The team at Chicago-based Classic Comics Press have announced new collections of Leonard Starr’s award-winning, much admired newspaper strip, “Mary Perkins On Stage”, under licence from the Tribune Content Agency (formerly known as Tribune Media Services).
Reprinting classic American comics strips since 2006, Classic Comics Press, run by Charles Pelto, are planning to publish a revamped edition of Mary Perkins on Stage, Volume One in June via Lulu.com, joining a list of upcoming publications that also includes Frank Godwin’s Connie Sundays, in full colour.
The redesigned Volume One will print dailies and colour Sundays from 10th February 1957 to 24th May 1958, and include Walt Simonson’s introduction for the original printing. Charles is working on a longer biography of Leonard Starr for this edition, with examples of his comic book art, and work in advertising.
Further volumes of On Stage will follow every three months, the publisher now, it appears, back on form after Charles suffered some health issues last year.
He expects the new set to run for 16 volumes of approximately 250 pages each and the Sundays will be included in colour.
Mary Perkins, On Stage (originally titled simply On Stage) is a long-running American newspaper comic strip by Leonard Starr for the Chicago Tribune–New York News Syndicate. It ran from 10th February 1957, to 9th September 1979, with the switch to the longer title in 1961. Some papers carried the strip under the shortened title, Mary Perkins.
The strip centred on the adventures of Broadway hopeful Mary Perkins, who took on the daunting task of having to leave her beloved small hometown to head to New York City.
“From that arrival at Penn Station, she was about to be thrust into an incredible number of fantastic adventures,” Peter Bosch wrote in a tribute to her creator, Leonard Starr for 13th Dimension last year. “Within the first year alone, Mary lost her savings to a crooked agent, was taken under the training of a former Broadway legend (clearly modelled visually on Tallulah Bankhead), became the deadly obsession of a mad stage director, initiated a film career in addition to her stage work, and was engaged to be married… twice!
“The strip was filled with exceptional stories (all written by Starr), with art to match through all its years.”
The strip, which won the National Cartoonists Society Story Comic Strip Award in 1960 and 1963, and its Reuben Award in 1965, came to a conclusion when Starr left in 1979 to take over Little Orphan Annie.
Starr utilised a huge amount of photography of actors to use as reference for the characters that feature in the strip, including a young Larry Hagman, later famous as JR Ewing in Dallas, used as a model for Jed Potter, and George Lindsey, who became famous as the character Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show.
“In my opinion, the best ‘story’ strip of the past 50 years was unquestionably Leonard Starr’s On Stage,” David Apatoff wrote of the strip, one of several articles on his Illustration Art blog devoted to the artist. At its height in the 1960s, On Stage was unsurpassed by any other strip in its genre, including Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby, Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon, and Hal Foster’s epic Prince Valiant.
“Starr combined a full range of talents to produce On Stage: his drawings sparkled with his fine brushwork and his compelling use of blacks; he captured subtle facial expressions that went beyond anything his peers were doing; he employed strong compositions, his pictures were dramatically and intelligently staged, and he sure knew his anatomy.
“Above all, Starr wrote like a dream; thoughtful, witty and as erudite as his comic page audience would permit. Starr bound all these components together into a consolidated work product that set a new standard for the genre.
”For me, it defies the laws of physics that Starr was able to write and draw three such panels every day, six days a week, and three times that amount on Sundays,” he also noted. “Today, the medium of the comic strip has evolved and no longer has room for this type of craftsmanship.”
Remembering Leonard Starr
Described by fellow artist Joe Jusko as “without a doubt one of the best draftsmen our industry has ever seen,” Leonard Starr (28th October 1925 – 30th June 2015), who began in the comics industry in the 1940s, including for EC Comics, and drew for US publishers DC Comics and Marvel in the 1970s.
He created Kelly Green with Stan Drake in 1980, published in France by Dargaud, republished by Classic Comics Press last year. This series of graphic novels about the sexy and capable female action heroine Kelly Green, were illustrated by Drake. In 1985, he wrote and illustrated an action/adventure graphic novel published only in France, Operation Psy, featuring Cannonball Carmody.
He worked in animation in the 1980s, developing and writing the bible for the Rankin Bass animated television show ThunderCats, and also acted as story editor and head writer.
Classic Comic Press, reviving standout archive strips
Classic Comics Press made its debut as a publisher back in 2006 with Mary Perkins On Stage Volume 1 (still available at an eye watering price from third party sellers!), but, 20 years later, Charles Pelto says he knows a lot more about how to put these books together and plans to deliver a complete redo of the series, with a full redesign and repackage as hardcover black and white editions, including the Sunday strips. (The costs of colour publishing of the Sundays are, sadly, too prohibitive).
The publisher is also currently reprinting the entire run of the The Cisco Kid by Jose Luis Salinas and Rod Reed in eight volumes.
In a previously-published interview, Charles has described the company’s On Stage books as his favourite project.
“I started reading the strip when I was six years old and read it well into my twenties,” Charles says. “Perhaps the only comic strip I read consistently throughout its 22-year run. To my mind, Leonard Starr ranks with Caniff, Raymond, Crane, as one of the best comic strip artists. The artwork and staging is impeccable, and he’s got to be the best writer hand’s down when it comes to the continuity strip.”
More news on the re-release of Mary Stewart, On Stage is expected soon. Follow the Classic Comics Press Facebook page for updates
• Lulu.com Classic Comic Press – Currently Available Books
• Classic Comic Press – Official Website (currently under reconstruction)
Head downthetubes for…
• Illustration Art: How Leonard Starr did Business Part One
• Illustration Art: How Leonard Starr did Business Part Two
The great cartoonist Leonard Starr wrote and drew, on average, 27 complex panels every week for decades.
• Illustration Art: A Tribute to Leonard Starr
• 13th Dimension: Mary Perkins On Stage: A Salute to the Late Leonard Starr
• ComicMix: 2010 Classic Comics Press Continues Reprinting Great Forgotten Strips
• 2011 PREVIEWSWORLD EXCLUSIVE: Classic Comics Press — An Interview With Charles Pelto
• Wayback Machine: Remembering Thundercats: An Interview with Leonard Starr by Jim Gauthier
Leonard Starr’s “Mary Perkins On Stage” ©️ Tribune Content Agency
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, US Comics
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