Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Eight

Wow, I cannot believe it has been almost two years since I read the previous collection of this newspaper strip.  How in the world could I have put it off for so long?  This strip is perhaps the most well-written, superbly drawn newspaper strip that was ever published, and the stories are more engaging than any soap opera drama on radio or television.  Creator/Writer/Artist Leonard Starr truly outdid himself with this strip, which ran from 1957 to 1979.  While the premise of the series is simple enough - it follows the trials and tribulations of a young actress, Mary Perkins, as she breaks into the world of theater, and later film and television; but the stories themselves are far from simple!  The stories are filled with drama, humor, suspense, mystery, and adventure, and the characters are so well defined that they feel as real as any person we might meet in real life.  After the rather lengthy story of Pete Fletcher's dangerous assignment in Vietnam, it is rather nice to get back to Mary as she prepares for her next story...

 

Mary Perkins, On Stage Volume Eight starts with the very next strip, dated May 5, 1966, as Mary and her friend, Sarah Eggart, meet Simon DeJong, a famous producer who has just gone through a rather nasty divorce. This sets the stage for Mary and Pete to be invited to join Simon on Fire Island, along with Sarah (in whom Simon has taken an interest).  Taking the summer off, Mary and Pete rent a house close to Simon's, and all seems perfect - until Simon's ex-wife, Gogi, who shows up on the island to stir up trouble, which she does in spades!  The story is a fairly basic love triangle (Sarah - Simon - Gogi) that ends pretty tragically when Gogi takes out her revenge on Simon in a rather gruesome way (not gonna spoil that here, but suffice to say, a character does die!).   This story runs for two months, ending with the July 30th strip.  While the love story may not be overly exciting, I will say that Mary and Pete's marriage, and their love for one another, truly shines in this story, with panels like the middle panel of the June 20th strip (p. 35) and the very last panel of the July 30th strip (p. 56) epitomizing their love so perfectly!

 

The next story starts off with a huge unexpected splash as Captain Virtue comes crashing through the wall in the final panel of the Sunday, July 31st strip!  That's right, you heard me.  Mary Perkins meets a real life superhero when she agrees to be an acting coach for Bernie Kibble, a rather shy young man who happens to be the perfect fit as Captain Virtue - the next big television sensation! This is one of my two favorite stories from this collection, as it combines my love of of the theater with my love of comic books and superheroes!  Starr takes the story in some very unexpected directions, as this innocent and naive man who is thrust into the limelight takes betrayal by his best friend to heart and nearly turns into a villain - but there is redemption to be had, as he manages to restore not only his friendship with his former best friend and manager, but he also manages to win back the trust and love of the girl he had fallen head over heels for (who also happens to be his costar in the TV show!).  Mary pretty much took a backseat to this story, as she was more or less his acting coach, his counselor, and ultimately, his conscience.

 

From here, we traipse over to Hollywood, where a young woman named Catherine has just got the third female lead in a new motion picture.  It turns out, though, that Catherine has some ulterior motives, one of them being to convince Mary Perkins to visit an acting coach by the name of Franz Richter, who is an expert in the Stepanovsky Method!  This turns into a story of international proportions, where no one is who they seem!  We even see the return of Major Grisha Volkov, who appeared in the last collection of stories (Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Seven) - but is he really simply the Russian cultural attache, as he claims, or is he there for another reason?  Poor Mary gets stuck in the middle of all the chaos, as Russian agents attempt to bring a Russian artist back to their country.  The danger is high stakes, with a dramatic conclusion in the snow-capped mountains of the Sierras, where the movie is to be filmed.  Mary is never so glad to get back to her husband, just as he is given a new assignment...

 

This, of course, takes readers into the next tale, which is my other favorite story from this collection, as it is filled with juicy Gothic greatness!  The Beauchamps, a theatrical dynasty, have secluded themselves into a stately old mansion, with only Garrick Beauchamp having much contact with the outside world.  His mother, Mrs. Beauchamp, is blind, depending heavily on her companion Clara to be her eyes (and ears).  His wife, Melissa, the other Mrs. Beauchamp, is nothing short of a prisoner in the mansion, being manipulated by her controlling mother-in-law.  Garrick Beauchamp is a big name in the theater world, as was his father and grandfather before him.  And if Dame Margot (the mother) has her way, that legacy will continue - no matter the cost!  The Gothic mansion, the manipulations and lies, the shadowy figures lurking outside, the stormy night, the devastating secrets, the long-desired love - it all works so beautifully to create a tragic story of Gothic mystery and suspense.  And this one definitely does not have a happy ending.

 

As one story ends, another begins - one that definitely proves Mary Perkins has what it takes to be a true theatrical powerhouse!  Vanna Croy shows up at a theater in New York, mistaking the assistant stage manager for the producer (more on that assistant stage manager in a moment - as far as the mistake goes, was it really?) and throwing Mary Perkins' name around in order to get her foot in the door.  From there, she meets the director, Josh Price, working her way into a walk-on role with only one line.  Then, when confronted with Mary herself, Vanna convinces her that Mike O'Hare had intended to talk to her about Vanna (with Mike being in Europe, of course, Mary has no way to verify).  You can see where this is going.  Vanna works her way up the food chain, all the way up to the major backer for this production, one Cyrus Deering.  Even when Mary finds out about the lies Vanna has been telling to wiggle her way into the pay, Vanna manages to not only move up from a walk-on role to a supporting role, but she convinces Deering to get her Mary's part!  Deering, in turn, forces Price to get Mary to walk out on her contract or he will pull all funding for any future play, leaving Price no choice but to turn on his star performer.  But Mary is not one to quit, and the Sunday, July 30, 1967 strip shows readers just how strong Mary Perkins is - an actress who knows exactly what to do when she needs to!  The last panel of that day's strip proves what an excellent storyteller Starr is - no words at all are needed, as the facial expressions on both Mary and Vanna say it all!  Oh, how I absolutely LOVED reading the next week or so worth of strips, as Mary shows Vanna exactly who she is dealing with - putting Vanna in her place and showing Price and Deering that she is not one with whom you should mess!

 

Now, about that assistant stage manager, whose name is Edward.  When he first appears (p. 177 - Sunday, May 7th strip), I had to take a double-take.  I mean, quite frankly, it was like looking in the mirror.  Which is impossible, since this particular strip ran in 1967, years before I was even born!  Yet, there can be no doubt about it.  The glasses.  The haircut.  The nose.  The expressions.  The stance.  Everything about Edward screamed "Todd"!  To be sure I wasn't imaging things, I showed my father the panels.  I showed my friends the panels.  And every one of them, the first thing they said was, "What are you doing in that comic strip?"   The panel shown above (left) is Edward's very first appearance, and even the shirt he is wearing is the exact style of shirts I wear.  The panel shown here to the right is a later panel from the May 7th strip, and the the hair style, the downward tilt of the chin as he talks, the thin neck - it is simply uncanny.  I know the saying goes that everyone has a double out there, but I never expected my double to appear in a comic strip, particularly one that I read and love as much as I do Mary Perkins, On Stage! 

 

With that out of the way, let's discuss that final story, which sees the return of the dangerous, yet fun-loving Johnny Q.  He shows up at the theater to see his favorite young actress, but his appearance coincides with Mary's dressing room being ransacked. Fortunately, nothing was taken - not even her wedding and engagement rings.  So, what was the culprit after?  Starr gives readers a major clue by focusing in panel after panel on Mary's purse.  Of course, there is no time to wonder about that, because before you know it, a car is trying to run down Johnny and Mary.  They escape unharmed (of course), and Johnny leads Mary to the Hickey Psycho-Deli, a discotheque run by - who else? -  long-haired, sunglasses wearing hippie named Hickey!  Hickey agrees to hide Johnny and see Mary home safely, and it's only after Mary gets home we learn the secret of the purse.  It seems the lining has been torn, and a small envelope was stuffed inside - an envelope containing a very suspicious looking white powder!  Talk about a story for a newspaper strip.  Somehow I doubt many strips, no matter how serious they were, broached the topic of drugs in their stories.  But Starr did not shy away from it.  Poor Mary is left to wonder just what Johnny has gotten her into this time.  Edward (the assistant stage manager from the previous tale) comes back into the story, and Mary ends up in a very dangerous situation, where she is nearly left to die in a burning building!  There is redemption of two characters by the end of the drama, and the readers are left to wonder if Johnny's "good-bye" is truly final this time...

 

And the last two panels set up our next saga, as Mary receives a call from the movie director, Renzo Di Saba, who wants Mary to be a part of his next production.  Thus, it's off to Rome for Mary, where she will be reunited with her husband and decide whether she wants to take a part in Di Saba's newest epic!

