REX MORGAN 6-6-16 to 6-12-16 -- some logos and notes on the strip

Here's another week of REX -- B&W dailies, of course. You can't see these on Comics Kingdom -- so thats why I share them here.

I also thought you might enjoy seeing the logos I made for the comic books that have appeared in the strip. It didn't make sense to redraw these every single time -- so I whipped these up and have reused them multiple times -- dropping them in and changing them to fit perspective, etc. And no. I'm not going to draw and write complete interiors for any of these -- though it certainly is a fun notion to consider...!






With Hank Jr.'s announcement that there is more than one stack of comics in the attic, Buck and Rex rescue the rest. I should note that they are not ripping up the floorboards -- but just pulling this stuff out from underneath. I once lived in a house with an attic that had easy access to the space under the floorboards and the notion of how simple it would be to hide stuff under there always stuck with me. This story allowed me to use the idea at last. The artwork would have been rolled up, like tubes, to fit. I never stated that in the strips, but showed the art pages curled up some to hint at it at least.

The monetary value is based on the notion that these are mint/near mint artists' file copies equivalent to EC titles -- signed by a major artist. The art value is also based on sales of original EC art.

I was amused that one person posting in the Comics Kingdom comments section complained that my math was off regarding five hundred thousand being half a million!  This is why I can't take those comments too seriously. So many folks there also jumped to the conclusion that Rex was going to keep the comic books -- and this was going to be another "Morgans get free stuff" story. Nope. It was always my intention to turn that overdone trope on its head -- and have Rex insisting on returning the treasure trove.

I also shake my head over the snarkers who were all aflutter over me retconning the history of the Morgan's house -- when that goes back some eighteen years -- who seemed unable to recall that Rex has a home office/study -- well established in very recent strips. They thought Rex was going to haul all this stuff to the clinic? Gee -- you'd think some of them are just looking for something to gripe about...?

And let me address the house origins once again. Yes, I'm rebooting/retconning some elements in the strip so we can move forward, unencumbered by decades of largely inaccessible continuity. The strip has, aside from four comic books in the 1950s, never been reprinted in book form. King Features does not have a complete run of it in their files. There are years and years of the strip that I have no access to whatsoever. I'd love to see Frank Springer's run on the feature -- but aside from a handful of examples on the web -- it's no where to be found. I have a few clippings from Fernando DaSilva's run -- but no complete stories. King's online archive begins toward the end of the Tony DiPreta period -- October 1998.

And I've read the earliest available strips. In them, a recently married Rex and June (pregnant with Sarah) are selling June's house, and there is talk of them putting the proceeds of the sale toward the "new house." They move into the "new house" in 2000, just after Sarah's birth (yes, the six year old was born sixteen years ago) and the hiring of nanny Heather. There is talk of it being their "dream house." Nowhere, in any of the archived strips from this period is there any mention of the house having been newly and specially built for the Morgans. I have no doubt this was established -- as long-time readers remember it -- but it had to have been established in strips predating what is available in King's archives.


So -- as far as I'm concerned, the history of the house, prior to the Morgans moving in, is for me to decide as it suits the purpose of the story. Retconned. Rebooted. Changed. And it's all moving forward from here on.

REX MORGAN M.D. 5-30-16 to 6-5-16

The comics in the attic plot continues. It seems, from comments I've received, that my Hank Jr./Sr. fakeout regarding the signatures in the comics worked. I was worried most readers would see through it -- but I guess I pulled off the surprise.

I was glad to be able to return Buck to our story, as I felt we'd dropped him just as he was becoming interesting. And he needed to repay Rex that loan, darn it! (Which he does on 5-30-16 below). There was nothing in previous strips establishing him as a comic book fan -- but nothing that would keep me from adding that element to his background.

Some readers seemed concerned that Rex and/or Buck were planning to keep the comic books for themselves -- but that was never my intent -- and the truth is revealed in the 6-2-16 daily. The books go back to the Harwoods -- and that was always Rex's plan.

Doing a comic book themed story right off the bat is certainly a little self indulgent -- but the story fits in with several other plot elements that I need to wrap up, and you'll all see how as it unfolds. We will be seeing a good deal of the Harwoods -- and Buck, as this plays out -- but I promise it won't be the only ongoing plotline here. I have Dolly, Rene, Heather, Milton and Jordan to deal with, as well as Sarah's gala and her book -- and the Morgan's eventual move to a new home, all on my plate. This, plus wanting to get back to seeing Rex practicing medicine more regularly. It's a lot to juggle, and I hope you'll stick with me while I work it all out. I do know where I'm going with all this -- but to tell you would spoil the story, wouldn't it?

