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! 

Whitman Mystery Stories - Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter

This is one of the Whitman Authorized Editions that I have been wanting for quite a while.  While I never had the opportunity to read the original comic strip in the newspaper, I do have an edition of the collected dailies and Sunday strips from 1940 - 46 (Brenda Starr Newspaper Strips), as well as the one-issue Dell Comic published back in 1963 (Brenda Starr Comic Book), plus the collected editions of her original comic book series from Four Star Publications and Superior Publishing back in 1947 - 49.  The ones I still don't have are the Charlton Comics series published in 1955.  I have enjoyed reading her adventures, which are outlandish to say the least - this amazingly gorgeous, redheaded reporter that every man loves on sight manages to get in the most unbelievable situations - yet, with her looks and ingenuity, she manages to get herself and those around her out of every scrape and, along the way, scoops the story for her newspaper, the Flash.  So, I was overjoyed when a close friend of mine sent me this book (along with a Sunday color newspaper page featuring Brenda Starr paper doll with outfits!), and I could not wait to sit down and read it.

 

Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter gives credit to the main character's creator, Dale Messick, as the author of the story, as well as the artist for all of the internal illustrations and full color cover.  I think this is only the second Whitman based on a comic strip that I have read, which is actually written and drawn by the creator of the strip (although, there is some question as to whether Messick actually penned the novel or just the plot - more on that later) - the first was a book based on the Boots and Her Buddies comic strip (Boots - Whitman Mystery), the authorship for which was credited to the strip's creator. What I found interesting is that the title page says "An original story based on the Famous Newspaper Strip 'BRENDA STARR'." Thus, I was expecting a brand new story featuring Brenda and her supporting cast. Little did I realize that was not going to be the case.

 

The story begins innocently enough, with Brenda being sent off to the slopes of Colorado (which is funny, since the most recent Zebra Mystery Puzzler that I read was also set on the slopes of Colorado - Murder by the Book) on a mysterious assignment.  She does not know exactly what the story is or what the work will entail - all her editor told her was to go to the newspaper there and ask for Larry Nickels.  When she arrives, she finds the "newspaper" feels more like a posh hotel, and the "employees" seem to do nothing but lounge around and ski all day!  When she asks for Mr. Nickels, she finds he is out on the slopes, and his secretary - Flurry Snow (p. 19 - and, yes, that really is her name!) - informs Brenda that she is to meet him out on the slopes.  Brenda is somewhat nervous, as she is a horrible skier and that fact is proven when she goes out to meet him, but ends up falling backwards down the slope (p. 24).  He rescues her, much to her dismay, and she learns that the "Cloud" (the name of his newspaper) is nothing more than a hobby, and he asked her out there to breathe some real life into his newspaper.  That story turns up pretty quickly, when Nickels points out to her a nearby lodge, described as "a vast, sprawling building with many towers and gables.  Despite its many windows and entrances, it possessed a look of strangeness and complete isolation" (p. 45).  Nickels tells her the lodge is a mystery, because people go in, but not a single soul has ever come out!  Brenda senses a big story, which is only confirmed when Nickels tells her about the man who operates the lodge: "a queer old duck who calls himself 'Professor Squell'" (p. 46).

 

Now, it is at this point, I started to sense something strange as well.  Not about Professor Squell or his lodge, but about the plot itself.  It felt extremely familiar.  So, I pulled out that collection of newspaper strips I had read before, and sure enough, there it was!  The same exact story I was now reading in prose form I had read three-and-a-half years ago when I read those newspaper strips!  Before Brenda Starr had even been published in the newspapers for a year, she was on a plane, dreaming about the blond-haired mystery man who had kissed her on New Year's Eve - exactly as she did on the opening pages of the first chapter of this book.  In fact, the dialogue was lifted straight out of the newspaper strip and used word-for-word in the book.  Now, obviously, a lot of exposition and additional dialogue was added into the book in order to flesh out the story, the characters, and the page count (otherwise, it would have ended up being a very short book, indeed!).  But if you read the book, side-by-side with the newspaper strip panels, you will see that it is literally a full adaptation of the story written and published back in 1941 and not an original tale at all.  Therefore, I'm at a loss to explain why the publisher refers to this as an "original" story based on the comic strip, when it is in actuality an "adaptation" of a story from the comic strip.

