Baby Blues appeared in about 55 newspapers on January 07, 1990 under the Creators Syndicate umbrella. It is now distributed by King Features. The publication of the comic strip was the culmination of much trial and rejection by Rick and Jerry. Theirs was not a simple success story of submit the strip and receive immediate syndication.
Friends for years, the two men were pondering together on ideas for a cartoon strip. (They had tried to syndicate a cartoon several years previous, with no success.) In 1987, parenthood struck them as a good topic. Rick and his wife were surviving the trials of parenthood with two very young children. Jerry saw plenty of comic material in family life, from the eyes of an outsider. He hadn't any children of his own yet.
Baby Blues was first submitted to a syndicate under the name Oh, Baby! Jerry wrote the strip and Rick drew. The strip was rejected with the comment that they should try it as a panel. Kirkman and Scott worked fast and resubmitted the cartoon, now called Baby Blues, as a panel. The editor sent it back saying that panels are too hard to sell and that maybe they should try it as a strip!
The cartoonists revised the concept and characters once again, returning it to strip format. Several syndicates showed interest. One asked to see more strips, but with changes, such as adding an older child. Jerry and Rick complied again. Next, they wanted to see strips with a continuing storyline and more like the original cartoon. After all the work and rework, the syndicate said no. How disappointing.
Just when Rick and Jerry were about to give up, Anita Medeiros of Creators Syndicate contacted the cartoonists. Contract discussions were underway. Creators loved the strip and apologized for not getting back to them sooner. Baby Blues at last made the jump into syndication.
Over the ten years it has been in print, the comic strip has grown to appear in over 700 newspapers in 25 countries and in 14 languages. So far, there are 16 Baby Blues books available. In 1995, Baby Blues received the Best Newspaper Comic Strip of the Year Award from the National Cartoonists Society.
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