 

Starr's story and art definitely reign supreme in this collection.  The man knows how to move stories at the perfect pace, and his habit of reusing the last Sunday panel as one of his Monday strip panels makes me think of how soap operas do the same thing, pretty much, with their episodes - re-airing portions of the last moments of the previous episodes to keep viewers who may have missed an episode informed on what is happening. His attention to minor details in the art (such as the way in which Mary's scarf is tied in the November 18th panels) and the use of outside visuals (such as the panels showing snow coming down on the mountainside from January 4th to January 8th).  There's even a moment where Mary has her fingers crossed behind her back (January 16th), showing, rather than telling, readers tat she is holding out hope for good luck in what is about to happen!  Starr even uses his visuals to provide clues for the reader that the characters in the story miss, such as the footprints outside of the Beauchamp mansion on that dark rainy night (p. 156). Today's comic artists could truly learn a lot from this master storyteller!

 

RATING:  10 anonymous notes in large print out of 10 for keeping the stories fresh, full of fast-paced drama and adventure, while keeping the characters grounded and relatable! 

Short(est) Lived Comic Series #30 - On Stage (Dell Comics)

It is with shock and surprise that I reach this 1,000th post for my blog!  When I started this blog back in 2015, I don't think I ever imagined I would still be writing it 10 years later, nor do I think I ever expected to have read as many books, short stories, and comics as I have read in that time.  It has been a fun journey, and (for the most part) I have been fortunate to have read so many great stories over those years.  So, it is fitting that for this special post, I review a comic that I have had for a number of years but have been waiting to read.  This one-off comic from Dell Comics (issue 1336 of Dell's "Four Color" series) is based upon Leonard Starr's very popular newspaper strip that ran for 22 years, from 1957 to 1979.  I have the full collection of comic strips in collected editions by Classic Comics Press, which I have been reviewing on this blog, and I never even knew this comic existed until I happened across it at a local comic convention one year.

 

Dell's On Stage comic was published in 1962, with an "April-June 1962" date listed in the indicia.  While the cover gives credit to Leonard Starr, the creator of On Stage, Starr did not actually work on the comic.  While no actual credits are given with the comic itself, which was standard in those days, the Grand Comics Database (Dell Comics - On Stage) indicates the cover art was provided by Robert Williams Meyers, while interior art was provided by Mike Sekowsky/Frank Giacoia (inside front cover); Frank Bolle and Mike Sekowsky/Frank Giacoia (main story); Frank Giacoia (inside back cover); and Mike Sekowsky/Frank Giacoia (back cover).  The script for these stories is credited to Ken Fitch, based on information in the "Who's Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999."  Despite Leonard Starr not being involved, I have to give the publisher credit for finding an artist who was able to mimic Starr's style when drawing Mary and her supporting cast.  Sadly, the one thing that is missing from the comic are the extremely detailed backgrounds that Starr provided in nearly each and every panel of his comic strip.  While the panels in this comic do have some backgrounds, there are quite a few panels that simply have basic, one-color backgrounds against which the characters stand.  For me, though, having only seen Mary Perkins in black and white in the reprint collections, it was exciting to see her brought to life in full color in this 32-page comic!

 

This story takes place during the years collected by the fifth volume of Classic Comics Press' reprint volumes, and it brings back not just one, but two recurring characters from Mary's newspaper strip.  When Mary is asked to take a role in a new play about Shakespeare's life, supposedly based upon diaries found that reveal missing years of his life, she must convince fellow actor and friend, Maximus, to come to the States and take a role as well.  The director's difficulty in finding a backer suddenly disappears when an attorney shows up indicating he has a backer who wishes to remain anonymous.  This is when Mary happens to run into Johnny Q, who warns her about the attorney and his reputation.  So, here we have two mysterious men from Mary's strip who swoop in to help her uncover the truth, not only behind the mysterious benefactor for the play, but also the reality behind those alleged diaries of Shakespeare.

 

There's not quite as much drama in this comic as there is in the daily strip, but it does have its moments - particularly when Frank Stewart, the playwright, is brutally attacked when he refuses to allow the financier to take credit for his script.  Maximus steps in and shows the hoodlums that he is more than just a "pretty face" (and if you have read the On Stage newspaper strip, then you'll understand that pun!).  Between Mary, Pete, Maximus, and Johnny, they manage to turn the tables on the crooked producer and save the play from having any unsavory connections.  And, surprisingly, in the end, Maximus reveals to Pete the truth about his appearance, a revelation that I cannot recall has ever been made in the newspaper strip (at least, not up to the point where I have read).

 

The cover art, by Robert Meyers, depicts the very dramatic moment when Maximus shows the producer's hoodlums that he can fight back and take them down - although, in the story, there is no woman in the background watching.  I am not sure if the woman shown on the cover is supposed to be Mary Perkins, but if so, then it is an inaccurate portrayal, as this woman is a blond, and Mary has dark hair.  And since Dell Comics of that period did not have any advertisements, the inside front cover, inside back cover, and back cover all feature short stories that give readers a bit more inside information, to to speak, about theater life.  "Angels Without Wings" on the inside front cover provides some details about investors, while "The Drama" on the inside back cover gives an abbreviated history of how drama has been depicted on the stage over the years. The back cover provides a color presentation of the "Arts and Tricks of Make-Up," and how strong make-up, simple techniques, and the use of rubber masks are used to hide blemishes, accentuate features, and sometimes change the appearance of actors on stage and screen. 

 

Overall, I would say this issue is a very nice tribute to the characters and stories of Leonard Starr, and it definitely does Mary Perkins proud.  Of course, only being one issue, the story is a bit faster paced than the daily strip, which had stories that lasted weeks, seven days each week, so had plenty of time to build up suspense and drop sub-plots that would come to fruition later.  Also, with just 32 pages, the writer did not have a lot of time for character development, so any readers who were not already familiar with the characters would likely have a lot of questions about who they are and how they are connected.  I wonder what we would have seen if Dell had decided to do more On Stage comics?

 

RATING:  9 electronic door locks out of 10 for keeping the drama in Mary Perkins' life and providing an interesting new theater story centered around the bard himself!

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Seven

It's always a joy to jump back into the world of Mary Perkins.  I never really know what to expect with each of these comic strip collections, as Mary's creator, Leonard Starr, has proven that he is an amazing writer, managing to always keep the stories fresh and engaging, and to provide art that is absolutely stunning with each and every panel.  This particular volume has a forward by the creator himself, Leonard Starr, which gives some insight into Starr's own inspiration for getting into the field of art - his love of the Terry and the Pirates strip back in the day, and his fateful meeting with the creator of that strip, Milton Caniff.  There's also an introduction by Sal Amendola, who started his career in comics way back in 1969 at DC Comics.  Amendola discusses how the characters in Starr's strips are always fully human - neither all good, nor all bad, as particularly evidenced by the stories in this collection.  And he's write.  As I was reading this year-and-a-half worth of strips, I realized that is what truly draws the reader into Starr's stories - the characters are very real, even in some very unusual circumstances.

 

Volume Seven of Mary Starr, On Stage picks up with the October 12, 1964 strip that introduces readers to the Russian Major Volkov and re-introduces readers to Morgana D'Alexius (incorrectly identified as "D'Alexis" on the back cover blurb for this volume).  And thus begins the opening story for this volume, as Mary is informed one of her films is being shown at the Moscow film festival, and they want her there; while, at the same time, Pete (Mary's photographer husband, for those who may have forgotten) is told the Soviet government is opening new areas to the foreign press, and he has been personally invited to photograph them.  Mary and Pete both believe this is too much of a coincidence, and as they quickly find out, it is!  Morgana has enlisted the aid of Major Volkov in a plan to steal Pete away from Mary - by having the Major basically hold Mary captive at his castle home, while she leads Pete to another small country where she can seduce him away from his wife.  As you can expect, the plan fails, Mary and Pete figure out what is going on, and they find their way back to each other.   The one great thing about this story is the gorgeous backgrounds of Russia and its architectural beauty in Moscow.  The story has a very powerful ending, with the Major sacrificing himself during a horrific storm to hold Morgana out in the treacherous waters so she cannot get back to Pete.  Both are assumed lost at sea, but no bodies are found ... (gee, like with any good soap opera, you know what that means!)

