The Search Begins

So it's already June 2nd, and I'm behind schedule because I decided to change my research topic pretty late in the game. I'm excited about the change though: I'm looking at the history of medical comics.

http://www.marklansdown.com/

My primary interest is in looking at the comic strip Rex Morgan, M.D., a soap-opera style comic about a dashing doctor who conquers controversial and difficult topics such as domestic violence, drug abuse, and organ transplants. Ideally, I would like to take an entire decade (preferably the 1950's) and look at how the comic strip changes in terms of which topics are broached and how they approach them.

Here's the problem: I can't find a comprehensive collection of the strips.

The Ohio State Cartoon Library & Museum has some promising collections, namely the Toni Mendez collection, but at this point it seems that their coverage of the 1950's is only between 1953-1955. The collection is still being processed, which gives me some hope, but given we only have 2 months to complete this research I don't think I can hang my hat on this.

Then, with just a bit more search, I came across what could be a wonderful story for my project: a 2009 article in the Fall River (MA) Herald News: Rex's Biggest Fan: Man's Comic Collection Spans 6 Decades. Mr. Michael Holtzman of the Herald News interviewed a gentleman from Fall River who has been collecting Morgan strips since the day it was published. Incredible! Mr. Joseph Deschenes, 87 years old at the time of the article, had not missed a beat - Mr. Holtzman wrote of how the Managing Editor of the Herald News even sent Mr. Deschenes the missing strips when the paper stopped publishing the comic strip for 2 weeks.

Unfortunately, Mr. Deschenes passed away in 2010.

And so begins my effort to contact the family to learn more about their story, and hopefully have a chance to see in person the collection that he had kept for so long. I have already started a trail of connections in effort to reach out to the family, and hope that these efforts will bear fruit. I've also reached out to the current cartoonist for Rex Morgan, MD, Graham Nolan, who graciously responded quickly and with possible connections to track down the 1950's publications of the comic strip.

My task: find the 1950's Rex Morgan in one week, or go with another topic.