1978 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source*: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 2 Jan - 31 Dec 1978, Field Newspaper Syndicate (Chicago, IL).
*p. 679-729 on disk from King Features Syndicate.  

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

• January 2 - 27: Dr. Jim, "cancer specialist" (see 1977)
• January 27 - May 13: Chet Lacey, thug
• It looks like Billy is going to get involved with some bad characters from his job at the auto shop, namely Chet Lacey (who happens to have some serious sideburns)

Rex Morgan, MD - February 25, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• In the end, Billy is smart enough to stay away from Chet and his operation and escapes involvement and arrest of the band of thieves. Way to go, Billy!
• May 15 - September 23: Vince Luddigan, police detective and subdural hematoma!
• We start out in the ER - Melissa has had episode of fibrillation
• Meanwhile, the new nurse assistant Rex wants to hire to help June in the office is annoyingly energetic, admitting she simply wants to be around Rex - her name is Connie Bell, a perfect fit for her personality

Rex Morgan, MD - May 31, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• Keith Cavell has also made another surprise visit - and, no shocker here, he's already asked Connie out to dinner
• A police detective, Vince Luddigan, calls Connie away from her plans - he's a married man but explains he's going to divorce his wife to be with her (she pleads for him not to do so) - he has a suggestive headache when he gets upset...
• The truth comes out - he had a head injury two months prior
• Connie teaches us a few pieces about narcotics:

Rex Morgan, MD - August 18, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• September 4 - 10: MISSING; I suspect this is where Vince is finally convinced his head injury has caused some sort of problem, given that his behavior has been erratic
• We continue on 9/11 with: "After Vince Luddigan's wife signs a permit for surgery, Keith Cavell tells [Vince's co-worker] Charley what happened!"

Rex Morgan, MD - September 12, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• Keith shares that he's been feeling depressed, as he announces he's leaving after Brice Adam returns - we all know the truth: he's just sad he doesn't have a lady friend to marry
• September 25 - February 14, 1979: Dr. Rita Carson and Sylvia Landon, Epilepsy
• A [female] Dr. Carson comes in with appendicitis - she's apparently new in town, and we learn she's a psychiatrist
• Naturally, she's a new object of affection for Keith Cavell
• Rex and Keith are surprised to find out Dr. Carson didn't decide she wanted to go to med school until she was 22 years old (practically a dinosaur); the next day's strip we see her popping some pills in her hospital bed and lying about what they are
• A young high school girl with epilepsy comes in from a head injury while Dr. Carson is still a patient - she goes to talk with her.

Rex Morgan, MD - November 2, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• November 14 - 16, the young girl, Sylvia Landry, talks about her experience with epilepsy and how it has affected her life
• As Dr. Carson shows a strong personal interest in Sylvia, we learn that she herself has epilepsy

Rex Morgan, MD - December 19, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• Another break in the story for a large Christmas panel - we've learned from Scott McCloud that the longer panels help to create a sense of prolonged time, as if the issue spans a greater distance

Rex Morgan, MD - December 25, 1978   © King Features Syndicate

• Even though Keith proposes to Dr. Carson, she still refuses to tell him she has epilepsy for fear that he'll leave her; she finally comes clean when Keith finds her unconscious in her apartment (1/5/1979), and she proceeds to tell him about her experience

Rex Morgan, MD - January 13, 1979   © King Features Syndicate

• Sylvia escapes from the hospital when her doctor changes his mind and requests more neurology studies instead of releasing her - she finds her way to Dr. Carson's house
• Dr. Carson helps Sylvia explain to her parents that they are too overprotective and need to lighten up

1966 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source*: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 1 Jan - 31 Dec 1966, Publishers Syndicate (Chicago, IL). 
*p. 223-258 on disk from King Features Syndicate.

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

• December 13, 1965 - January 20, 1966: Jed's Fake Gunshot Wound
• June and Dr. Morgan held at gunpoint to help Jed, a gunshot victim, at his practice
• Jed is wanted for murder of a police station attendant (Marcia and Willie are his partners in crime)
• Dr. Morgan saves the day!
• January 21 - 22: Dr. Leonardo Pettigrew
• Dr. Leonardo Pettigrew intro - we don't see his face for the first 2 weeks
• January 23 - May 22: MISSING
• May 23 - 25: The Professor Con Man (incomplete)
• We start in the middle of a story, with a lady named Selma accusing "The Professor" of stealing $5,000 from he while she was in a coma
• It turns out that The Professor told Selma that he had a cure for diabetes, and that she no longer needed to take insulin and watch her diet, which resulted in her coma
• Info on diabetics, 5/25/66 (see picture)