 

As one story ends, so does another begin, and Starr takes us from international danger and intrigue to a May-December romance as Mary happens to meet up with Constance Heath, a former drama coach of Mary's who is aging somewhat gracefully.  A young up-and-coming actor gives up everything to be in her current show just so he can get close to the woman he claims to love.  Constance doesn't know what to think, and Starr plays with the readers emotions, as Constance and young Eric go back and forth - will they marry?  Will they part ways?  Will they be able to bridge the large age gap to find true love?  Mary just wants her former coach to be happy, but at what price comes happiness?  Starr actually touches on some very real issues here regarding the compromises and sacrifices that come with loving someone who is vastly older / younger than one's self.

From here, we slide right into an island adventure, as Mary heads south to film a television version of "The Tempest."  Little does she realize that she's going to be reunited with a face from the past - or rather, a faceless one!  That's right, Mary is startled at first, but then overjoyed to discover that Maximus is going to be playing the role of Caliban in the production.  The master of disguise is in top form, but the producer's assistant falls head over heels for him, not knowing of his deformity.  The young girl's brother, though, has other ideas, as he sees Maximus as a money ticket and his way off the island.  Blackmail gone wrong and a near-fatal fight at the top of a lighthouse lead to the origin of our faceless hero, as well as a marriage proposal that shows just how much heart and soul matter more than physical appearance!

The next story takes us back to New York, where Mary is preparing for her latest stage role, alongside two very different men - Claude Harper, a boy from the country who is thrilled to be working with Mary; and Rod Damian, an arrogant, self-absorbed star from Hollywood who sees only himself ... until he meets Claude's girlfriend, however, and decides he is going to steal her away.  This story gives readers the typical soap opera drama one would come to expect from a daily serial about a theater actress.  A young country girl comes to the big city to meet her actor boyfriend, only to be enticed away by a famous actor.  She loses her boyfriend, only to discover the famous actor has tossed her aside once has has driven a wedge between the two.  The question remains - has the damage Rod done driven the young couple apart for good?

Starr provides a pretty good lead up for the next story, as Mary notices a shifting mood in her husband, and sees numerous phone messages from his boss that have not been returned.  Something is up, but she can't figure out what - until he fails to show up after her opening night of the play, and she rushes home to learn Pete has left for an assignment, one that will keep him away for some time.  And it is at this point readers get a real change of pace, for the story leaves Mary in New York and turns all focus and attention on Pete Fletcher and the danger he faces in Vietnam.  Pete has been called to assist in getting a Chinese actor smuggled out of the country and safely to America - but the story has plenty of twists and turns, as he finds out the actor is one who plays females on the stage and is quite defensive about his art form.  Soon enough, though, Pete is given a shock to discover the person he is helping escape is not the actor, but rather, the actor's daughter - the actor refused to leave unless his daughter was taken safely out first!  Pete spends a number of weeks trekking through the jungles, avoiding armed natives, and having to seek first aid for the young girl after she is poisoned in a trap set in the reeds. I was actually surprised to see how many weeks go by without even one panel of Mary anywhere in the strip - I mean, after all, this is HER strip, and yet Starr keeps the entire focus on Pete and the girl he is rescuing (and her growing love for Pete!).  Of course, Pete eventually makes it home and has to face his wife, who is concerned that all the time spent with the girl may have changed his feelings for her...

This volume ends with a few hints of the next story to come, as Mary runs into an old friend, and while eating dinner together, they spot a famous producer who has just gotten divorced and begin to dish on the gossip about the divorced couple...

Starr's art is superb, as usual, with amazingly detailed backgrounds and the most accurate expressions I've ever seen in any comic art.  There were a couple of strips in this collection that were not quite as crisp and clear as 99% of the strips usually are, making me wonder if Classic Comics Press was unable to find really good scans of those particularly daily strips (ex., page 240, the 3-26 strip or page 237, the 3-19 strip).  Yes, both strips use a lot of shadows and shading, but they still seem a bit fuzzy to me, almost a bit grainy as of they are copies of copies.  Nevertheless, they are clear enough to read and do not truly take away from the enjoyment of the story.

I'm sure I've said it before, and I'll gladly say it again - I am so glad to be reading these strips in these collected editions, because I don't know if I would have had the patience to wait day after day after day to read these full stories when they were original published back in the 1960s!  

RATING:  10 stand-in hat racks out of 10 for keeping the strip fresh and interesting with a variety of stories and characters that leave the reader feeling like you never know what's going to happen next!

Janet Hardy in Radio City - Book Two of the Janet Hardy Series

So, after enjoying the first Janet Hardy novel so much, I did not want to wait long to read the second book in this series.  Interestingly, the copy of this second book that I have is larger and thicker than the first book.  My copy of Janet Hardy in Hollywood measures only 5" x 7.5", while my copy of this book measures a bit over 5.5" x 8".  Additionally, Hollywood is only a bit over one inch in thickness, while this book is nearly one-and-a-half inches thick.  The additional thickness is likely due to the heavier paper stock used for this book, as I noticed the pages are nowhere near as thin and brittle as the first book.  Both have a copyright of 1935, so I honestly don't know if one is an earlier printing than the other, or if all copies of these books were printed in these different formats.  Regardless, the dust jacket contains the same cover art, with the same description of the series on the inside front flap.  And this second book picks up literally right where Hollywood left off...

Janet Hardy in Radio City opens with Janet and her best friend, Helen, getting ready for their next acting gig - another western filmed by Billy Fenstow and starring Curt Newsome. Author Ruthe S. Wheeler (who, it has been suggested, is actually a pseudonym used by Graham M. Dean) manages to get in a recap of the previous book in the first chapter, giving new readers a quick review of how the girls came to be in Hollywood and the adventures they had filming their first movie.  Interestingly, this book follows the same pattern as the first book with regard to how the story advances.

The first half of the book is spent in Hollywood, with the girls starring in the new film, Water Hole, which is being filmed on location at a secluded ranch.  The film crew and cast get on a bus (hmmm, if you've read the first book, perhaps you can see where this might be heading) and head out to the desert to film the movie.  Oddly enough, when the film is near completion, Janet and Helen's nemesis from back home, Cora Dean and her lackey, Margie Blake, show up at the ranch and manage to talk themselves into a bit part during the crowd scene at the end of the film.  They quickly leave, and it's a good thing they do - because when the film crew heads back to Hollywood on the bus, they have one mishap after another.  The bus breaks down; they get it fixed, and then it breaks down worse; then they discover there is a brush fire heading their way; and just when they get the bus fixed and head out, they have a flat tire!  By the time they make it back to the ranch, the fire is well on its way - and they once again hop onto the bus and head for higher ground.  They manage to find a stream with a bank nearby under which they can hide from the flaming onslaught.  It is a weary, damaged group that walk their way slowly back to the ranch, where all of the buildings have been burned to the ground - and just when they think all hope of help is gone, Helen's father shows up with a rescue team to help get the girls and the film crew back to Hollywood!  (And in case you missed the first book, there is a similar scenario in the first book where Janet, Helen, and their school friends are trapped on a bus in the middle of a deadly blizzard, and it is Janet's father who shows up in the nick of time - from the freezing cold of a blizzard to the deadly heat of a desert and fire!  And in both instances, buses were involved!)

The second half of the book follows Janet and Helen as they return home to not only register for college, which the plan to attend in the fall, but also to ready themselves for a ten-day trip to New York City, where they will join several other cast members of the film to promote the movie filmed in the last book over a radio broadcast.  The girls take a rather lengthy train trip (from their midwestern home town of Clarion - which, there is such a town in Iowa - through Chicago and on to Jersey City, before taking a ferry to New York City), and their arrival in the Big Apple is filled with awe as they take in the wonders of the skyscrapers and crowds.  Curt Newsom is there, and they meet the radio director, Ben Adolphi, as well as fellow radio star Rachel Nesbit, who thinks quite a bit of herself and takes an instant dislike to Janet.  (Again, this scenario seems very reminiscent of the second half of the first book!)  As with the previous book, the second act is where the mystery comes in, as someone steals a manuscript that Janet had been working on in her hotel room, and there is a suspicion that someone in the radio drama is intending to lead the movie's plot and ending in order to stop World Broadcasting Company from getting the rights to air this radio preview of the film.  Needless to say, Janet ends up in the thick of things, and she gets chloroformed (but not kidnapped this time, thankfully), there's another theft, a car chase, and an ultimate showdown with the culprits behind the sabotage, which results in Janet and Helen both being offered jobs at WBC as a writer and actress, respectively!

Despite the mystery not being central to the entire story, I still enjoyed reading this one as much as I did the first. Janet and Helen remain very likable characters, and even though the author follows the same format with both books, the stories are actually pretty engaging.  I became interested in knowing whether Janet and Helen would actually sign on with the studio and stay in Hollywood, or whether they would go home to pursue their college education.  And, yes, the saboteurs of the radio program are fairly obvious from the moment they are introduced, but it doesn't make the mystery any less exciting, as you find yourself rooting for Janet and Curt to stop the culprits before they get away with the manuscript and ruin the station's chance at getting the studio's contract.  My only wish is that Goldsmith had included internal illustrations, like nearly all of the other publishers did at the time, even if it was only a frontis piece.

