shares a booklet with us about a Hearst/Koenigsberg side hustle.

By 1917, Hearst’s lieutenant Moses Koenigsberg split up the syndicate operations even further. Eventually there was King Features, a sort of holding company or sales agent for all the syndicates; Central Press Association; International Feature Service, Newspaper Feature Service; and others. The material we will be sharing here and over subsequent weeks is from a rare book published for prospective clients by the International Feature Service.

When The Subway Sun Ruled NYC’s Underground

Decades before the New York City subway cars were lined with advertisements for niche dating apps, personal injury lawyers, prescription weight loss medicines, and alternative internet browsers, the interiors of many of the city’s trains were adorned with editions of the two-toned mock newspaper known as The Subway Sun.

Primarily produced between 1936 and 1965 under the artistic direction of late cartoonists Fred Cooper and Amelia Opdyke Jones, the imitation periodical campaign by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) fulfilled a variety of purposes in the subway system for over five decades.

Maya Pontone for Hyperallergic regales us with the history of The Subway Sun emphasizing and showcasing the Fred G. Cooper years as part of a review of the exhibit From the Bronx to the Battery: The Subway Sun.

Cooper was an established graphic artist and political cartoonist when his designs for The Subway Sun first launched in the 1930s. His illustrations, which consisted of balloon-headed caricatures and one-of-a-kind lettering, often plugged public sights and events by blending helpful information with amusing characters. “His design adds a level of humor and familiarity, as these are posters that people would interact with during their rides on the IRT,” Humphrey, the museum’s assistant curator of collections, told Hyperallergic.