Mary Perkins on Stage

[Randy Reynaldo/WCG Comics]

Has anyone been picking up the collection of Leonard Starr's Mary Perkins On Stage (http://www.amazon.com/Mary-Perkins-Stage-Leonard-Starr/dp/1424310237/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-5565495-4731024?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1181692644&sr=8-1) comic strip?

Having been raised in the 1970s in New York City, I grew up with this strip where it ran and was syndicated by the NY Daily News. I skimmed it but wrote it off as a soap opera "chick strip" so I never bothered to follow it.

Well I decided on a whim to pick up the first volume of the series last fall, and was blown away. I don't think I'd been this excited by a comics series like this in years -- and when I picked up the second volume, I couldn't put it down either.

I think it can be easily said that Starr was, certainly technically, one of the FINEST draftsman to work in comics. But frankly his writing is outstanding as well. It takes a special kind of skill to write for a daily strip, but Starr does a great job. This series hit the ground running and a lot of the elements that were important in the later years of the series (by the time I was seeing it) were established in those early years.

Though it's about a NY stage actress (beginning when she arrives in the Big Apple as an ingenue), what's amazing is that it's actually an adventure strip -- but with a theatrical setting.

I highly recommend this. (I actually blogged about the first volume in detail -- go here (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.listAll&friendID=100223433&startID=228120483&StartPostedDate=2007-02-08%2023:31:00&next=1&page=1&Mytoken=77715F72-E55E-4DFC-8F406B334FF5AB0554171805) and scroll down to the bottom of the page), but I think it's important to get the word out about this fine series.

[Red Oak Kid]

Have you seen this site?

Rules of Attraction (http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/on_stage2.htm)

[Sir Tim Drake]

Welcome to CBR, Randy.

[Randy Reynaldo/WCG Comics]

Have you seen this site?

Rules of Attraction (http://profmendez.tripod.com/html/on_stage2.htm)

Thanks for the link--great article. You gotta give the guy credit for the research he did -- he incredibly invokes the theater world in the strip. There's a photo at the site of Larry Hagman posing for Starr -- Hagman's likeness was used for a character who appears in the second volume, and I recognized him before I even knew explicitly that Starr (who was a friend) had used him.

The article also mentions that Starr "had a background assistant throughout the run of the strip and Starr readily admitted he used any device, mechanical or otherwise, when the need arose."

Assistants, of course, have a long-standing tradition in comics, and in many cases provided a useful "apprenticeship" for many young cartoonists.

And regarding using "any device, mechanical or otherwise, when the need arose," I remember reading a piece regarding Stan Drake (I think it was him) who referred to himself (half-jokingly I'm sure) as being a lazy artist, and doing things like photostating cityscapes and touching them up with ink for use in his strip, The Heart of Juliet Jones. (He also talked about approaching IBM to see if they could do a typewriting/typesetting font based on his lettering, but it was too expensive -- this was WAY before the advent of computers!!)

Such are the realities of a commercial artist where you do anything to get the job done looking right, without having to re-invent the wheel.

Anyway, awhile back I took a page from this book for my comic-book series, Rob Hanes Adventures, when I did a shot of helicopters going over a city and rather try to draw a whole city found a shot that would fit in well with my camera angle. You can see the results in the last panel of the page posted here (http://wcgcomics.com/artgallery/09rha10.html) (thank God for Photoshop!!). :)

(Aaron/Sir Tim, thanks for the welcome! I've been a member for awhile, I just tend to lurk a lot when I actually find the time to visit forums!)

[Slam_Bradley]

I"m a pretty big fan of Leonard Starr's writing, having picked up a number of reprints of Kelly Green, which he wrote and Stan Drake drew. This book is on my list of things to buy when I find it for the right price.