 

The story follows Brenda as she watches first Flurry, and then Nickels, go into the strange lodge and never come out.  A reward offered sends quite a few of the men from the village into the house, none of whom ever come out, and before you know it, Brenda is in hot water, being blamed for sending the men to their doom.  So, what else can she do, but go into the lodge?  Meanwhile, reporter Tom Taylor and photographer Pesky head out to rescue Brenda - and thanks to an anonymous warning, Tom knows enough to wear a gas mask before he goes into house, which saves him from the gas that takes control of all who enter - but does NOT save him from the mysterious man who knocks him out from behind.  From here, the story gets even more wild, including a basement laboratory, underground caverns, a room of pirate booty, and an impromptu wedding between Brenda and the "queer" professor who is holding everyone captive under ground.  And while the collection of newspaper strips ends with Brenda, Tom, and Nickels getting out and rescuing everyone, the book goes beyond and jumps into the next storyline involving a missing detective, a mysterious doppelganger, and a secret surprise.  This story moves much quicker than the first and take up only the last few chapters of the book.  Since I did not get to read the newspaper strips for this tale, it was completely new to me.

 

Now, some have speculated that Messick did not actually write the book, but, rather, it was simply ghostwritten as an adaptation of the strips - and since Messick wrote the newspaper strips, she was given credit for writing the book.  Whether this is actually the case or not, I have no idea.  What I do know is that Messick provided brand new illustrations for the book - 19 of them to be exact.  While some of the scenes do seem to mirror those from the strip, there are differences, which provide proof they were not merely reproduced from the art of the strip.  Messick also provides the art for the endpages, which depict the professor's planned wedding to Brenda, with Tom and Nickels standing behind her and Pesky off to the side, down in the caverns. 

 

What is odd about these endpages is that, in my copy at least, the pages are reversed in the back.  In the front, Pesky and the professor are on the left side, with Tom, Brenda, and Nickels on the right (which appears to be the correct positioning, based on the smoke drifting overhead); however, in the back of the book, Tom, Brenda, and Nickels are on the left side, while Pesky and the professor are on the right - supposedly looking at each other, but because of the repositioning of the pages, they are looking away from each other!  I wonder if this production malfunction was only in this one printing, or if all copies of this book have this error.

 

Despite the story not being original, I still enjoyed it - Brenda is a fun character to read, and her antics are always guaranteed to bring a smile, if not a full laugh, to the reader's face.  The gorgeous Messick art is only an added bonus!  Rather a shame they did not adapt more of the stories into book form - would have made a great series.   

 

RATING:  8 hats that resemble flipped over pancakes out of 10 for a fun-filled romp in the snow, under the ground, in an Easter parade, and in the clubs of Washington, D.C. - all in a day's work for Brenda Starr, Girl Reporter! 

Whitman Mystery Stories - Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms

Before picking up this book, I had never heard of "Winnie Winkle" before, but apparently Miss Winkle was the star of her own newspaper comic strip for a little over 75 years!  The strip was quite an achievement, and more than just for its longevity.  Created by Joseph Medill Patterson, the strip was written and drawn by Martin Branner (who provided the illustrations for this Whitman edition), and it was one of the first strips to feature a working woman as its lead character.  In the strip, Winnie Winkle supported her parents and younger brother, and she eventually married and became pregnant (which, oddly enough, some newspapers felt was too risque for a comic strip, causing them to drop the daily trip from their papers!).  Branner wrote and drew the strip (with the aid of various assistants over the years) until 1962, when he suffered a stroke, and other creators took over the strip  until it was eventually discontinued in 1996.  Besides this book from Whitman, Winnie was also featured in a one-issue comic published by Dell, as well as ten feature films written by Branner and starring Ethelyn Gibson was the title character.  So, with this much fame out there, it is rather odd that I never heard of the character prior to finding this book...

