1979 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source*: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 1 Jan - 31 Dec 1979, Field Newspaper Syndicate (Chicago, IL).

*p. 730-780 on disk from King Features Syndicate. 

All comic strips are posted online by special permission of King Features Syndicate, Inc.

• January 1 - February 14: Dr. Rita Carson & Sylvia, epilepsy (see 1978)
• February 13 - October 4: Kay & Roy Jason
• Keith proposes to Dr. Carson - she says yes but wants to wait
• We're initially led to believe that Kay won't admit she had a drinking problem; Rex insists June goes to visit her at home since they are old friends
• Turns out Kay's husband, Roy (an attorney) is seeing another [scantily clad, younger] woman - we know this because he slaps her across the face when she suggests he isn't giving her enough money (2/10/79)
• He hits her again (4/6/79)  as he threatens her not to see another man (Davey Palomar, a man whom he got off in court even though he was guilty)
• Roy lies to everyone he knows that Kay has a drinking problem
• Roy is plotting to destroy Kay in divorce; she gets pulled over for speeding because Roy has threatened to kill her and take the children
• There is a strange panel that seems to come from nowhere - Roy says that Kay isn't "patriotic" because speeding means she's not conserving gas (5/9/1979)

Rex Morgan, MD - May 9, 1979   © King Features Syndicate

• Rex makes a statement that makes this strip personal to more people: "wife-beating isn't confined to any occupation or profession!" (5/18/79)

Rex Morgan, MD - May 18, 1979   © King Features Syndicate

• Strike 3 (literally): Roy hits Denise (the "other" woman) and this time he kills her (6/4/79)
• Roy admits to Kay he killed Denise, then hits her when she says they need to go to the police (9/6/79)
• Bingo! The teaching point strip: (9/22/79)

Rex Morgan, MD - September 22, 1979   © King Features Syndicate

•  Melissa comes in with fibrillation, requiring a cardiac intensive care unit admission
• October 5 - December 31: Sara Laneer
•  Sara is the daughter of a very wealthy family, who presents to the emergency department awake but unresponsive; her mother refuses to allow psychiatric admission
• Turns out she was on PCP
• There's a new signature on the strips October 29, 1979 - in addition to the others: Frank Springer, who was the penciler for the strip from 1979-1981.
•  Victor Sebastian, some crude looking "family friend" wallops Sara in the face at the hospital, but she can't remember this episode
• Sara has violent outbursts, Rex suspects a drug-related mental illness
• Marijuana usage strip (12/18/1979)
• Another Christmas strip, out of the story line
• Story ends without finish due to missing strips

Rex Morgan, MD - December 25, 1979   © King Features Syndicate

1970 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source*: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 1 Jan - 31 Dec 1970, Publishers Syndicate (Chicago, IL). 
*p. 413-447 on disk from King Features Syndicate.


All comic strips are posted online by special permission of King Features Syndicate, Inc.

• January 1 - 14: June & Willie (see 1969)
• January 14 - xxx: Susie Mitchell
• Susie's brother calls Rex concerned about his sister, who is a budding actress sensation
• Susie keeps blanking out, becoming unresponsive in the middle of a conversation; she's only aware that something strange is going on but doesn't know what (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - February 2, 1970    © King Features Syndicate

• Rex meets up with Susie - she is (of course) in love with him, but is strangely absent-minded in communicating with him
• Susie spaces out at work, causing problems at her rehearsal; her manager, Ben Price reassures her
• An EEG shows signs of petit mal seizures - Rex explains in a couple strips, 3/27-28/70 (see images)

Rex Morgan, MD - March 27, 1970    © King Features Syndicate

Rex Morgan, MD - March 28, 1970    © King Features Syndicate

• The director pulls Susie from the play because she keeps having seizures during rehearsal
• Story is incomplete due to missing strips
• May 10 - August 30: MISSING
• August 31 - February 12, 1971: The Delacort's, stroke, alcoholism
• Apparently Rex is ill, and Dr. Brice Adam appears to have joined Rex's service
• Brice has an altercation with their latest patient, Whitney Delacort; his daughter is furious
• Whitney is convinced that something is terribly wrong with him
• Stacie lures Brice to her house to feign interest in him, holding him up from answering his phone calls
• Meanwhile, Rex covers for him and responds to a cerebral thrombosis (stroke) that Whitney has; Brice eventually catches up and Rex fill him in (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - October 22, 1970    © King Features Syndicate