With this, the adventures of Janet Hardy come to a close, as Goldsmith did not offer up any more books in this series.  I have to wonder if it was because sales were not high enough to warrant more, or if the author was simply not interested in writing more tales of these characters.  At this point, I suppose it doesn't matter, as no more Janet Hardy stories were publishers, and fans like me are left to cherish the two we do have.

RATING:  9 glowing masses of steel out of 10 for keeping these midwestern girls hopping from one coast to the other, and taking them from film to radio!

Janet Hardy in Hollywood - Book One of the Janet Hardy Series

I've had the second book in this series for quite a while, but it was some time before I finally picked up the first book (I was looking for one reasonably priced in a pretty good dust jacket).  I managed to find a great copy at an estate sale last year, so I bought it and am finally just getting around to reading it.  Now, I will admit that prior to picking up this series, I had never heard of Janet Hardy.  I knew that Whitman did quite a few "Authorized Editions" based on various actors and actresses from Hollywood, and based on the two titles in this series, I though perhaps Goldsmith had jumped on the bandwagon.  This, clearly, was not the case.  There was no actress named Janet Hardy back in the early 20th Century, although I did find a book by famed author Nora Roberts, in which the main character has a grandmother in the book named Janet Hardy who was a legendary actress.  Makes one wonder if Nora Roberts perhaps read these two books... (I should note there were two actresses named Janet Hardy who did films in 1971 and 1981, respectively, but those were obviously well after this book, so it could not have been based on either of them!)

Janet Hardy in Hollywood is the first of this two book series written by Ruthe S. Wheeler, the same author who wrote another book from Goldsmith that I reviewed a while ago (Helen in the Editor's Chair).  Although, from what I have learned since reading that book, apparently Ruthe S. Wheeler was actually author Graham M. Dean, who wrote these books for Goldsmith under his wife's maiden name.  I suppose at the time, it did not seem appropriate to have male author's names attached to series books intended to be read by girls,  In today's world, that would not matter in the least, but the 1930s were definitely a different time (in fact, stopping to think about it, that would be nearly 100 years ago - a century ago!).

The story centers around Janet Hardy and her best friend, Helen Thorne, two young ladies who are getting ready to graduate from high school in their mid-western town of Clarion (the state is not identified, but there is a Clarion, Iowa, which would fit the Midwest setting).  Helen's father is a successful film producer in Hollywood, and Helen is anxious for him to come home in time for her graduation.  In addition, Janet and Helen are auditioning for the lead parts in the senior play before graduation - and Helen wins her part but Janet ends up as a light technician and stage hand.  Of course, as fate would have it, when the opening night of the play arrives, the other lead actress is injured in a freak accident, and Janet has to step into the role at the last minute!  She and Helen do such a magnificent job, Helen's father decides to take the girls to Hollywood for the summer so they might have an opportunity to act in some western films his company is producing.

Despite the title, more than the first half of the book actually takes place in Clarion, with all of the events leading up to the girls taking their trip to Hollywood.  The girls face a pretty dangerous scenario when the bus taking the seniors to a skating rink for an evening gets caught in a horrific snow storm on the way home, trapping the students and their teacher in a blizzard with no heater and no help in sight!  Janet and Helen (along with the boys they like, Jim and Ed) manage to keep everyone safe and warm, and the bus driver eventually returns with help to get everyone back home for hot drinks and a roaring fire.  They also face some difficulties from the girls against whom they compete for the lead roles in the play, as the rumor is spread that Helen only got her part because of her father's fame in Hollywood, while another rumor begins that Janet caused the accident that injured the other girl so she could get her part!  No real mysteries involved in these events, but they do make for some enjoyable reading.

It's only after Janet and Helen arrive in Hollywood with Helen's father does the mystery begin. Janet and Helen audition and win small parts in a western film being made by Mr. Thorne's production company. From the get-go, it is pretty clear that the leading lady in the film is not overly fond of the girls, feeling they got the parts solely because of their connection to Mr. Thorne.  Sure enough, Janet has a mishap with a saddle she is using while riding a horse during the filming of a scene, and while recovering from the fall, she learns that someone purposefully cut through the saddle girth, so that it would slide loose during the ride!  Janet does not like to think someone would purposefully injure her, so she lets it go.  But when they are selected to be in another film, albeit small parts once again, they see firsthand how deep the sabotage goes - because it is not Janet the saboteur is after; rather, someone wants to ruin Mr. Thorne's production company!  A kidnapping, some aerial battles, some burning sets, and a deadly explosion threaten to close down the film - and Mr. Thorne's company! - if someone doesn't figure out who the saboteur is and fast!  (And I'll give you two guesses who cracks the case...)

Sadly, this book does not have any internal illustrations (I don't know why, exactly, but I really do love seeing internals - I guess having had them in the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Bobbsey Twins books I read while growing up has spoiled me!); however, it does have some beautiful art on the dust jacket, featuring the scene where Janet and Helen first arrive in Hollywood, where they are greeted with a horde of photographers as they step off the plane.  Interestingly enough, you even see "NBC" on one of the large microphones, which I'm surprised they were able to get away with using a national broadcasting company like that.  The book does not identify the artist, although next to Helen on the cover is the phrase, "Two Taylors" - I'm not sure if that is a signature of the artist or some other obscure reference.  I tried researching the question online, but came up empty-handed.  

One odd thing I did find while reading the story is that these people always seem to be up late, and they have no issue with eating meals at midnight or later.  What is odd about that is that they refer to these meals as "lunch."  I've always thought of lunch being the mid-day meal, usually around noon or so.  Looking online, I saw reference to a "midnight lunch" or "late night lunch" on a message board, referring to a term used in Canada to describe meals served in the middle of the night (for late night parties, wedding receptions, etc.).  Although, if I were awake at midnight, I probably would have no problem eating a "midnight lunch"!

Overall, this book was just as enjoyable to read as Helen in the Editor's Chair - not exactly heavy on the mystery side of things, but a well-written story that is nicely paced and easy to read and enjoy.

RATING:  8 heaping platters of celery, olives, and pickled onions out of 10 for a tale of two midwestern girls who make their dreams come true in Hollywood!

The Virginia Mysteries, Book 11 - Danger on the Stage

It's been a year since I read the previous book in the Virginia Mysteries series, so it was about time to pick up the most recent book.  For the most part, I have enjoyed this series, each book not only set in a particular part of Virginia (or its surrounding area) but also chock full of historical facts about the State and its rich history.  Author Steven K. Smith not only provides young readers with fun stories of mystery and adventure, but he teaches them about Virginia's colorful past along the way.  And this particular book was one I was looking forward to reading, as it centers around an historic theater - and since I spent some years acting in local community theaters, I could not wait to see how Smith would merge the mystery and theater into one story!

Danger on the Stage takes place in Abingdon, Virginia, where the historic Barter Theatre is located.  And yes, Abindon is a real city, and yes, Barter Theatre is a real place!  As Smith relates in the story, the theater got its name from the fact that when it opened back in the 1930s, patrons were told they could either pay the 35-cent admission in coin or by bringing "an equivalent amount of produce" - basically bartering for their ticket!  The concept became known as "ham for Hamlet," and today the theater still has at least one show a year in which patrons can bring canned or dry goods to help local charities in exchange for a ticket to the show.  The history of this theater can be found at their website, Barter Theatre.  Again, this is one great thing about this series - actual, historical sites are integrated into the stories, with a mystery centering around them.

The mystery this time involves the aunt of the boys' best friend, Caitlin.  Her Aunt Ginny, who is the current artistic director for the theater, has invited Caitlin and her family (and by extension, Sam and his older brother Derek) to come visit and see the production of Red Riding Hood - which, coincidentally enough, stars the famous actor, Jake Greensboro, as the big bad wolf.  Sam can't wait to meet his favorite actor - but when they get the chance to meet him backstage before the first performance, they learn he has been getting threats from someone ever since he arrived back in town (Jake used to act in the theater years ago, before he left for Hollywood after being "spotted" on stage during a performance).  Sam is concerned, but Jake shrugs it off, saying it is something he is used to as a star.  After all, the show must go on...