 

Winnie Winkle and the Diamond Heirlooms is a fairly standard children's mystery of the period, but I have to say, it was rather engaging and well-written.  I'm not familiar with the author, Helen Berke, but I will definitely try and locate more of her books.  A quick search online reveals she wrote more than a couple of Whitman's "Big Little Books / Better Little Books," including Captain Midnight, Dick Tracey, Smilin' Jack, Terry and the Pirates, and Little Orphan Annie.  Winnie Winkle appears to be the only full-size novel that Ms. Berke wrote for Whitman, which is a shame, as this story was probably one of the better Whitman novels I've read to date!  Now, to be fair, part of that reason could be that I am unfamiliar with the character, having never read the comic strip, so I have no ability to compare the characters and characterization in this story with those in Branner's daily strip.  That being said, I went into this hoping for a good mystery, and I definitely got that!

 

The mystery begins when Winnie gets an urgent call from Mary Dee Adams, an old friend from high school, who begs Winnie to rush to Chicago to help her.  It seems Mary's Aunt Rhoda passed away, and the only thing left in her estate is an old house out in the country.  Aunt Rhoda had previously told her there was money and jewels that she was leaving her, but somehow they are gone!  So, Winnie, being the good friend that every girl sleuth is, gives up her long-awaited vacation plans and heads over to Chicago to help her friend. Winnie meets Tommy Blake, her artist boyfriend, and the three of them prepare to head out to Blainville - but not before they have dinner with Mr. Jenkins, a man claiming to be friends with Tommy (but Winnie suspects the friendship is one-sided!), and not before poor Winnie gets kidnapped by someone who mistakes her for Mary!  There is something definitely fishy going on, and Winnie decides she must get to the bottom of it.

 

Through unexpected circumstances, Winnie, Mary, and Tommy wind up as prisoners in the house Mary has inherited from her aunt, as an unscrupulous con man and his lackey (who turns out to be an even more dangerous criminal than his boss!) are determined to locate the fortune in jewels that Mary's aunt allegedly left her niece as a part of her estate.  The only problem is, no one knows where they are, and there appear to be no clues as to where to find them!  It becomes a race to see who will find them first - are they hidden in the grandfather clock that Aunt Rhoda had moved up to her room on the second floor?  Could they be stored in the one of the chandeliers hanging in various rooms?  Are they in one of the trunks in the attics, or in one of the storage chests out in the barn?  Every drawer is pulled out, every closet is combed from top to bottom, and every wall is checked for secret panels - but, alas!   No jewels are to be found.  Winnie and her friends eventually focus on getting word to someone outside of the house of their predicament, in the hopes someone will rescue them from the clutches of these villains.

 

The story does not necessarily build a lot of suspense, but there are definitely some tense moments (when one of the captors takes a shot at Tommy when he attempts to sneak out one night, or when the con man purposefully shows Winnie that he, too, has a gun and is not afraid to use it!).  The location of the jewels and the way in which Winnie is able to find them is actually pretty ingenuous, and I give the author credit for crafting a fun little mystery (and for giving Winnie more than half-a-brain when it comes to outwitting the villains!).  Now, there are a couple of "Nancy Drew" moments in the story - such as the secret compartment in the grandfather clock (Old Clock, anyone?), and the old diary that provides them with a few hints about the jewels (Clue in the Diary).  However, those similarities only enhance the story, as I saw them more as homages than I did any cheap rip-offs.

 

The artist on the Winnie Winkle comic strip, Martin Branner, provides all of the illustrations for this book, including the endpages, which features a scene taken directly from page 42 of the story, when Winnie, Mary, and Tommy are taken by a horse-drawn wagon from the train station to the home that once belonged to Aunt Rhoda.  Thankfully, the scene is from early in the story and does not spoil anything from the mystery, as a number of endpages from other Whitman mysteries have done!  