Rex Morgan, MD - May 25, 1966     © King Features Syndicate

• May 25 - November 7: Introduction of Dr. L.R. Moreland
• When June and Dr. Morgan pick up Dr. Moreland at the airport, they are SHOCKED to find out she is a woman! (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - June 6, 1966     © King Features Syndicate

• Dr. Morgan admits that if he knew she was a "hen medic", the only way he would have asked Dr. Moreland for an interview is if she included a picture - this comment doesn't seem to phase anyone!
• Luci and June bond over marriage in the medical field
• Dr. Moreland says she has more problems with female patients regarding her gender
• Melissa, and elderly lady who is a close friend of Dr. Morgan and June is appalled that a women may be included in the practice (see image below)

Rex Morgan, MD - June 16, 1966     © King Features Syndicate

• Luci has left a disappointed Tony Grand, who promised her a "big, fancy office" in Philadelphia
• When she returns home to close up her business, Tony has bought her a car and an office building to open her own practice, for having diagnosed his little brother Joey with a heart condition, leading to a life-saving surgery
• Tony, clearly very wealthy, confesses his interest in marrying Luci - she respectfully declines: "I'm not ready for marriage, Tony! I've spent four years in college, four years in medical school, four years in hospital internship and residency to prepare myself to practice medicine! I feel an obligation to use the skills I've learned! Someday...yes...I would want to marry...but I can't do that now!"
• Interesting that she feels she can't do both - that being a wife and a doctor are mutually exclusive responsibilities
• Tony throws a huge party, inviting the Senator, to see Luci off - Rex is invited
• While she's publicly given a car, audience members comment to each other that they've never heard of her
• Tony and Joey secretly drive down to follow Luci's flight
• Luci's first patients insist on also seeing Rex, not confident or comfortable with her
• Tony and Joey show up at June's before Luci gets home - she's still out to dinner with Rex
• Joey tells June that Tony thinks women shouldn't work like men - June agrees!
• Luci is late to the hospital because Tony insists on taking her to breakfast (against her will)
• Rex is furious
• 9/15 and 9/16 have a few medical comments on treatment of patients (see images)
• Dr. Moreland postpones dinner with Tony and Joey to cover Rex's house calls
• The child with a 105F fever stops breathing, Luci performs a tracheotomy before Rex shows up; she's treated with diphtheria antitoxin (she had missed a booster shot), 10/18
• June sneaks out at night to tell Tony to cancel his flight because Luci loves him, they decide to get married and Rex is out of a new assistant

Rex Morgan, MD - September 15, 1966     © King Features Syndicate

Rex Morgan, MD - September 15, 1966     © King Features Syndicate

• November 5 - March 4: Jack Burton & Friends, LSD
• Wallace Burton, Jack's father, comes to see Rex because he's worried about his son
• Jack just got home from his freshman year of college, and it turns out he hadn't been in class for the last two weeks and dropped off the football team
• Jack's roommate, Dick Huston, called Jack's mother, Barbara, worried about him
• Jack's been spending time with a senior, Veronica Sands - sounds to be trouble
• While Dr. Morgan and Mr. Burton look for Jack, we see him in the football stadium hallucinating; Dick suspects LSD
• Veronica takes Jack to Mr. Arrodine, previously a biology professor; Mr. Arrodine and Veronica are jealous of Jack's 4-day acid trip
• Info strip, 12/19-20/66 (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - December 19-20, 1966     © King Features Syndicate

• Jack refuses to take LSD again when he returns to Mr. Arrodine's house with Veronica; he's thrown out, and she runs out of the house on a bad trip
• Jack and Dr. Morgan find Veronica passed out in the snow
• Veronica's roommate dies after Mr. Arrodine gives her an overdose of sedative to stop her trip (he sent everyone out of the house when he thought the police might show up)
• When the police arrive, Mr. Arrodine hides the LSD in his greenhouse, and they don't find it - seems like these days a greenhouse would be the first place the police would search!
• Russell, Mr. Arrodine's (houseboy?) cracks under the pressure and gives them both up
• Story gets cut short by one week

1962 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source*: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 12 Feb - 31 Dec 1962, Publishers Syndicate (Chicago, IL). 
*p. 18-76 on disk from King Features Syndicate.


