'Heart of the City' Comic Gets Animated with Slap Happy & Andrews McMeel

'Heart of the City' Comic Gets Animated with Slap Happy & Andrews McMeel

Slap Happy Cartoons of Vancouver has announced a partnership with Andrews McMeel Entertainment, a division of global media company Andrews McMeel Universal, to develop the popular newspaper, web and book-based property. Heart of the City .

The comic Heart of the City debuted in newspapers in 1998 and is distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication in both newspaper and web formats. Today it appears in 50 newspapers and news sites in the United States, Canada and numerous other countries including India, the Netherlands and Trinidad.

Andrews McMeel Publishing has published Heart of the City's first book collection, Heart Takes the Stage , in May 2022 with excellent reviews.

Heart of the City tells the story of Heart, a girl with big dreams and a love of drama, who lives with her mother, Addy, in Philadelphia, and has always had the support of her best friends, Dean and Kat.

The strip has enjoyed a strong following since its first appearance, when it was originally created by award-winning cartoonist, writer and animator Mark Tatulli. In 2020, Tatulli handed the story over to acclaimed cartoonist and publisher "Steenz". who developed a new storyline in which Heart and her friends were a few years older - now she's 11, but still the same Heart: energetic and fun, with a marked weakness for celebrity fashions and an obsession with mega-star.

This Heart of the City rejuvenated, combining familiar characters and situations with new arrivals and concerns from a cast of tweens, has received a strong reception, both as a comic and as Heart Takes the Stage , recently released. Publishers Weekly praised the book as "a hilarious modern update", noting that "compact stories pack a punch" and "Steenz's deadpan humor artfully paints a crazy adventure through the ups and downs of middle school."

Slap Happy Cartoons and Andrews McMeel Entertainment believe the strip has strong potential in other formats. The target audience for Heart and his adventures - children and families between the ages of six and eleven - is vast, and the different characters are very attractive: kind, funny, a little chaotic and slightly eccentric, despite their everyday challenges - maintaining friendships, trying to be popular and occasionally focusing on schoolwork - are very easily recognizable for most young people and their parents.

Heart of the City is a cartoon that has established itself as a favorite with online readers and newspapers since 1998 and has successfully reinvented itself for the 2020s without losing the witty, fun and lively characters its audiences have come to know and love. Today in the hands of the talented Steenz he underscored his promise and is ready to broaden his reach, ”said Josh Mepham, Partner and Director of Development at Slap Happy Cartoons.

Bridget McMeel, Executive Producer, Andrews McMeel Entertainment, notes, “The positive response to the successful delivery of Heart and its story from Mark to Steenz has been reinforced by the excellent reviews for Heart Takes the Stage . This is a character and storyline with vast potential in multiple formats. We look forward to working with Slap Happy to bring Heart's adventures to an even wider audience. ”

Go to the source of the article on www.animationmagazine.net