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