On the then new Creators Syndicate

Tom Batiuk, creator of Funky Winker-bean and writer of John Darling, has begun another comic strip, Crankshaft. Although both his previous strips are distributed through Field Enterprises, Batiuk has taken Crankshaft to the newly-founded Creators Syndicate.

Since its creation in early 1986, Creators Syndicate has caused a stir in the industry for its revolutionary contracts, which give creators more rights (including ownership of properties) than are usually offered to syndicated creators. As a result, the fledgling syndicate already distributes such established properties as Johnny Hart's B.C., Herblock, and Ann Landers.

Batiuk wrote a letter to newspaper editors about his decision to take Crankshaft to the new company. In part, the letter read: "If as a young boy, I'd been told I couldn't play marbles with the big kids unless I gave them all of mine to keep forever, as well as any others I might acquire in the future, I'd have laughed at the thought.

"And yet for the longest time, that's exactly how the syndicated comics industry has been run... in order to see (my] characters on a comics page I had to sign a contract that the Big Kids wrote supposedly giving themselves ownership of my comic strip drawing...forever.

"Such was the fate facing any new cartoonist until Rick Newcombe and his exciting new Creators Syndicate appeared. By offering creators an unequivocal ownership of their work, he makes them partners with Creator's Syndicate in their success rather than captive of it."