 

And here's where the mystery really heats up.  Sam spots a mysterious man in a white suit in the balcony across the way - a man who seems to be warning of something.  Sam catches on and cries out to the actors on stage, but it is too late - a swinging sandbag knocks over a wall, which falls directly on Jake Greensboro!  He is injured and taken to the hospital, leaving Aunt Ginny to deal with the show's backer - a real estate mogul who Sam, Derek, and Caitlin see in several places around town.  With Jake in the hospital, and the "accident" revealed to be sabotage, the show must be shut down, leaving Ginny concerned about the future of the theater (which is in financial straits).   The three little crime solvers decide to do what they do best and figure out what is really going on in town.

This is actually once of Smith's best mysteries to date (and I'm not saying that just because of the theater connection).  There's a bit of a ghost tale, there's an unscrupulous real estate developer, there's a blackmailer, there are plenty of secrets, there's a secret underground tunnel, there's a wronged individual out for revenge, and there are unresolved feelings between some star-crossed lovers.  There's mystery, there's supernatural (is there?), there's history, and there's romance, all rolled into one great story.  And, of course, there's Derek's mischievous and somewhat rebellious nature that leads the kids into trouble more often than not. I can honestly say there is not one dull moment in the entire story - each chapter leaves you wanting to keep reading to find out what's going to happen next!

As usual, the mystery does get all wrapped up nicely by the end, and the kids prove their worth by uncovering the truth and revealing the culprits behind everything - and at same time, save the theater, and pretty much the entire historic district, from being gobbled up by a real estate developer set on turning the entire area in a 21st century money-grab!  Smith's stories remind their readers just how important history and the landmarks that preserve it, are to our culture and our country.  Such a fun way to learn, much in the same way Harriet Stratemeyer always incorporated real world learning experiences into the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books back in the '60s and '70s.

 

I do not find any solicit for a 12th book in this series, so I have to wonder if this book is the concluding chapter of The Virginia Mysteries.  I hope not, as I'd like to see more adventures of Sam, Derek, and Caitlin as they continue to age and learn more about their home state of Virginia!

 

RATING:  9 lightning round games of chess out of 10 for proving that there is always way more drama going on back stage / behind the scenes at a theater than is actually on the stage!

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Six

It's always a pleasure to come back to the next volume of Leonard Starr's famous newspaper strip.  I'm still in awe of the fact that Classic Comics Press has been able to gather ALL of the strips from the publications lengthy run and collect them into 15 volumes for fans to re-read after all these years.  The fact that so many of the strips (and original art!) survived all of these years is a feat in and of itself.  And so, after five volumes and just as many years worth of strips, picking up volume six is like starting the next season of a television show - getting ready to sit back and once again follow the lives of Mary Perkins, her husband, her manager, and all of the other supporting cast members who fill this fictional world of life in the theater!

Mary Perkins, On Stage volume six features the newspaper strips from March 10, 1963 through October 11, 1964.  As this volume opens with Mary and her husband, Pete, arriving home to New York, where they are met by Mary's manager, Nat Blessing, and his nephew, Webster Ivie.  Like the saying goes, there is no rest for the weary, and Nat already has Mary signed up for her next big project - a movie being filmed in France!  The subject of the movie is the "big European races," and the star is Joe Kulak, a famous actor that has even Mary weak in the knees.  But, as Nat so aptly informs his nephew, "The more magnificent the actor, the more magnificent the nut!"  And thus begins the latest adventure in the dramatic life of actress Mary Perkins.  She and Ivie fly to France, where they discover trouble is already brewing. Kulak is a self-indulgent, self-absorbed ladies man who has the irrational fear that the automobile made specifically for him for the film hates him!  What's worse, the mysterious Madame Bauer has also arrived in France, and she seems to enjoy taunting the actor.  Mary, on the other hand, becomes quite enamored with the sports car - which ultimately leads to disaster when Madame Bauer sabotages the car, thinking Kulak will be driving it!  This, of course, leads directly into the second story...

 

Before we look at the second story, though, I must make mention of the sports car, which becomes a very important character in the supporting cast of this story.  I know what you are thinking - a car is an inanimate object, so how could it be a character?  It's not like the car is alive (like a Transformer) or sentient (like Herbie, the Love Bug) - yet, Leonard Starr manages to give the car its own character, and all in a very natural way.  Readers only get glimpses of the car in the first few strips of this story, but in the March 21, 1963 strip, astute readers will notice something unique - while we can only see a small portion of the left front side, it is the headlight, cracked from the accident that occurred while Kulak was driving, that gives the appearance of an angry eye looking back at the ego maniacal driver.  From that moment forward, Starr manages to show how the car "feels" in such nuanced ways ... such as the car's front grill appearing to smile as Mary drives the car in the March 29th strip ... or the car growling when Kulak tries to start her in the March 31st strip (yet starting right up when Mary turns the key in the same Sunday strip).  Using shadows, angles, and other neat little artistic tricks, Starr manages to bring the car to life without actually giving it any unnatural elements - all of which add a humorous element to a strip that is so often steeped in drama.

And speaking of drama, plenty of that unfolds as Mary's story continues following her car accident.  Mary's face is disfigured, and the mysterious Dr. Bauer (does that name look familiar?  it should!) is the surgeon called in to repair the damage.  Only, the doctor has a morose view of beauty and love, based on his own relationship at home, and he fails to restore Mary's beauty in order to determine if her true nature is only skin deep.  "...if one is ugly, people often fail to look for the decent, sometimes beautiful person underneath! ... in the same way a beautiful face can blind us to the ugliness behind it!!"  A very poignant statement about human nature - which proves only too true when Pete arrives and make the startling revelation about Madame Bauer's true identity - for she is none other than Anya Kapek!  (Those with good memories might remember that Anya once tried to convince Mary she was actually Pete's wife....)  Dr. Bauer realizes his mistake and performs another surgery to restore Mary's beauty - and then takes his wife on a final journey to return her to her homeland ...

Meanwhile, Pete becomes involved in an entirely new story when he is trying to follow the Bauers.  When he stops to ask for directions, he stumbles across a mystery involving a gruff old man who seems to be hiding something ... or someone! ... from the world.  Before he leaves, though, an old photograph is thrown from an upstairs window - a photograph that Pete recognizes as the one photograph that set him off on his career as a photographer!  Kristin Kara was a famous actress, but a recluse who never allowed herself to be photograph - but she allowed Pete that one photo.  For that photo to show up so unexpectedly must mean something, and Pete is determined to learn what.  Their questions are soon answered when Kristin Kara shows up with the old man, Torwald Yavel, in tow.  Kara is ready to come out of retirement - but the twist is that it is really her daughter who is going to take to the stage, not Kara herself!  The mystery deepens, as there is something off about Kara's daughter, and Pete is determined to learn the truth.  Mary pretty much takes the backstage (no pun intended!) in this story, as Pete plays detective in order to help Kara and her daughter from what he believes to be the iron grip of Yavel. But, as Starr has proven time and again with his writing, everything is not always what is seems.

From here, Mary once again steps into the limelight, as she is offered the chance the chance of a lifetime to star as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet for live television.  Chapman Dane is involved, and everyone is excited at the prospect - especially Earl Falter, who is set to play Hamlet.  The oddball out is Adam Budd, who is cast as Laertes - until Dane, on his death bed, calls for Adam Budd, intending to give him the secret to becoming the greatest actor that ever lived!  Overnight, Budd becomes a sensation, and the whole world demands to know the secret that Dane passed on - but Budd won't say.  This only drives the public crazier, resulting in Budd taking Falter's place as Hamlet, which enrages Falter.  As it always seems to be, there is more drama going on backstage than on the actual stage!

The resolution of that tale leads right into the return of the infamous Johnny Q, who arrives in town at the same time a gangster by the name of Mr. Grinch is discovering he must do something quick to solve some tax problems he is having - and his lawyer suggests he invest in a God-awful play in order to lose money!  With Nat Blessing out of town, his nephew Ivie is in charge, and he suddenly finds himself in charge of a new play being completely financed by ... yup, you guessed it!  Obviously, things are not going to go well here.  Mary, of course, is cast, and even she can't make sense of this new play, "Below the Beneath."  But this is only a part of the story - for the theater where the play is rehearsing holds some sinister secrets, and when Mary stumbles across them, she finds herself the prisoner of a madman hiding beneath the theater itself!  It's up to Johnny Q to not only stop Mr. Grinch, but he must save Mary from the clutches of a theatrical maniac.