REX MORGAN M.D. 5-23-16 to 5-29-16

Yes, I'm doing a comic book-themed story right off the bat. Had to get it out of my system.  It will tie into other current events in the Morgan's world -- you'll just have to wait and see how. This is my comic strip format love letter to EC Comics -- though the comics you'll (eventually) see aren't exactly ECs -- just similar.

Some long-time REX readers are upset that I've "retconned" a bit of the strip's history. In my version, the Morgans bought this house, and are not the original owners -- it having been built in the 1950s. This conflicts with the previous writer's version in which the Morgans had the house built.

As I've explained elsewhere, the current Rex and June couldn't possibly be the same characters that appeared in the 1950s -- or even more recent decades. They'd be far too old to be still having children, even accounting for "comic strip time." So I figure there have been unannounced "soft reboots" every now and then anyhow -- and I'm doing one now. This one just happens to be announced! I'll stick with the continuity of the past few years -- anything I drew, especially -- but anything more than four or five years ago? As far as I'm concerned, that happened to a Rex and June from some previous comic strip universe. I'm far more interested in picking up where we are today, and moving on from there. I want to tell the best stories I can, and having to juggle decades of largely forgotten and ephemeral continuity does not play into my plans.

I made an art error in the backgrounds of some of these daily strips -- those floorboards should be running the other way. Mea culpa. And if that's the worst mistake I ever make on the strip, I can live with that. Someday I'll discuss the time constraints under which these strips are produced -- for now I'll just note that those who think I can spend an entire day drawing one daily strip are quite mistaken.

 

REX MORGAN 5-16-15 to 5-22-16 -- SKUNKED!

Week three of the new REX. Once again, Ronn Sutton is helping out with the pencils on the daily strips. Sarah and Abby encounter the stinky side of nature -- and June makes her opinion known. The skunking of Sarah was done to signal that bad things CAN happen to the kid, as she's lead a charmed life up until now -- and I'd like to shake things up a bit -- or at least have that option.

The anti-stink treatment mentioned here is incomplete -- and anyone contemplating using it should do a good deal more research into it, as the full method isn't exactly explained here. Don't try this at home, and all that.

Some readers complained about the two day sequence of Sarah and Abby playing ball -- but I felt I needed the extra "beat." I wanted to show her playing like a regular kid for once -- and one daily strip wasn't enough. So there.

I did consider having Rex and June pull out the kiddie pool from the garage to clean up kid and dog outside-- but even not showing it, I figured I'd be pilloried for even suggesting little Sarah was starkers outside! So inside and the bathtub it was.

Week Two of the new REX MORGAN 5-9-16 to 5-15-16

My second week as writer/artist on the REX MORGAN strip. In order to catch up a little on a much too tight deadline, I called in fellow cartoonist Ronn Sutton to help with the pencils on the dailies. He worked on next week's strips, too. These are, again, the gray toned dailies done for the newspapers that run the strip in glorious black and white (as they should). The King Features-hired anonymous colorist of the daily strips does a fine job -- but given a choice, I still like my dailies sans color.

After seeing this week in print, I realized June should have been saying electrical sockets, not plugs -- but that was a common misuse of the word in my neck of the woods when growing up, so it didn't sound wrong to me when writing it. Oh, well -- I can always say June grew up saying it wrong, too!

The diner in the Sunday page may look a little familiar to my Twin City pals -- I based it on St. Paul's Mickey's -- a favorite lunch stop when I lived in Minnesota. And of course "Zippy Service" is a nod to Bill Griffith, whose comic strip often features classic diners.

Some readers seem confused about baby Michael being there in the Sunday page -- I thought I didn't have to spell it out that Rex and June had gone home and picked him up before heading to lunch. I'm trying to move things along at a faster pace now that I'm running the show, so at times I'm just going to skip over minor stuff like that and figure the readers can fill in the blanks.

And yes, we're done with Franco and Cilla.

REX MORGAN -- A NEW DAY (and the rest of the week, too) 5-2-16 to 5-8-16

My stint as writer and artist of the strip begins. Here is the first week. These are the gray toned dailies, done for the newspapers that don't add color. Woody left me with plenty of plot elements that need tying up -- this is just the beginning.

REX MORGAN April 24, 2016 to May 1, 2016

Woody Wilson's final REX MORGAN strips. I begin writing the series, as well as drawing it, with the May 2nd strip.