MARY PERKINS

FLASH STORY

on stage

di Leonard Starr

NON LASCIATEVI SPAVENTARE DAL NOME INQUIETANTE DI QUESTA STRIP CHE EVOCA UN IBRIDO MENGELIANO TRA MARY POPPINS E ANTHONY PERKINS, SI TRATTA APPENA DI UNA COMMEDIOLA A FUMETTI CHE DOCUMENTA LE INNOCENTI E SBARAZZINE AVVENTURE DI UNA POCO TALENTUOSA E POCO AVVEDUTA CENERENTOLA DI PROVINCIA, TANTO CARINA E INCANTEVOLE QUANTO AMBIZIOSA E SPREGIUDICATA , CUI L’ IMPATTO CON LA CINICA E CRUDELE REALTA’ DELLA METROPOLI FAGOCITA, DEMOLISCE E INSIDIA LE TANTE VELLEITA’ PER L’ AVVENIRE E I TANTI SOGNI NEL CASSETTO TRA CUI QUELLO DI FARE L’ ATTRICE O LA VELINA, O NEL PEGGIORE DEI CASI LE OSPITATE TELEVISIVE E IN DISCOTECA.
INSOMMA UN DRAMMA FEMMINILE INTERIORE ED ESTERIORE MOLTO ATTUALE E MOLTO ITALIANO, MA LEI NON SI DA’ PER VINTA E SI ARRABATTA IN TUTTI I MODI, ANCHE FACENDO LA CAMERIERA IN UN NIGHT CLUB PER SBARCARE IL LUNARIO, MA NON TRASCURANDO NEL TEMPO LIBERO IL VOLONTARIATO E LA SOLIDARIETA’, OFFRENDO GENEROSAMENTE TUTTA SE STESSA PER DARE UNA MANO ED AIUTARE TUTTI I MISERANDI E I BISOGNOSI, VERI E FALSI E PRESUNTI,  CHE FANNO LA FILA GIORNO E NOTTE ASPETTANDO IL PROPRIO TURNO DI BENEFICENZA DAVANTI A CASA SUA. IL TITOLO ORIGINALE DEL COMIC E’ ON STAGE , QUESTO E’ IL QUINTO EPISODIO PUBBLICATO IN ITALIA (STRISCE GIORNALIERE E TAVOLE DOMENICALI / DAILY STRIPS & SUNDAY PAGES DAL 28-8-67 AL 16-3-68) , I PRECEDENTI ERANO APPARSI IN SUI SUPPLEMENTI DI LINUS.

i libri di Linus N. 6 , luglio 1971, Milano Libri Edizioni

brossurato, cm. 20,3×13,4 , bianco e nero, 136 pagine + copertina

CONDIZIONI OTTIME

Leonard Starr’s On Stage (November 17, 1957)

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.

Characters and story

Starr’s scripts mixed soap opera,
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 strips.

Awards

On Stage comic book published by Dell.

Starr won the National Cartoonists Society 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.

MARY PERKINS ON STAGE Medium: Newspaper comics Distributed by: Chicago Tribune Syndicate First Appeared: 1957 Creator: Leonard Starr Mary Perkins On Stage was a late entry in the field of postwar soap opera comics, drawn in that slick, photo-realistic postwar style. By the time it made its bow, Rex Morgan, M.D., The Heart of Juliet Jones and several others were already going concerns. But it was one of the few of that genre to win critical acclaim — in 1960, The National Cartoonists’ Society gave it a plaque for “Best Story Strip”, and in ’65 the Society gave the strip’s creator, Leonard Starr, its prestigious Reuben Award, naming him Cartoonist of the Year. Starr had been drawing comic books since the early 1940s, for practically every publisher in America, for example Dr. Thirteen for DC and Cowboy Sahib for ACG, By the ’50s he was also doing advertising art, and hoping to achieve steady income on a syndicated newspaper strip. He created no less than seven proposed strips before finally selling one to The Chicago Tribune Syndicate. The curtain went up on Mary Perkins On Stage on February 10, 1957. On Stage, as the strip is usually called, opened with Mary as a starry-eyed ingenue, just arriving in New York from the Midwest, with her sights set on a Broadway career. Being the star of the strip, naturally, she bucked the odds and succeeded. Subsequent stories concerned her ongoing adventures in the fast-paced world of show biz. A major source of soap opera tension was removed when, in 1959, she married photojournalist Pete Fletcher — but this also paved the way for her to evolve into a mature professional, which in turn enabled the cartoonist to explore his glamorous setting more fully. On Stage was not such a long-running presence on the comics scene as some others of its genre, such as Judge Parker or Apartment 3-G. But it did get a comic book adaptation, a rare achievement for a soap, when Dell devoted a 1962 issue of Four Color Comics to Mary’s escapades. And it did last a respectable two-plus decades, ending on Sept. 9, 1979. Starr, then in his mid-50s, could have taken an early retirement, but instead took over the recently-renamed Annie, becoming the first cartoonist since Harold Gray to achieve notable success with that strip. Mary Perkins On Stage may not have been the first of the photo-realistic postwar soaps, and it may not have been the longest lasting. But Starr’s engaging characters, involving storylines and perfectly gorgeous artwork ensure that it will never be an obscure one.