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!