• Brice is scolded for not being available while on call, and Rex gives him an ultimatum to either shape up or practice elsewhere
• November 8 - 22: MISSING
• It appears Stacie is an alcoholic; she hits her maid when she's confronted about it
• Stacie drives drunk to a bar, where she's refused service because she is "unescorted"
• She throws her glass at the bartender when he refuses to refill her drink; Brice arrives and talks down the owner from calling the police
• Stacie "commits" to quitting
• Brice has to attend to an emergency coronary and must put off his date with Stacie
• Brice follows Stacie up to the ski lodge where he finds her drinking - he confronts her, then hits her friends who tell him to leave
• Rex and Brice talk about the frustrations of dealing with an alcoholic (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - January 8, 1971    © King Features Syndicate

• Stacie drives drunk; resulting accident kills a woman - Brice tries to protect her, Rex explains their responsibility as physicians (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - January 8, 1971    © King Features Syndicate

• Stacie voices her frustration that there's no cure for alcoholism (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - January 29, 1971    © King Features Syndicate

• The story ends with Stacie admitting everything to the police and telling her father everything, mostly that she wants to get help

1964 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source*: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 6 Jan -  31 Dec 1964, Publishers Newspaper Syndicate (Chicago, IL). 
*p. 126-172 on disk from King Features Syndicate.


All comic strips are posted online by special permission of King Features Syndicate, Inc.

• December 3 - April 16, 1964: Jeanie Tang, heroin addict
• January 1 - 5: MISSING
• Jeanie Tang is a singer at a local night club owned by sleeze-ball Nero
• Al Croyden fears she's not well and approaches Rex about her health
• Jeanie complains of headaches and begs for an "envelope" from Nero - she's up to 3x/week and spending almost all of her salary on it
• January 12 - 19: MISSING
• Al confronts Jeanie about her addiction, asks her to see Rex
• January 26 - February 2: MISSING
• Nero sends Jeanie out to a farmhouse (with henchman, Kleeg) in the country, where "Mama Bess" gives her a fix
• Mama Bess wallops Jeanie when she tries to escape (overcome by pain)
• March 8 - 15: MISSING (suspect Rex finds Jeanie during this time)
• Rex suspects Jeanie either has a brain tumor or a ruptured aneurysm, and schedules her a craniotomy (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - March 27, 1964     © King Features Syndicate

• Nero lies to the police and accuses Al of supplying Jeanie with the heroin
• April 5 - April 12: MISSING
• Nero, Mama Bess and cronies are arrested after Rex helps the police bring them in
• April 17 - August 13: Mr. Homer Standly, frontal lobe tumor
• Kate Standly, who lives with her father, is worried about his mental status
• Jim Walden, Kate's fiance, is fed up with her father's erratic behavior and the devotion she shows to him 
• Homer puts an advertisement in the paper about Rex and Kate's intended marriage, completely confused by the purpose of his visit
• Rex explains a brain lesion can cause symptoms of mental illness, 6/19/ 1964 (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - June 19, 1964     © King Features Syndicate

• June gives her 2 week notice when she see's the wedding announcement, and Rex has not told her
• Teaching moment strip, patient perspective of having a brain tumor, 7/21/64 (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - July 21, 1964     © King Features Syndicate

• August 13 - January 9, 1965: Don & Rick Santell, alcoholics
• Don Santell, the country's new singing sensation, is found by his bookie, Jocko Mapes, after being beat up in a parking lot
• Rex administers a tetanus shot
• Rick, Don's estranged brother and admitted alcoholic, shows up - Jocko cares about him, Don hates him (due to an historic fight over a girl with whom Rick was in love)
• Rex explains the relationship between delirium tremens and alcoholism, 9/25/64 (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - September 26, 1964     © King Features Syndicate

• Teaching moment, patient perspective on alcoholism, 10/30/64 (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - October 30, 1964     © King Features Syndicate

• Don refuses to offer support to Rick for when he's discharged from the hotel and needs rehabilitation for his drinking
• Don proposes to June on Christmas at Melissa's
• In the end, Don and Rick decide to go to an AA meeting after Jocko gives Don the truth that he's a terrible performer, and needs his brother, the best arranger in the business