Leonard Starr's Mary Perkins On Stage Volume 5 [Paperback]

By Leonard Starr (Author), Charles Pelto (Editor), Leonard Starr (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2008

With Volume 5 of Leonard Starr's Mary Perkins On Stage we continue reprinting the entire 22-year run of this classic American newspaper comic strip. Volume 5 features complete storylines from September 18, 1961 to March 9, 1963 including the return of Maximus. With an introduction by renowned fantasy artist Doug Beekman.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Classic Comics Press; First edition (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1606438905
• ISBN-13: 978-1606438909
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning re-edition of wonderful comic strip, December 6, 2008

By 

JennyN - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leonard Starr's Mary Perkins On Stage Volume 5 (Paperback)

This is the fifth collection of Leonard Starr's MARY PERKINS ON STAGE comic strips to be republished by Classic Comics Press. As with the previous four, and its companion volume THE HEART OF JULIET JONES, it's everything such a presentation should be: an ample 240 pages, handsomely packaged, with an introductory essay by artist Doug Beekman, and including a 16-page preview of material from JULIET JONES. High-quality reproduction allows a reader to appreciate Starr's work to the full - and there's a lot to appreciate, because by the 1960s (this volume reprints strips from late 1961 to early 1963) his artistry was at its height. The settings of the stories, from rainy New York streets to an island in the Dutch West Indies, are meticulously detailed, while Starr conveys his characters' emotions - even the most fleeting and ambiguous - with almost cinematic skill, in smoothly polished black and white drawing.

Even more astonishing, Starr's storytelling and dialogue equals or surpasses his graphic art. Perhaps the most memorable new character in this volume is Nat Blessing, Mary's agent, who reproaches himself for his clumsiness in getting her only double the fee she's been offered for a film and whose Yiddish-based speech patterns are a constant delight (although we're clearly going to see more of the ruthless multi-millionaire Morgana D'Alexius too). However, what strikes me most about MARY PERKINS is its *modernity*. Even after almost fifty years, a 21st-century reader doesn't have to "make allowances" - Mary and her photojournalist husband Pete are a two-career couple who consciously negotiate both their personal and professional relationship. In fact Starr's instinct for drama allows him to create characters that had as yet barely registered in popular culture: a genuinely creepy stalker, a case of multiple personality, a Korean War hero afflicted with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Most startling, perhaps, is the story arc dealing with Tony Abbott, a new young film star as hot as James Dean and resembling the youthful Montgomery Clift. Despite his fame and natural ability, Tony is mysteriously troubled: he wanders the streets during bouts of insomnia, barely eats and has trouble connecting to others. Then he meets Charlie Manna, a successful comedian, and instantly feels a fervent attraction to the older man. In other words, Tony's gay. Starr had already given his readers sympathetic portraits of implicitly lesbian characters - the singer Flora Deeds and the monocle-wearing agent Marka Gabriel - but the skill he displays here in creating a situation which can be interpreted on two quite different levels is nothing short of phenomenal. Writing at a time when homophobia was literally the law of the land, Starr's approach is unhysterical and realistic: the Sunday sequence in which Charlie gently makes Tony understand that his gift of an expensive watch is inappropriate is a model of restraint and delicacy, while Tony's happy end is to come to terms with himself as he is, rather than be provided with a convenient and conventional girlfriend.

MARY PERKINS isn't just a "classic" to be revered on account of its age and pedigree - it's an absorbing fusion of graphic art, psychological insight and sheer storytelling skill, to be discovered all over again by the new generation of readers it deserves.