''Rex Morgan, M.D.'' is an American

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics terminology#Captio ...

, created May 10, 1948 by psychiatrist Dr. Nicholas P. Dallis under the pseudonym Dal Curtis.

History

The name for the strip was inspired by the real life Rex S. Morgan Sr., the U.S. Army's "chief mortician" and a popular Philadelphia TV personality in the 1960s. The strip's look and content was influenced by the work of

Allen Saunders Allen Saunders (April 24, 1899 – January 28, 1986) was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips ''Steve Roper and Mike Nomad'', ''Mary Worth'' and ''Kerry Drake''. He is credited with being the originator of the ...

and Ken Ernst on ''

Mary Worth ''Mary Worth'' is an American newspaper comic strip that has had an eight-decade run from 1938. Distributed by King Features Syndicate, this soap opera-style strip influenced several that followed. It was created by writer Allen Saunders and ar ...

''. Initially syndicated by

Publishers Syndicate Publishers Newspaper Syndicate (later Publishers Syndicate) was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated from 1925 to 1967, when it merged with the Hall Syndicate. Publishers syndicated such long-lived comic strips as '' Big Chief Wa ...

and then by

Field Newspaper Syndicate The Field Newspaper Syndicate was a syndication service based in Chicago that operated independently from 1941 to 1984, for a good time under the name the Chicago Sun-Times Syndicate. The service was founded by Marshall Field III and was part of ...

, ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'' is now at

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...

. A 1952 attempt to create a

TV series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

starring Louis Heyward was unsuccessful, with the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

never shown.

Story and characters

The story centers on Dr. Rex Morgan, who in 1948 moves to the fictional small town of Glenwood to take over a late friend's practice. Helping him grapple with a dizzying array of medical problems is his old friend's office manager and nurse, June Gale. Morgan and Gale collaborated in resolving the medical and emotional problems of patients and friends over the years. Among their patients was feisty elder Melissa Clairidge, introduced in 1951. She was not used after 2012 except for a flashback story in 2020. Rex's former classmate Keith Cavell was introduced in 1957 and starred in occasional story lines until he was killed off in 1995. Young Dr. Brice Adam sometimes had a story to himself from 1970 to 1978, for example in a situation which saw him taken hostage by two felons who had

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, intense headache, vomiting and neck stiffness and occasion ...

. Rex and June married in 1995. They introduced their first child, a daughter named Sarah Ann Morgan, on February 22, 2000. Their second child, Michael Dallis Morgan, was introduced on 29 November 2015, and an adopted child, Johnny, joined the family in 2018. Rex and June now operate their own free clinic. They have two dogs. The strip has long been praised for its blunt tackling of social issues and taboo subjects, such as drug abuse, domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diabetes, organ transplants, adoption and sexual harassment. The story's constant realism about these issues has led groups such as the Leahy Foundation to use ''Rex Morgan'' as a teaching tool. In the case of the Leahy Foundation, the strip has been used to teach their students about epilepsy at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Some issues, particularly in the strip's early years, proved too controversial. In 1950, the ''

Newark News The ''Newark Evening News'' was an American newspaper published in Newark, New Jersey. As New Jersey's largest city, Newark played a major role in New Jersey's journalistic history. At its apex, ''The News'' was widely regarded as the newspaper of ...

'' refused to run one series in which a nurse tried to euthanize her sick father. The paper wrote that the sequences "dealt with an attempted mercy killing and had no place on this comic page." Dallis claimed he created the strip to inform the general public about medical issues in an entertaining manner. For instance, a continuity from 1970 depicted the plight of an attractive young woman who frequently experienced gaps of "missing time": Morgan diagnosed her as suffering from '' petit mal''. In later years, the story plots moved away from medical themes as Rex and June alternated in stories, confronting threats and danger from a variety of malfeasants. A popular story took place in 2006, in which longtime character Dr. Troy Gainer was revealed to be a fraud. Beginning in 2016, artist-writer

Terry Beatty Terry Beatty (born January 11, 1958''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107) is an artist who has worked as a penciler and inker in the American comic book industry, where he is perhaps best known for his co-creation of the female ...

often put Rex back in medical settings, either at his clinic or in the hospital. Beatty also had Morgan tackle

pseudoscience Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...

in the form of a scam perpetrated by recurring

con artist A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibi ...

René Belluso, as discussed in a 2019 interview in

Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' (S.I.) is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle "The Magazine for Science and Reason". The magazine initially focused on investigating clai ...

. In 2019, the strip introduced Marti, a friend of Sarah's with Down syndrome. In January 2022 Belluso returned, threatening a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Sarah (who allegedly committed intellectual theft involving characters Belluso said he created) in a bid to get revenge against Rex for his part in ending Belluso's pseudoscience scam. On the 30th, attorney Barry Stuhr was introduced.

Artists and writers

Dallis died in July 1991. Woody Wilson became the writer. His name appeared in September 1991. From 1948 to 1978, the strip was drawn by Marvin Bradley, with backgrounds by John Frank Edgington. Edgington retired in 1976. Their team was succeeded from 1979 to 1981 by former ''

Terry and the Pirates ''Terry and the Pirates'' is an action-adventure comic strip created by cartoonist Milton Caniff, which originally ran from October 22, 1934, to February 25, 1973. Captain Joseph Patterson, editor for the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndica ...

'' assistant Frank Springer. Fernando Da Silva briefly took over the strip in 1982, then in 1983

Tony DiPreta Anthony Louis DiPreta (July 9, 1921 – June 2, 2010) was an American comic book and comic strip artist active from the 1940s Golden Age of comic books. He was the longtime successor artist of the comic strip '' Joe Palooka'' (1959–84) and ...

became the main artist. On 19 June 2000, long-time

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

artist Graham Nolan began a 13-year stint. On 30 December 2013,

made his debut as the strip's artist. In spring 2016 Wilson left and Beatty became the writer. Uncredited assistants during the 1970s included Fran Matera, Alex Kotzky and André LeBlanc. With the changes in artists, the character have been known to change appearance. With Nolan's art first appearing in 2000, a complete overhaul of the characters' physical appearances was seen. When Beatty became artist at the end of 2013, he redesigned the characters in his own way.

Pop culture references

In ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' episode " Krusty Gets Kancelled", Homer Simpson is reading the funny pages and comments, "Ah, ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'', you have the prescription for the daily blues." Cartoonist

Bill Watterson William Boyd Watterson II (born July 5, 1958) is an American cartoonist who authored the comic strip ''Calvin and Hobbes''. The strip was syndicated from 1985 to 1995. Watterson concluded ''Calvin and Hobbes'' with a short statement to newspa ...

occasionally drew his syndicated newspaper comic strip ''

Calvin and Hobbes ''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was Print syndication, syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly described as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin a ...

'' in the realistic style of ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'', when depicting six-year-olds Calvin and Susie playing "house." A parody of the ''

Defenders of the Earth ''Defenders of the Earth'' is an American animated television series produced in 1986, featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, and Mandrake's assistan ...

'' cartoon, called ''Protectors of the Earth'', is made up of comic strip characters Dr. Rex Morgan,

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

and

Mark Trail ''Mark Trail'' is a newspaper comic strip created by the American cartoonist Ed Dodd. Introduced April 15, 1946, the strip centers on Environmentalism, environmental and ecological themes. As of 2020, King Features syndicated the strip to "near ...

References

External links

''Rex Morgan, M.D.'' at King Features
at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...