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!