 

As always, there are a few tidbits from the story worth nothing.  The first is found when Winnie comes across a medicine cabinet full of a number of bottles of various kinds of pills, including sleeping pills.  She realizes they could be used to put their captors to sleep, giving them a means to escape; and when Tommy suggests giving them two pills each, Winnie quickly replies, "...we'd better give them just one.  We don't want to kill them, even if they deserve it" (p. 109).  I can't say I've ever read a children's mystery where the protagonist actually believes someone deserves to die!  However, that scene is quickly forgiven by the author's later references to books that Winnie finds in one of the trunks in the barn.  "She picked up a few at random and looked at the titles.  Horatio Alger ... Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth.  Rover Boys..." (pp. 139-40). Anyone even vaguely familiar with children's series book at the turn of the 20th century will recognize Alger and the Rover Boys!  As for Mrs. Southworth, she was a popular author of the late 19th century, writing about heroines who challenged the Victorian perceptions of that day (sort of how Winnie Winkle, as a working woman, challenged the idea of women's place in the working arena of the early 1900s).  It was surprising to see references to real authors and book series in a title such as this!

 

This was certainly one of the most enjoyable Whitman mysteries I have read, and most definitely one of the better written ones.  I will be searching for some of those Big / Better Little Books that Berke has written.

 

RATING:  9 specially-made chocolate cakes out of 10 for a well-written mystery that takes comic-strip characters and fleshes them out into very readable characters in a great story!

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!

Flyin' Jenny - the collected strips

This is a collected edition I picked up on a complete lark.  I was in the Half-Price Bookstore in either Kentucky or Georgia (can't recall which at this point), and I happened to see this hanging in a plastic bag near the front counter.  I was curious as to whether this was some kind of magazine, or prose story, or a comic book, so I had the young lady behind the counter take it out so I could examine it.  Imagine my surprise to discover it was a collected edition of a newspaper strip from the late 1930s and early 1940s about a young woman flyer.  The price was definitely right, so I picked it up and brought it home, and I have finally sat down to give it a read.

Flyin' Jenny was a little known newspaper strip that ran from 1939 through 1946 (so I don't think this book collects all the published strips, although I could be wrong).  According to the introduction, the original creator, writer, and artist for the strip, Russell Keaton, graduated from flying school himself and obtained a pilot's license the same year this strip was first published.  Flyin' Jenny came out just two years after Amelia Earhart made her fateful flight, and as indicated in this book's introduction, the character was inspired by a real plane, the JN-40 World War I training plane affectionately referred to as the flying jenny (based on its call letters).  The young aviatrix who is the star of the strip is a blonde pilot who is not only a superstar at flying, but she also knows the mechanics of the planes she flies.  

The strip was distributed by the Bell Syndicate, and it ran both daily and Sunday strips, although the daily strip had a different ongoing storyline than the Sunday pages.  Researching the strip and its creator online, I discovered that while Keaton drew the strip from its inception until he fell in the mid-1940s, he gave up the writing chores to Frank Wead, and later, Glen Chaffin.  By 1942, Gladys Parker began drawing the strip, and ultimately Keaton's assistant, Marc Swayze took over the art until the strip ended in 1946 (a year after Keaton passed away at the age of 35 from acute leukemia).  The strips collected in this edition are all signed by Keaton, so I'm assuming these are the initial strips from 1930 until possible early 1940.  I wish Arcadia Publications, who printed this collection, would have collected more, as I would love to see where the strip and its characters went from here!

The art is magnificent.  I'm not sure, but I'm guessing Arcadia enlarged the panels for this publication, as there are only six panels per page, and they are considerably larger than a normal size panel you would see on the funny pages in the newspaper.  The line art, though, is magnificent - and while the characters themselves are a bit on the cartoony-side at times, the backgrounds are fleshed out nicely, and the aerial shots are amazing and spacious, giving the reader a real sense of being in the open air.  Jenny Dare herself is drawn as a beautiful blonde bombshell, despite her pants and leather jacket, and her hair style is a typical grown-out bob, with lots of voluminous curling at the bottom (sort of the same look Russell Tandy gave the original Nancy Drew on those early covers in the 1930s).  While Jenny does not have any boyfriends to speak of in these early strips, it's clear that the men admire her for her beauty and her brains!