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

• January 1 - February 11: MISSING
• February 12 - May 12: Susie Conover, meningitis
• Harris intends to marry Emily Conover, the single mother of daughter Susie, but can't stand children
• Susie falls ill, and when Rex shows up, Harris insists he leaves and waits for the "specialist" that he has phoned in; Susie only wants Rex
• Susie has meningitis, and is placed "in contagion", and falls into a coma
• After 2 doses of hydrocortisone, Susie eventually pulls through
• Harris has a change of heart about his priorities, and decides he loves both Emily and Susie
• May 10 - August 23: Sindoo and his "Rest Home"
• Elsa's husband, Larry Farnum, is worried that Elsa is mentally ill and needs hospitalization, but her mother (Mrs. Krone) is horrified at the idea and refuses
• Mrs. Krone finds a "Dr. Sindoo", who doesn't charge fees but asks for "contributions" - Miss Georgi Fleece, working with Sindoo, suggests an initial contribution of $500
• Sindoo whips one of his workers, Grif, for leaving bruises on an elderly patient (Grif does not appear to be mentally sound)
• Rex checks in with the medical society, which doesn't have any information on Sindoo
• Grif takes Elsa away from from Sindoo's to protect her from others; he harms anyone who tries to come near her - this all seems very King Kong...
• Grif holds Elsa hostage at a farmhouse, thinking he's protecting her; he fractures Sindoo's skull with the butt of a shotgun, threatens to shoot Rex but Elsa screams and stops him
• Grif turns out to be Sindoo's brother
• Teaching moment! 8/21/62 (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - August 21, 1962     © King Features Syndicate

• Miss Fleece has a mysterious past that Rex knows about
• In the end, Elsa is hospitalized and given a good prognosis
• August 24 - November 23: Allison Poole
• Rex avoids getting into a fight when Allison's playboy, Tony, instigates problems because of a double-booked table at a fancy restaurant
• Allison lures Rex to her home feigning an emergency, just to hit on him; Tony follows and sees him there, runs Rex off the road after he leaves her house
• When the police show up, they make a point to mention he was wearing his safety belt - nice touch (see image)

Rex Morgan, MD - September 19, 1962     © King Features Syndicate

• Rex has a severe concussion, and doesn't remember anything about that night
• June overhears Tony [aggressively] admitting to Allison that he ran Rex off the road; she gives him a good wallop (there's an awful lot of face slapping in this series...)
• Tony eventually admits to Rex that he ran him off the road, but does so in the same sentence as his request for help with Allison - she's left Tony a note saying "there's so little time left" for her
• Rex already had suspicions when she was unaware her cigarette was burning her fingers
• Neuro exam! 11/13/62
• Diagnosis with a neuro consult: syringomyelia, "a crippling disease...and the course...downhill"
• Allison is discharged, as there is no more medical intervention
• November 23 - December 7: Dr. Keith Cavell's Surprise Visit
• Even those Melissa fakes a heart attack to keep Keith from leaving town (without Rex and June knowing) we still get a picture of how Keith treats angina: a nitroglycerine tablet under the tongue

Rex Morgan, MD - November 27, 1962     © King Features Syndicate

• December 3 - TBD: Intern, Dr. Tracy Heath
• Rex heads to hospital to help a new female intern, Dr. Tracy Heath, handle a head injury with lacerations - he automatically assumed it was a man, and had to be corrected by the nurse
• A 3-car automobile car crash results in chaotic scenes at the emergency department
• hemorrhage and transfusion
• compound fracture
• Tracy is offended by Keith's comment, "...if I knew they were turning out pretty interns like you, I might cut down on my off time!"
• Interns make $25/month! 12/22/62
• Tracy gets a call from a worried Paul (who we don't yet know)
• December 28 - January 3, 2012 - Mrs. Williams, diabetes
• Mrs. Williams, a diabetic patient who won't stay on a diet, comes in - she's frank about not liking female doctors, and Tracy lets her have it for not following doctor's orders:

Rex Morgan, MD - December 29, 1962     © King Features Syndicate

• Rex is also blunt with Mrs. Williams about her diabetes. Teaching strip, 1/1/63 (see image)
• Rex goes on to lecture Tracy that disciplining patients is not the way to handle them, even when they don't follow orders

Rex Morgan, MD - December 31, 1962     © King Features Syndicate

Rex Morgan, MD - January 1, 1963    © King Features Syndicate