''Shortcuts'' is a syndicated

Sunday strip The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in some Western newspapers. Compared to weekday comics, Sunday comics tend to be full pages and are in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, t ...

by artist and educator Jeff Harris, which is distributed by

Andrews McMeel Syndication Andrews McMeel Syndication (formerly Universal Uclick) is an American content syndicate which provides syndication in print, online and on mobile devices for a number of lifestyle and opinion columns, comic strips and cartoons and various other ...

via the

Newspaper Enterprise Association The Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) is an editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1902. The oldest syndicate still in operation, the NEA was originally a secondary new ...

Publication history

''Shortcuts'' has been distributed through the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) from back when it was part of

United Media United Media was a large editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States, owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, that operated from 1978 to 2011. It syndicated 150 comics and editorial columns worldwide. ...

. In 2011 Andrews McMeel took over syndication of United Media's strips. ''Shortcuts'' continues to be distributed via the NEA but is branded "Distributed by Andrews McMeel via UFS, Inc." (UFS is

United Feature Syndicate United Feature Syndicate, Inc. (UFS) is a large American editorial column and comic strip newspaper syndication service based in the United States and established in 1919. Originally part of E. W. Scripps Company, it was part of United Media ( ...

, another former United Media syndication arm that is now part of Andrews McMeel.)

Story and characters

The weekly feature offers educational lessons, with each strip devoted to a single topic. The diverse cast of characters includes: * Roland, who wears a

computer icon In computing, an icon is a pictogram or ideogram displayed on a computer screen in order to help the user navigate a computer system. It can serve as an electronic hyperlink or file shortcut to access the program or data. The user can activat ...

and likes speed and learning new things. * K, who wears a

peace sign A number of peace symbols have been used many ways in various cultures and contexts. The dove and olive branch was used symbolically by early Christians and then eventually became a secular peace symbol, popularized by a ''Dove'' lithograph ...

and knows girls can do anything. * James, who is often the victim of unfortunate events. * Junior, who wears a

question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation, punctuation mark that indicates a question or interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History The history of the question mark is ...

because he likes to ask questions. * Juanita, who wears the

infinity symbol The infinity symbol () is a mathematical symbol representing the concept of infinity. This symbol is also called a ''lemniscate'', after the lemniscate curves of a similar shape studied in algebraic geometry, or "lazy eight", in the terminolo ...

as a symbol of "infinite knowledge". * Duke and Duke, a pair of

hermit crab Hermit crabs are anomuran Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily Paguroidea that have adapted to occupy empty scavenged mollusc shells to protect their fragile exoskeletons. There are over 800 species of hermit c ...

s, one happy and one miserable.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shortcuts American comic strips 1999 comics debuts Educational comics