The stories are fairly simple in the beginning.  The strip opens in this collection with Jenny getting hired by the Swiftwing Aero Fuel Coporation, at the insistence of its sales manager, Hoot Sasser.  He knows having a "Swiftwing Aero Girl" for the company will boost sales, and he's determined to play her up as the "Glamour Girl of the Air"!  Her first assignment, however, sends her to get a contract for the fuel company with Blackdart Airlines - run by a woman named Wanda Blackdart, who happens to hate Jenny.  Thus,she has to somehow prove herself in order to get that contract and keep her job - and that opportunity opens itself up when a mail plane goes down, putting the delivery behind schedule, which would be a black mark on Blackdart's record.  So, Jenny goes, grabs the mail, and gets it back in record time to save the company's record, much to the gratitude of Wanda's father, who owns the airline, and who immediately signs the contract with Swiftwing!

This leads directly into the second storyline, as the man who was competing for the contract is fired, and his position is given to a woman named Dolly Flash.  Dolly is determined to prove she is better than Jenny, so she challenges her to a cross-country race (can you see a pattern developing of strong female characters being threatened by Jenny's success?).  But both woman face problems when the man Dolly replaced suddenly throws himself into the race with the goal of showing up both of them.   Jenny has a pretty good lead, until she sees a smoke signal and lands to discovery a downed pilot who is injured and needs help.  Despite knowing it will lose her the race, she aids the man, getting him back to the final landing place well after Dolly has arrived.  But news of Jenny's rescue travels fast, and she soon becomes the object of the news reporters, who see her as a hero.  

Unfortunately, the head manager at Swiftwing doesn't see it that way, as he fires Jenny for not winning the race - only to rehire her shortly thereafter, when it turns out the man she rescued is the son of Swiftwing's biggest shareholder!  This takes readers into the third storyline, in which Jenny is sent to a boat service between Shark Island and the mainland to discover why their planes are having trouble after using Swiftwing gas.  This turns out to be the most interesting - and dangerous! - stories thus far.  Jenny discovers there is sabotage, but her nosing around puts her in the crosshairs of the saboteurs, who end up kidnapping her and are prepared to kill her - when one of the saboteurs discovers the other is actually a member of the Fifth Column Legion!  "I'm a crook but I ain't lost my patriotism! He can't pick on my country!" the man says about his co-kidnapper.  Thus, Jenny gets aid from an unexpected source, and she ultimately brings both criminals to justice and saves Swiftwing's contract with the boat service at the same time,

It's a thoroughly enjoyable strip, and quite frankly, the character would have made a great children's series book protagonist, similar I suppose to Ruth Darrow, Airplane Girl, Linda Carlton, Dorothy Dixon, or the Girl Flyers.

RATING:  10 samples of sugar-filled gas out of 10 for a high-flying adventure strip with a plucky female flyer who should never fade into obscurity!

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!

Cherry Sundae - The Complete Collection

I'd never in my life heard of the comic strip character, Cherry Sunday, until I happened across this collection of the newspaper comic strips on Amazon one day.  I've been thoroughly enjoying the Mary Perkins: On Stage comic strips I've been reading, and since this strip apparently ran for only a short period of time (this one small book collects all of the strips), I figured I'd give it a shot and see if it was worth the read.  And quite surprisingly, it was well worth the read!  The only information I have on this strip is from the Introduction and the Production Notes, which reveal the strip only ran for three years - 1946 to 1949 - and was intended as a weekly strip used to promote advertising in weekly newspapers.  What I found to be especially interesting is that any paper that picked up the strip would start with the first one - meaning that one paper might start it in 1946 with the first strip, while another might not have started until 1947, also starting with the first strip at that time.  This meant that multiple papers that carried the strip across the country were not necessarily running the same strips at the same time, which is unusual for a syndicated strip.

