Mary Perkins, On Stage
Encyclopedia
Mary Perkins, On Stage (originally titled simply On Stage) is an American
newspaper comic strip
by Leonard Starr
for the Chicago-Tribune-New York News Syndicate
. It ran from February, 1957 to September 9, 1979, with the switch to the longer title in 1961. Some papers carried the strip under the shortened title Mary Perkins.
, adventure and broad humor, while the art was characterized by a studied line and often innovative storytelling. The strip offered a Broadway backstage drama as it followed the career of actress Mary Perkins in New York, Hollywood and on various international film sets and locations. A host of supporting characters joined Mary, including (in early September 1957) her photographer beau, Pete Fletcher. The two married on December 13, 1959.
The first On Stage Sunday strip
was launched February 10, 1957. That is generally considered the start date for the strip, but in 1970, comics historian Raymond Miller wrote that internal evidence in the first Sunday page suggested the strip had at least a week's worth of prior daily strip
s.
Story Comic Strip Award for the series in 1960 and 1963, and its Reuben Award in 1965. The strip came to a conclusion when Starr left in 1979 to take over Little Orphan Annie
.
to release chronological collected volumes of On Stage. The first appeared in June 2006, reprinting the strips of February 10, 1957 to January 11, 1958. The second volume was released later in 2006, the third in 2007 and the fourth in 2008.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
newspaper comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
by Leonard Starr
Leonard Starr
Leonard Starr is a Golden Age comic book artist, an advertising artist and award-winning cartoonist, notable for creating the newspaper strip On Stage and reviving Little Orphan Annie.-Early life:...
for the Chicago-Tribune-New York News Syndicate
Tribune Company
The Tribune Company is a large American multimedia corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, with ten daily newspapers and commuter tabloids including Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Hartford Courant, Orlando Sentinel, South Florida...
. It ran from February, 1957 to September 9, 1979, with the switch to the longer title in 1961. Some papers carried the strip under the shortened title Mary Perkins.
Characters and story
Starr's scripts mixed soap operaSoap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
, adventure and broad humor, while the art was characterized by a studied line and often innovative storytelling. The strip offered a Broadway backstage drama as it followed the career of actress Mary Perkins in New York, Hollywood and on various international film sets and locations. A host of supporting characters joined Mary, including (in early September 1957) her photographer beau, Pete Fletcher. The two married on December 13, 1959.
The first On Stage Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
was launched February 10, 1957. That is generally considered the start date for the strip, but in 1970, comics historian Raymond Miller wrote that internal evidence in the first Sunday page suggested the strip had at least a week's worth of prior daily strip
Daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
s.
Awards
Starr won the National Cartoonists SocietyNational Cartoonists Society
The National Cartoonists Society is an organization of professional cartoonists in the United States. It presents the National Cartoonists Society Awards. The Society was born in 1946 when groups of cartoonists got together to entertain the troops...
Story Comic Strip Award for the series in 1960 and 1963, and its Reuben Award in 1965. The strip came to a conclusion when Starr left in 1979 to take over Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie
Little Orphan Annie was a daily American comic strip created by Harold Gray and syndicated by Tribune Media Services. The strip took its name from the 1885 poem "Little Orphant Annie" by James Whitcomb Riley, and made its debut on August 5, 1924 in the New York Daily News...
.
Reprints
Classic Comics Press announced in February 2006 that it had an agreement with Tribune Media ServicesTribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...
to release chronological collected volumes of On Stage. The first appeared in June 2006, reprinting the strips of February 10, 1957 to January 11, 1958. The second volume was released later in 2006, the third in 2007 and the fourth in 2008.