The final two stories in this volume are not quite as life-threatening, although they are life-changing for some of the characters.  The first gives us some insight into Mary's past, as she returns home to Holmesfield at the request of her childhood friend, Christy Chalmers.  It turns out Christy has become somewhat bitter as she has aged, having gained some weight and discovering she is no longer the "right type" to play the starlet in her local hometown plays.  Mary brings her some much needed encouragement, and before you know it, Christy starts exercising, dieting, and turning herself back into the beauty she once was - and Mary is able to get her friend a chance to act in New York!  Christy jumps at the chance, ready to leave her husband behind and begin a new life (one that includes the director!).  With a bit of prodding, however, Christy realizes that her husband has followed her all the way to New York just to be with her, and the two are reunited; while, unbeknownst to Mary, her agent is setting up her next acting gig with Maynard King, a producer with a rotten reputation.  In fact, he has a brutish bodyguard who sometimes uses force to rid King of any unpleasant visitors - including a man whose sister tried to kill herself after King promised to make her a star, then tossed her to the side for another actress.  Mary takes on the job despite King, and she soon becomes friends with a young woman named Holly.  But everything becomes tangled when Mary witnesses Kagle (the bodyguard) beat up someone, and as she prepares to give her statement to the police, Holly shows up and reveals she is Kagle's daughter!  This becomes another story that is less focused on Mary and more on Holly and her budding romance with King (who gives her a false name in order to stay safe from Kagle).  Holly and King ultimately run away to get married, but upon their return, and through a horrible mistake, Kagle knocks out his own daughter, thinking he is attacking her new husband!  King reveals his true feelings for Holly, and father and daughter are reunited, welcoming King into the family as Mary and Pete watch on...

The final panel of the October 11, 1964 strip teases readers with what is to come with the next story, as Morgana D'Alexius is seen waiting at the airport for the arrival of one Major Volkov - who will obviously be playing an important part in the next chapter of Mary Perkins' life!

As always, Starr's art in this volume is absolutely gorgeous.  His panels vary in detail, shading, and angle, setting the mood for each scene and drawing the reader's eyes to what is truly important in each panel.  His attention to even the most minute details, such as a basket of bread on the dinner table, or the curtains hanging in over a background window, is astounding, and his ability to keep each scene consistent with those that came before is awe-inspiring.  One thing I did notice in this volume is Starr's use of a bit of caricature with some of the villains - such as Yavel's almost Lurch-like appearance in the story about Kristin Kara, and Mr. Grinch's cartoon-gangster appearance (resembling some of the gangsters you might see from a Bugs Bunny cartoon, with the short stature, high forehead, and oversized lips).  I also noticed that with the storytelling, several of the stories moved Mary and Pete to the background, as other characters took center stage, with some strips not even featuring Mary or Pete at all!  While I realize that having only three panels in each daily strip leaves little room for advancing the story, it's odd to see three or more daily strips that do not feature the title character (such as the strips from December 16, 1963 through December 18, 1963, where Mary only appears very briefly in only two of the nine panels!).  But the stories are still quite engaging, and Starr manages to keep them fresh and unique (from car racing to jealous actors to gangster hi-jinks to monsters under the stage to a broken marriage).  Mary Perkins, On Stage is truly a fast-moving soap opera that definitely has me hooked for the long-run!

RATING:  10 booming blasts from a construction site out of 10 for taking the story of Mary Perkins to new heights, even going so far as to mar the beauty of the lead character for the sake of the story!

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Five

It's time to return to the wonderful world of Mary Perkins, that young actress who is slowly making a name for herself in the New York theater world.  As we enter volume five of this collection, Mary Perkins is married to journalist Pete Fletcher, and her acting career has really taken off.  She and Pete have certainly had their fair share of adventures, dangers, and exciting dramas (definitely more off-stage than on!), but they have always managed to not only survive, but come out stronger on the other side.  And along the way, they usually manage to help the unfortunate, revive failed careers, and restore lost loved ones.  It is in this volume that Mary also gets her due, as the title to the newspaper strip changes from simply On Stage to Mary Perkins On Stage (after all, she is the star, so why shouldn't she be the headliner?).

Mary Perkins On Stage Volume Five reprints the newspaper strips that ran from September 18, 1961 to March 9, 1963.  Leonard Starr, writer and artist of the strip, continues to provide the most magnificent tales, both in story and art.  The stories are somewhat standard soap opera fare, but Starr manages to give them creative twist that keeps them fresh and engaging.  And his art - really, all I can say is WOW!  The strip provides some panels of the most intricate detail, whether it be background city scenes or interior theater shots or even the magnificent mansions of the wealthy backers; at the same time, the characters all remain unique, each having his or her own distinctive, individual appearance so that no two look alike, and it's easy to know who is who simply by looking at them on the page.  Starr is a master of expressions - from jealousy to fear to surprise to anger to joy to love - name an emotion, and Starr manages to express it with what appears to be ease on the face of his characters.

 

 

One thing I did notice in this volume, which I hadn't picked up on in prior volumes, is that the final panel of every Sunday strip was re-used nearly every week as the first (or in a few odd instances, the second) panel of the Monday strip each week.  And I don't mean it appears the panel was re-drawn to mirror the Sunday panel; no, it is clear that it is the exact same panel (down to the shadowing, creases, lines, etc.) with the only differences sometimes being that a background is shaded differently or a portion of the edges is cropped out.  The dialogue is not identical, but the panel itself - exactly the same!  I went back and looked at volume four, and it appears this was just beginning to come into play towards the end of that volume, so this may have been a technique that Starr began to use in 1961 - whether to save some time by giving him one less panel to draw each week, or perhaps to provide a visual link between the Sunday strip and the Monday strip, or better yet, maybe for the people who did not get the Sunday paper, this gave a bit of a "catch up" for those readers, so they did not feel like they missed anything important in the story.  Whatever the reason, it is very noticeable in this volume, and I have to wonder if it continued for the remainder of the strip.

As far as the stories in this volume, the opening tale is rather a fun one.  Mike O'Hare gets a new backer, but there is a catch - Walter T. Boniface is a man who enjoys a rather odd game called "Rhymie-Stymie."  "It's a lovely game! I supply a definition and you must answer in two rhyming words that fit it."  A demented flower is a Crazy Daisy.  A pleased father is a Glad Dad.  And so on.  Mary finds it amusing, but Mike simply wants a backer for the next play.  Mike plays along, though, in order to get the money, but the tensions grow as he gets weary of the continued word games, until Mike discovers Boniface's secret and turns the tables on him (with Mary's help, of course).  Interestingly, this story is more about Mike O'Hare than Mary.  As the story concludes, however, readers get re-introduced to Maximuus, who makes an appearance at the theater and gets the ball rolling on the next story...

Ivor Brand, "the Master of Horror," is in town at the same time as Maximus - and he's burning over the fact that Maximus was cast in a new horror film due to his unique ability to create pretty much any face he wants (but, of course, only Mary knows his real secret).  Brand discovers Maximus' secret make-up case and steals it, hoping it will give him the ability to get the part he wants.  With Mary's aid, Maximus tracks down the missing make-up case and Brand, learning that the other actor has some secrets of his own he doesn't want revealed!  But this adventure could lead to trouble in paradise as Pete arrives home for the holidays to discover Mary has taken off with Maximus! (But all gets straightened out, and just in time for the third story...)

Director Crispin Fray is in town, ready to direct a play written by John Parrish - and they are determined to have Mary Perkins as the star of their production!  At the same time, Pete gets a new assignment - Morgana D'Alexius - an enigmatic woman who has never allowed herself to be photographed has agreed to do a photo-essay, but only with Pete Fletcher!  This one builds quickly, as it becomes clear that Crispin has his sights set on Mary and Morgana has her sights set on Pete - and it doesn't matter that Pete and Mary are happily married to each other!  There are plenty of lies, tricks, misunderstandings, and hurt feelings as Crispin and Morgana use every trick under the sun to lure Pete and Mary away from each other - but, of course, their plans backfire, and when Morgana keeps Pete from Mary's award ceremony and Crispin lures Mary up to his apartment under the belief there is a party to be held there, it's John Parrish who steps in the save the day and reunite the couple by foiling the untoward plans of the director and recluse!  What I like about this story is that all during the course of the tale, Parrish disappears without any explanation - and it turns out this is all a set-up for the fourth big story (which, in my opinion, is probably the most interesting of them all in this volume!).

