1980 Comic Strips: A Summary

Source: Curtis, Dal. Rex Morgan, MD. 25 Aug - 31 Dec 1980, Field Newspaper Syndicate (Irvine, CA).

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

• January 1 - August 24: MISSING
• August 25 - xxx: Paul Brant, the near-deaf boxer, and Babs Van Kirk, MS
• New signature on strips - "daSilva". Fernando da Silva had a short stint as artist between 1980 and 1983.
• Babs Van Kirk is a young woman buying a contract to manage boxer Paul Brant, whom Rex is seeing for a physical exam - he has 50% hearing loss
• Paul's trainer defends him, makes general statement about the hearing-impaired (10/17/1980) - incidentally, this might be the first black person drawn in the strip?

Rex Morgan, MD - October 17, 1980   © King Features Syndicate

• All the comments about hearing impairment discrimination makes me think Dallis had some personal experience with this - it also reminds me of how Proactiv (acne face wash) is marketed by celebrities to make acne seem more socially acceptable
• Teaching strip on how to seek medical attention about hearing loss (11/20/1980)

Rex Morgan, MD - November 20, 1980   © King Features Syndicate

• When Babs suddenly loses vision in her left eye, Dr. Morgan admits her, with suspicion of optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis
• Another special Christmas strip

Rex Morgan, MD - December 25, 1980   © King Features Syndicate

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

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

The Anatomy of Comics - Part 3

Notes from: McCloud, Scott. (1993). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. p. 138-215.

• "Traditional thinking has long held that truly great works of art and literature are only possible when the two are kept at arms length. Words and pictures together are considered, at best, a diversion for the masses, at worst a product of crass commercialism." (p. 140)
• Show and tell: a capable artist uses a balanced combination of pictures and words - balance does not necessarily mean equal amounts, but more that one always complements the other (p. 155)
• All artwork follows six steps (p. 170-1):

Image from: gangles.ca, p. 170 of Understanding Comics

1. Idea/purpose: "the impulses, the ideas, the emotions, the philosophies, the purposes of the work...the work's content."
2. Form: book, furniture, music, etc.
3. Idiom: "the 'school' of art, the vocabular of styles or gestures or subject matter, the genre that the work belongs to...maybe a genre of its own."
4. Structure: "putting it all together, what to include, what to leave out... how to arrange, how to compose the work."
5. Craft: "constructing the work, applying skills, practical knowledge, invention, problem-solving, getting the job done."
6. Surface: "production values, finishing... the aspects most apparent on the first superficial exposure to the work."

Image from: gangles.ca, p. 171 of Understanding Comics

• After an artist learns to draw, learns how to craft their drawings effectively, learns the proper structure of making an excellent strip (pacing, drama, humor, suspense, etc), and then learns how to instill in the strip their own identity (idiom), it's then that they can decide to become a "explorer" (p. 179) or a "storyteller" (p. 180) - that is to say, either their strip is about art itself, and they experiment with new ways to convey information/stories, or they have a regular/controlled medium and hone their skills at delivering a message as effectively as possible (p. 173 - 180)
• Color introduction boosted comic sales, but increased cost was also an issue (p. 187)
• Bright, primary colors were used to counteract the dulling effect of the newsprint, so comics were full of primary colors, without any one dominating the other; this eliminated the emotional impact that could could have had (p. 188)
• Colors were also consistent with a given character, and thus became a symbol (p. 188)
• Colors also objectify subjects, bringing attention to the physical form and not just black and white lines (p. 189)
• When hue and shading starting being introduced in the 1970's, it didn't match the line drawings of the action comics - they fit better with the original 4-color scheme; thus, the surface changed without the core changing (p. 191)
• While color may bring more reality to a comic strip, that may not be what a reader wants - black and white comic strips will always have a home (p. 192)
• So, why are comics so important? No human can ever truly know what it's like to be in the mind of another (p. 194), and the only way to at least try is to communicate. There are many ways to communicate, but it's essential that we understand the different forms that can take (p. 198)
• "Creator and reader are partners in the invisible, creating something out of nothing, time and time again." (p. 205)

What's an encyclopedia?

Richard Marshall, at the time of the [1976] publication, was comics editor of Field Newspaper Syndicate, and is recognized as an authority in his field of work.

www.mycomicshop.com

Notes taken from the following text, a compilation of 15 contributors (Richard Marshall authored the selections from which notes have been taken):

Horn, M. (Ed.). (1976). The World Encyclopedia of Comics. New York: Chelsea House Publishers.