 

Cherry Sundae was copyrighted in 1946 by A&M Advertising Company.  The first two years of strips were drawn by Pete Tumlinson, while the third and final year was drawn by Paul McFadden.  The art style was not very different, so it's doubtful people even noticed the change in artists mid-stream.  However, there was a definite change in the stories - in the beginning, the stories were more lighthearted and fun, with two men (one blonde, the other dark-haired) both vying for the love and attention of red-headed Cherry (gee, does that sound familiar?  as pointed out in the Introduction, this was definitely a gender-swap of the Archie comic stories - a red-headed boy being pursued by two females, one blonde and the other dark-haired!).  There are a number of silly antics, misunderstandings, and harebrained plots as the two service men try their best to out-do one another and win Cherry over.  But as the strip went into its second year, and moreso in the third year, the stories turned serious and involved a group of jewel thieves and even a deadly shoot-out that left one of the main heartthrobs lying on the ground (more on that later...)!

Cherry herself is a redheaded beauty who works as a car hop at the local drive-in.  She lives with her grandfather (affectionately referred to as "Gramp"), who she cares for because he is in a wheelchair.  Gregg is her blonde boyfriend who has just come home after serving time overseas in the military, while Jarret is a slick, dark-haired man who sets his sights on Cherry and is determined to win her over, no matter the cost!  Of course, it turns out Jarret was actually Gregg's superior in the military, so the two men have a definite competitive nature already, and it only increases when they learn that the other is also in love with Cherry.  As the strip is written, Cherry appears to be more enamored by Gregg, but she doesn't like the tricks he pulls to try and keep Jarret away from her.  His tricks, though, are nothing compared to the stunts pulled by Jarret!  He tries doing tricks with an airplane and ultimately crashes not far from the drive in where Cherry works!  He also hires a couple of thugs to "pretend" to rob him and Cherry, so he can play the hero, but it turns out the crooks are for real and Gregg has to swoop in and save the day!

 

The "stories" are quick-paced and do not last long, which is not surprising, since this was a weekly strip, and it is unlikely anyone would stick around for any lengthy stories that took more than four or five weeks to complete.  And I give the creators credit - while Cherry may look like the frilly, silly beauty, she's actually pretty smart, as she never has any difficulty seeing through the schemes of both Gregg and Jarret.  Gramp is the one to watch, though, as he injects a number of humorous scenes into the strip, because he can clearly see what is going on and just sits back and watches to see what happens!

 

Now, as previously indicated, the stories took a much more serious turn towards the end (as it seems the second artist on the book, Paul McFadden, pulled away from the humorous side of the strip and took Cherry and her friends down a darker path).  Those crooks hired by Jarret turned out to be real criminals, and they planned a series of jewel heists that they set up Jarret to make it appear he was the thief.  In the final few strips, the police follow up on a lead, which puts Jarret directly in their sights!  An over-anxious cop shoots at Jarret, who he thinks is trying to escape, and in the very last panel of the strip, Gregg asks the question, "Is he dead or not?"  And, sadly, this is where the strip ended, with readers never actually knowing if Jarret was killed - such a horrible way to end a strip that was initially filled with silly antics and plenty of humor!

According to the production notes, only one of the original strips could be found for reproduction in the book - the remainder of the strips were scans taken from digital archives of the various papers that published Cherry Sundae.  While most of the strips of the first year are pretty clear, it seems only one paper was found that ran the strip past that first year.  Because of that, the final couple of years of strips in this collection are not always the best scans, since the production team only had the one source from which to pull the strip.  However, they are all readable, and you can still get the full story - and for a strip that is now more than 75 years old, which had such a truly limited production run, that is saying something!

RATING:  9 overturned canoes out of 10 for a fun little strip with humor, danger, and a great cast of characters!