As Crispin's play sets to open in Chicago, he and Mary have a difficult time keeping Parrish focused, because it seems the critic, Gerald Philip Jason, is also in town, and he seems to know all about Parrish's play - even before he has seen it!  Parrish is in a tizzy, and Crispin is worried that these disappearances are going to hurt the play, because every time he re-appears, he has made changes to the script, all based on critiques by Jason!  There's a reason why Jason may be coming down so harsh on the play, and that is because there is a personal connection between Jason and Crispin - a woman, who just happens to make her appearance at the theater and demand that Crispin give her a part in the play!  There's a mystery that builds here, and Starr does it perfectly - who is Cassandra?  What is her connection with the theater critic and the director?  How does she have such sway over Crispin?  Where is Parrish disappearing to when he goes missing?  Is he just blacking out, or is there something else at work?  The clues are there, and astute readers might actually figure it out before the big reveal in the final panel of the June 17, 1962 strip - but it is a good one, and it only escalates the drama that ensures thereafter.

The fifth tale brings Mike O'Hare to Chicago, where he introduces Mary to an agent, Nat Blessing.  Nat is currently representing a rising new star, Tony Abbot, who is shy and reluctant to step into the spotlight.  Tony and Mary are set to star in a new film, and Mary is determined to bring Tony out of his shell, after meeting comedian Charlie Manna, it appears he might be opening up.  The film company heads down to the Caribbean to begin filming, and Pete joins Mary there.  Mrs. Ainsley, a big stockholder in the film company, is also on site, and she is frustrated that Tony will not respond to any of her messages.  The revelation that she is his mother does not come as much of a surprise, and the story centers around their relationship - her self-absorbed nature and his desire to simply have some of her attention.  When Tony discovers his mother has a serious health condition, it serves as the catalyst to unite the two, who begin a new road in their familial relationship. 

The sixth and final story is rather an odd one, involving a jet case hero from the war named "Nine-Lives" MacNab.  It seems he has a connection to both Pete and Mary - he saved Pete's life in the war, and Mary was his last date in school before he entered the armed services years ago.  He makes a sudden appearance in New York, but it's not just to reunite with his old friends - he intends to take what he feels is due him for saving Pete's life all those years ago, and that prize is Mary herself!  He takes her away for an unexpected plane ride, which finds them being forced to land in a blizzard, where they have to be rescued from the freezing temperatures.  While he seems to have realized his wrong-doings after recuperating in the hospital, he makes one last-ditch effort to win Mary before taking off into the wild blue yonder, leaving a jealous Pete behind with Mary reminding him that he is the only man for her...

There is a one-panel hint of what is to come, with a dark haired stranger talking with a mechanic about a car (conveniently hidden under draping) that he is planning to take, which car will "take delicate handling," even with the bugs ironed out.  Guess we will have to wait to volume six to find out what lies ahead for Mary and her growing cast of supporting characters.

 

Overall, these stories were pretty good.  Because of the nature of this being a newspaper strip, the stories have to move at a pretty quick pace and they keep your attention fairly easily.  I do prefer it when Starr provides more than just a one panel set up for the next story - such as the Parrish storyline, where Parrish repeatedly disappears during the third tale, which does not see fruition until the fourth story.  Those kind of subplots in one story leading up to the next make for excellent reading and give readers some great payoff.  But, I suppose Starr had to keep things fresh and moving, so he couldn't be expected to do that kind of build-up with every tale.  Regardless, these strips are definitely worth the read.

 

RATING:  10 pairs of extra glasses out of 10 for engaging stories and absolutely gorgeous art!

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Four

Welcome back to the continuing saga of a young actress trying to make her way in the world of theater, television, and film, all the while adjusting to her new life as the wife of a news photographer.  Yes, that is where we find the beautiful and talented Mary Perkins as we reach Volume Four of the collected editions of the newspaper strip, On Stage.  I have been absolutely loving this series of strips, as they contain everything necessary to make for engaging stories - strong characters, dramatic stories, fast-moving plots, suspense, mystery, surprises, excitement, and above all else, the true-to-life adventures of theater life.  Despite her naivety and innocence, Mary Perkins comes across as a very real, very relatable person with whom the reader can quickly and easily identify with and root for in every situation.  She always sees the best in everyone, she's quick to help when needed, but she's not afraid to call out those who are underhanded or engaged in villainous activities.  In many ways, Mary Perkins is a theater-version of Nancy Drew!

Volume Four of Mary Perkins, On Stage covers the strips that ran from June 13, 1960 to September 17, 1961, so just a little over a year's worth of strips.  That's more than 365 daily/Sunday strips, which certainly provides for a lot of story.  And when you think about the fact that this strip ran for over 20 years, 365 days out of every year (not counting the 366 days every leap year!), that's quite a bit of work for Leonard Starr, the strip's creator, writer, and artist, to churn out on a daily basis.  Yet, not only does he manage to do it, but he does it with such style and keeps the stories fresh and exciting!  I'll definitely admit that I'm glad to be reading the strip in these collected editions, as I don't know if I would have been able to wait day after day for the story to build (like I do when I watch General Hospital on a daily basis...).  At least with General Hospital, we get about 36 minutes of story each day - with On Stage, it was only three panels a day (except for Sundays, which were expanded to nine or so panels).  So, imagine trying to follow three panels a day, waiting impatiently each day to see what would happen next to Mary and her supporting cast!

 

This volume picks up right where Volume Three left off.  Mary Perkins is now married to photographer, Pete Fletcher, and it seems the "View" magazine is trying to reach Pete for a new assignment.  Meanwhile, as Starr so often does, a subplot is developing with an elderly woman - one Daisy Collins - who is trying to get a job at the very theater where Mary is currently working.  Starr builds the story, not just around Daisy, who manages to insinuate herself into Mary's life, but also around Mike O'Hare's latest play, which is not doing so great, as well as Harley Langton, Jr., a wealthy man who has his sights set on Mary!  As it turns out, Daisy is not everything she appears to be, and she manages to help both Daisy and Pete, and in so doing, ensures herself a place in their home!  By the time this first story is coming to an end, Starr is already setting up the next tale, in which Mary finds herself guest-starring on the Julep Tandy Show!

Starr provides a look behind the scenes of Hollywood and young actresses whose parents can be a bit tyrannical. Mary is excited to be a guest on the Julep Tandy Show, but what she doesn't know is that Julep's mother does not want her there - she wants all focus on her daughter, and with Mary in the picture, she may overshadow Julep.  Mary ends up in the middle of things, and before you know it, Julep ends up at Mary and Pete's apartment, asking to stay in order to get away from her overbearing mother!  Mary and Pete are forced to play mediators between Julep and her mother, but even they are completely unaware of just how far Julep will go to get out from underneath her mother's control!

Starr's creativity knows now bounds, as he slides ever-so-smoothly from one story to the next, using the end of each story as a jumping-board to go into the next tale.  Julep sets up Mary to have her own television series created by none other than the programming genius, J.J. Jonah - which evolves into a tale of mystery surrounding the mysterious Mr. Jonah.  Who is he, why does he keep everyone in the dark around him (literally!), and just why is it that Mary has never seen Mr. Jonah and his rather stern secretary in the same room at the same time?  Just when Mary thinks she has it all figured out, Starr throws in a rather unexpected twist that makes the story all the better!  This eventually leads into the start of Mary's new show, which finds her heading down to the Florida Keys, where she will be filming an episode with the famous actor, Gregg Talbot!  Pete joins Mary for an early vacation in the Keys before he heads off on his next assignment and she begins filming; but, it seems Talbot has other ideas.  And who should also appear in the Keys, but the infamous Johnny Q, who makes his return to the panels of Mary's strip.  A deadly hurricane, an abandoned baby, and Talbot's true nature all make for a gripping story.

Starr doesn't give the readers a break though, as he heads right into the next tale involving a writer who handpicks Mary Perkins to star in a television show for which he is writing a script - a script he is keeping secret, as he depends solely on astrology and other signs to warn him of what's to come!  His beliefs ultimately put him at conflict with Mary and lead to some rather strange dreams (which, incidentally, provides Starr with the opportunity to draw some very off-beat and out-of-the-ordinary panels for the strip!).  But the resolution of that drama does not mean any rest for Mary, as she and Pete are quickly thrust into relationship drama when Johnny Q shows up on their doorstep with a new love interest.  Johnny has fallen for a siren - but the siren's voice leaves a lot to be desired!  Admittedly, this storyline is probably the most lackluster of all of Mary's adventures thus far, it does provide readers some great insight into the character of Johnny Q, and allows Starr to explore the world of the music industry a little bit.

The final story in this volume is actually my favorite of them all.  Starr gives readers a sad tale of a fading western movies star, Cody Kincaid.  Mary and Pete happen to meet the movie star in an unexpected brawl as they are leaving a restaurant.  Pete talks Cody into making a real western film, and, of course, Mary ultimately becomes his guest star.  But Cody's agent, T.C. Hart, has some secrets of his own that will ultimately cause drama on the set and for both Cody and Mary when they are filming on location.  Cody has never been concerned about the money he has made off of his successful films, but when his plans to establish a ranch for children to come out and experience the wild west as it once was are dashed because of his agent's mishandling of his money, Cody only sees one way out - one that sees the western star ride off into the sunset one last time.  It's truly a heart-breaking story, with less focus on the drama (although there is drama involving a wild horse, a bobcat, a party held in a posh mansion, and the tension between Cody and his agent) and more focus on the human side of the characters, particularly Cody Kincaid.