• Dallis background: born in New York City, attended public schools, Washington and Jefferson College (Washington, PA) and Temple School of Medicine (graduated 1938). Residency was at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, then private practice in Toledo, OH (p. 193)
• Dallis drew cartoons for his college newspaper (p. 193)
• Rex Morgan, MD was an idea created under the support/direction of Allen Saunders - the extent of his assistance is not covered in the text (p. 193)
• Dallis stopped work as a psychiatrist in 1959 in order to continue writing the strip (p. 193)
• Marshall gives credit to Dallis, Saunders and Elliot Caplin, accounting for "the major portion of contemporary story strip production"; Dallis converts adventure to domestic/soap-opera (p. 193)
• "Dallis' characterizations can be interesting (especially in 3-G) but seldom as mature and never as versatile as Elliot Caplin's." (p. 193)
• While other story strips are dwindling during this time period, Dallis' three strips still run strong (p. 193)
• Dallis sold the Rex Morgan, MD strip initially to Publishers Syndicate (Chicago), and it launched on May 10, 1948 (p. 580)
• Creators of Rex Morgan, MD included Dallis, background artist Frank Edington, and other artist Marvin Bradley (p. 580)
• There are 3 characters who are the core "family" of the strip: Morgan, a 40-something bachelor, his nurse assistance, June Gale, and an elderly friend/heart-patient, Melissa, the matriarch (p. 580)
• Morgan defines the soap-opera genre, with its "dramatic and tangled plots, and strong characterization" (p. 580)
• Marshall declares the art work to be "merely competent and never exciting", explaining that they're often entangled in stereotypes (p. 580-1)
• I assume this to mean that the men are always dashing/handsome, the women young and beautiful, and the villains always have an evil appearance (usually a creepy mustache)

Brian Walker's Take on Dr. Morgan

Brian Walker is the founder and former director of the National Cartoon Museum (previously the Museum of Cartoon Art), and has been part of the creative team producing Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. He has taught a course in cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts, and served as curator for over 65 cartoon exhibitions. Source: back book jacket, The Comics: Since 1945.

www.exhibitionsinternational.org

Notes taken from the following text:

Walker, B. (2006). The Comics Since 1945. (N. Columbus & R. Slovak, Eds.) (Paperback.). New York: Abrams.

• Elements allowing comics to succeed in America include printing/distribution, concentration of populations to urban areas and acceptance of new forms of expression
• The Yellow Kid is given credit as the first, 1896 (p. 6)
• First Sunday publication in 1925 was met with resistance by religious groups, claiming that it "is antagonist to the spirit of the Lord's day, and tends to subvert the institution." I guess the comics won that battle (p. 6)
• William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, owners of the publishing companies battled for employees and readers (p. 7)
• Richard Outcault, creator of The Yellow Kid and Buster Brown, is credited to the be father of the modern comic strip
• October 25, 1896, Outcault used speech balloons and sequential paneling, defining the structure of the comic strip for years to come (p. 9)
• While syndicates allowed artists more freedom and greater visibility, they also had to relinquish their rights to their artistic creations (this is no longer the case) (p. 10)
• Here's how it works: cartoonist develops idea, submits a sample of strips and Sunday pages to the editors of the syndicates, syndicates provide the content to the newspaper - syndicates split the profit with the cartoonist (p. 11)
• Newspaper editors often "test drop" a strip to see if there's any backlash (p. 12)
• "The funnies have endured primarily because comic characters have a universal, timeless appeal. Their daily appearances make them familiar to million. Their triumph make them heroic. Their struggles make them seem human. Cartoonists create friends for their readers. Pogo, Charlie Brown, Calvin and Hobbes, and Dilbert are part of a great cultural legacy that is being further enriched every day. The final panel has yet to be drawn." (p. 15)
• Boston University readership study (1962) listed Rex Morgan, MD as one of the top 15 features, along with others suggesting that humor versus story was about 50/50 in terms of popularity (p. 74)
• William Steve, editor of the Houston Chronicle did an official study (1962) declaring Rex Morgan, MD "essential" to any comics page, even though syndicates felt story/continuity strips were fading out of popularity  - this study was admittedly "unscientific and highly opinionated", but it's still a data point (p. 122)
• The 70's saw the death of many continuity strips, though Rex Morgan, MD continued to thrive (p. 170)
• In 1980's, the Time-Union (Rochester) canceled Rex Morgan, MD; but only temporarily - the paper received 237 letters demanding its return (p. 226)
• This also happened for Dallis' other strip, Apartment 3G (p. 226)
• In 1985: Rex Morgan, MD was in 350 newspapers, Judge Parker in 250, and Apartment 3-G in 200 (these are all Dallis' creations); he believed the success was due to the relevancy of the strips because they "address the problems that are occurring today." Cocaine addiction, FAS and spousal abuse were just some of the topics covered in the 80's (p. 227)

The Soap Opera, Jerry Robinson Style

Jerry Robinson (1/1/1922 - 12/7/2011) was no stranger to comics. He is best known as the artist of the Joker, villain to Batman. He was also inducted to the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2004 (details found on Wikipedia, to be taken with a grain of salt).

www.darkhorse.com

Notes taken from the following text:

Robinson, Jerry. "The Soap Opera." The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1974. 174-180.

• Dealing with real problems both in comic strips and on TV reflected the change in the public's interests (p. 174)
• Mary Worth, started in 1932, was the first of the soap opera comic strips - though the strip changed hands in 1939 and again in 1942, she continued to address themes such as alcoholism, infidelity and a range of emotional issues women experience (p. 174-175)
• Allen Saunders took over for the original creator, Martha Orr; he believes the entertainment nature of the strip allows the readers to also learn about themselves (p. 175)
• Rex Morgan, MD was first published following a national poll by [at the time] Publishers Syndicate, which showed the public wanted "realistic adventure strips about conventional professions." (p. 176)