Whitman Mystery Stories - Tillie the Toiler and the Masquerading Duchess

"Tillie the Toiler" is a newspaper strip that I had never heard of, and I certainly was unaware that Whitman Publishing had published a book about the character.  But, my friend Kevin told me about it one day, saying he would love to find the book - so I went on eBay, and lo and behold, I found several fairly inexpensive copies of the book in great condition, so I figured why not.  I purchased two copies - one for Kevin and one for me.  Now, mind you, this was well over a year ago, and the book has sat on my "to be read" stack of books for some time.  Well, I finally pulled the book down and decided it was time to read it and see just who Tillie the Toiler really is.

Tillie the Toiler and the Masquerading Duchess lists neither the author nor the illustrator; however, it is based upon the syndicated comic strip by Russ Westover.  The front inside flap of the dust jacket provides some background information on Westover, as well as the character of Tillie Jones.  It is interesting that Westover used his wife as the model for Tillie in his strip.  The comic strip ran in newspapers from 1921 through 1959, for an impressive thirty-eight years.  And doing some research, it appears that Cupples & Leon collected some of the comic strips in a series of eight books, and Dell Comics published fourteen issues of a comic book series that reprinted the strips.  Additionally, the character appeared in a silent film in 1927, and later a "talkie" in 1941!  So, for a character I never heard of prior to my friend telling me about this book, Tillie the Toiler definitely got around back in the day!

This book appears to be an original story based upon the characters in the syndicated comic strip.  Tillie is a stenographer for clothing mogul J. Simpkins. She lives with her mother, Mrs. Jones, and has a turbulent friendship with a co-worker by the name of "Mac."  Mac, of course, is in love with Tillie, but she does not return the feelings.  This obviously creates humorous scenes in which Mac tries to prove himself to Tillie in order to win her love (or at the very least, catch her attention), but his attempts often backfire and result in causing trouble for Tillie or push her into the arms of a more handsome, wealthier young man (much to Mac's chagrin!).  

The story opens with Mrs. Jones learning that the house in which she and Tillie live is about to be foreclosed.  She tries to keep it a secret, but Tillie learns the truth, and she vows to ask her boss, J. Simpkins, for a raise.  That, of course, turns into a series of mishaps and misunderstandings, and instead of asking for a raise, she falls asleep at his desk!  Too embarrassed to ask now, she sheepishly leaves, wondering what she is going to do now to help save her home.  Mrs. Jones reveals that a woman who is called "the Duchess" is intent on taking the house, and it appears the bank is helping her.  Mrs. Jones knows she had a letter from the bank confirming she had paid ahead on her interest and that they would not foreclose, but she can't find it - and the bank appears to have no record of the letter.  With foreclosure looming in just mere days, Tillie must find a way to pay the debt owed to they aren't forced to leave their home.

While the story mainly focuses on the Joneses' financial difficulties and the antics of Tillie and Mac, there is a slight mystery involved.  Tillie "loses" her mother's heirloom brooch while at a party, and it later turns out the brooch may have been stolen, as were a number of other valuable items from the wealthier citizens of the city.  Additionally, there is the mystery behind the mysterious Duchess who has her eyes set on the Joneses' home and why she is so intent on seeing the foreclosure finalized so she can take ownership of that house.  What is so special about the house and why does this woman want it?  Tillie is determined to find out, but ends up getting herself in hot water when she impersonates a bank employee and winds up with the police after her!

This is definitely a book the reader cannot take too seriously.  It is based on a humor-filled comic strip, so it only stands to reason that a novel based upon the strip is going to be a bit campy and filled with good-natured fun!  The ongoing mishaps of both Mac and Tillie in pretty much every adventure they attempt will make you smile, if not giggle a bit, and the climactic resolution (because, let's face it, we know Tillie is going to succeed in the end, regardless of all the misadventures along the way) will make you cheer for the young stenographer.  If you are looking for a serious mystery in the vein of Nancy Drew or Penny Parker, then this is likely not the book for you.  If, however, you are looking for a fun, easy read that will put a smile on your face with a light-hearted mystery, then this is definitely the book for you!

RATING:  8 good cups of coffee out of 10 for mixing a little bit of mystery with a lot of mirth and mishaps, and a touch of romance for good measure, all of which results in a fun little read!

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!