One thing I noticed in this volume is that Mary often took a side-seat in her own stories, as other characters - Johnny Q, Pete, Cody Kincaid, and others - took the spotlight.  There were instances where Mary did not appear in her own strip for two or even three strips in a row, as the story focused on the actions of other characters.  This, of course, provides the strip with more of a "soap opera" feel, since soaps never focus just on one character, but look into the lives of numerous characters, switching from one story to the next and then back to the first.  That's certainly not a complaint, as for me, it provides more of a sense of realism to the strip, as the stories could not be fleshed out if Starr only stayed focus on Mary, and she was in every single panel of the strip.  I also noticed in this volume that there were more panels that lacked any background whatsoever - they just featured the characters in that scene and the word balloons for whatever they were saying.  Most panels continue to feature Starr's very detailed backgrounds, and perhaps he was beginning to realize he could save a bit of time by leaving out the backgrounds once in a while and just allow the characters to be the focal point of particular panels.  For me, this was a bit of a disappointment, as I'll admit - it is the details of Starr's art (such as the designs in wallpaper, shower curtains, the city backgrounds at night or in the rain, the stairs and bricks of buildings in the background) that truly makes this strip stand out from other daily comic strips.

The final strip, which wraps up the Cody Kincaid story, introduces a new character (unnamed as of yet) and a situation involving Mike O'Hare and his latest flop, giving readers a hint at what is to come for Mary Perkins next!

 

One final note on this volume - with this fourth volume, Class Comics Press increased the page count, which allowed for the reprinting of the full interview that comic creator Richard Howell had with Leonard and Betty Starr, which was originally printed in Comics Feature magazine number 9 (February 1981).   It is a rather lengthy interview that takes up a lot of pages - I'm hoping future volumes feature more strip reprints per volume - while I do enjoy the interviews and other background information each volume presents at the beginning, I much prefer getting right into the stories of Mary Perkins and her life On Stage.

RATING:  9 books on astrology and chiromancy out of 10 for keeping the suspense, drama, and adventure going, with stories that vary in subject matter and intensity and characters that the reader can identify, or the very least sympathize, with.

Mary Perkins, On Stage - Volume Three

After more than a year since reading volume two, I figured it was time to delve back into the world of everyone's favorite actress of yesteryear - Mary Perkins, On Stage!  As I was reading this third volume, it hit me - I am so glad that I'm reading these for the first time in these collected editions, because I don't know if I would have had the patience to wait day after day for each three to four panel episode (not counting the larger Sunday episodes) to reach a conclusion of one story and move on to the next.  I realize I do that very thing with General Hospital (as I also did with Passions, Santa Barbara, and All My Children back in the day...); but at least with the television shows, you get a full hour (well, 40 minutes or so) of story - with only three panels a day, you can't move the story at too fast of a pace without making it not worth the effort.  However, in this collected format, I have the opportunity to get the entire story in one reading without having to wait for just a small snippet of the story each day!

Volume Three of Mary Perkins, On Stage features strips from April 20, 1959 to June 12, 1960 (just a little over a year's worth of stories). This volume features an introduction by Joe Jusko, who is a rather famous artist in his own right, his art having graced covers of Conan and Vampirella, among others.  I enjoy these introductions, because it's great to see how Leonard Starr's daily comic strip inspired other creators.  Like Jusko, I much prefer comic art that is more realistic, rather than a lot of the stylized art that we see in today's comics and cartoons where people barely even look like people.  Jusko correctly points out that Starr's art in On Stage showcased "facial expressions and body language [that] was flawless, projecting every emotion accurately and precisely, and the hair styles and clothing were always current and age-appropriate." (Introduction, p. 4)  And like Jusko, I assumed Starr must have been extremely familiar with the theater world based on the detail and descriptions in his stories, but was very surprised to discover that Starr was not at all comfortable with the material he was writing!  That definitely speaks volumes about this man's writing and artistic talents!

 

As to the storylines in volume three, we pick up right where volume two left off - the ghost on the set of "The Dryden Ghost" has been exposed, and now Mary, along the cast and crew, are headed to France where the film has been entered into the Riviera Film Festival.  Only, so has a film starring Oola LaBelle, who is so beautiful and sultry that her lack of acting skills are always overlooked.  Oola, however, is afraid Mary may steal her spotlight, so her agent does everything in his power to keep Mary out of the way - including leading Mary to believe he can reunite her with her true love, Pete Fletcher, who has been a political prisoner in a foreign country for too long now.  Of course, things always have a way of working out for Mary, so not only does her film win in the festival, but she also learns that Pete will be released in just six months!

Starr always manages to end one story with a lead-in to the next big adventure, and as fate would have it, Mary has been offered a part in a play by the famous playwright, George Geeper.  The only thing is, Cara Wayde has also been offered a part - to play Mary's sister in the new production!  And Cara Wayde is an unscrupulous egomaniac who will do just about anything to ensure the play is all about her.  An accident gives Cara the ammunition she needs to put Mary under her thumb and endear herself to the playwright, and before you know it, rewrites are happening on a regular basis that increase Cara's stage time and reduces Mary's lines to nearly none at all!

By the end of that production, Mary has lost her voice, so she is sent off to a private cabin in the countryside to recuperate - which, coincidentally enough, her next story begins!  This is a fun little caper that has nothing to do with acting and everything to do with horrible dog trainer who has been abusing the animals - and one in particular is a famous dog that Mary easily recognizes and does everything she can to protect him from his vicious owner.  And as Mary successfully sees Coppy placed in a loving home, Pete Fletcher receives his passport and is released, ready to be returned to the States.

The next story finally sees Pete and Mary reunited in Switzerland, where they finally get married (in a beautifully rendered Sunday edition), despite some concerns the doctors have regarding Pete's memory lapse and his unusual fear of nurses.  Of course, as with any soap opera, happiness is never to last long, and soon enough it is revealed that Pete is already married - to a woman who was his nurse while he was held captive!  Until the truth is fully uncovered, Mary is forced to live separate from Mary - which is when she happens to be swept off her feet (literally!) by good ol' Johnny Q!  He, of course, helps her discover the truth about Anya Kapek, and it all culminates in an explosive battle.

Mary and Pete return to the States, where Mary finds herself a guest on Bud Birdie show - but the host is anything but confident, and he seems to be always nervous, fearful that he will not be loved and well received.  Even his co-star, Tex McPrairie, and his announcer, Carl, can't seem to ever soothe Bud's nerves when it comes to making sure his show is a success.  Circumstances lead to Mary becoming a permanent guest star on the show, but backstage, something else is going on - someone is leaking stories to the press that are not true, and it seems to Mary that someone is trying to ruin Bud Birdie!

The final tale finds Mary starting a new play, where she will be a substitute teacher in a school filled with tough students.  What she doesn't expect is to find a couple of real tough kids who sneak into the auditions to avoid being caught by the police.  Mary's heart feels for the two boys, so she convinces the director to bring them into the cast in the hopes they can offer authenticity.  Chino and Tom readily agree, since it means a paycheck.  Chino seems to be a natural, quickly learning lines; but Tom has a bit more hesitancy and freezes when it comes his turn to speak or act.  But you can't always take the trouble out of the boys, as Mary and Pete soon learn, and the two boys ultimately have to make choices that will determine their futures - but will they choose right?

And as this volume comes to a close, it ends with a Sunday spread that hints of things to come - Mary receives a call from Pete's editor at "View" magazine with an urgent message for her husband; and at the same time, an elderly woman has shown up on the set, responding to the advertisement for a wardrobe mistress.  How will these events play out?  Guess we'll have to wait for volume four!

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating - Starr's art is absolutely magnificent.  His backgrounds are so detailed, so exact, that the reader feels like he or she is actually right there with Mary and her friends - whether it's the streets of New York City, or the newly furnished apartment for the Fletchers, or the countryside outside the cabin where Mary convalesces, or the backstage of her latest play - Starr provides the most minute details to make each panel as real as possible, and this, I believe, is in large part what led to the success of this strip for so many years!

RATING:  10 leftover steaks out of 10 for providing a thoroughly enjoyable ongoing drama that is engaging, beautifully drawn, and exciting as it is fun!