View source for Rex Morgan, M.D.

{{Short description|American comic strip}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2013}}
{{Infobox Comic strip
|title= Rex Morgan, M.D.
|image= Rexmorgan41953.jpg
|caption = Marvin Bradley and Frank Edgington's ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'' (April 19, 1953)
|creator= [[Nicholas P. Dallis]]
|author= [[Nicholas P. Dallis]] (1948–1990)<br />[[Woody Wilson (writer)|Woody Wilson]] (1990-2016)
| current = [[Terry Beatty]] (2016–present)
|illustrator=  Marvin Bradley (1948–1978) & John Frank Edgington (1948–1976)<br />[[Frank Springer]] (1979–1981)<br />[[Fernando Da Silva]]  (1982)<br />[[Tony DiPreta]] (1983–2000)<br />[[Graham Nolan]] (2000–2013)<br />[[Terry Beatty]] (2013–present)
|status= Running daily & Sunday
|syndicate= (current) [[King Features Syndicate]]<br />(formerly) [[Publishers Syndicate]] (1948–1967)<br />[[Publishers-Hall Syndicate]] / [[Field Newspaper Syndicate]] / [[News America Syndicate]] / North America Syndicate (1967–1988)
|genre= Soap opera
|first={{start date and age|May 10, 1948}}
|last=
}}
'''''Rex Morgan, M.D.''''' is an American [[soap opera]] [[comic strip]], created May 10, 1948 by psychiatrist Dr. [[Nicholas P. Dallis]] under the pseudonym Dal Curtis.<ref name=Holtz>{{cite book |last1=Holtz |first1=Allan |title=American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide |date=2012 |publisher=The University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472117567 |page=330}}</ref>

== 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.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20151018021742/http://articles.philly.com/1989-02-24/news/26155117_1_sally-starr-interviews-hound St. George, Donna "Rex Morgan, 67, Tv Personality During The '60s,"] Philly.com (Feb. 24. 1989).</ref> The strip's look and content was influenced by the work of [[Allen Saunders]] and [[Ken Ernst]] on ''[[Mary Worth]]''.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_/ai_2419100775 Goulart, Ron. ''St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture'']</ref>

Initially syndicated by [[Publishers Syndicate]] and then by [[Field Newspaper Syndicate]], ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'' is now at [[King Features Syndicate]]. A 1952 attempt to create a [[television series|TV series]] starring [[Louis Heyward]] was unsuccessful, with the [[television pilot|pilot]] 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.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/05/10/seventy-five-years-of-rex-morgan-m-d-but-the-rex-of-48-is-not-the-rex-of-23/#comment-504146 | title=Seventy-Five Years of Rex Morgan, M.D. – but the Rex of '48 is not the Rex of '23 – the Daily Cartoonist }}</ref> Rex's former classmate Keith Cavell was introduced in 1957 and starred in occasional story lines until he was killed off in 1995.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.markcarlson-ghost.com/index.php/2019/01/07/rex-morgan-june-gale/ |title = Rex Morgan and June Gale's Romantic Conundrum – Mark Carlson-Ghost| date=July 17, 2020 }}</ref> 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]].

Rex and June married in 1995. They introduced their first child, a daughter named Sarah Ann Morgan, on February 22, 2000.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.comicskingdom.com/rex-morgan-m-d/archive |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531083217/https://www.comicskingdom.com/rex-morgan-m-d/archive |archive-date=May 31, 2020 |title=Comics Kingdom - Rex Morgan M.D.}}</ref><ref name="npr2">{{cite news |work=Morning Edition |publisher=National Public Radio |title=Rex Morgan to Announce His Intentions to June Gale |url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NR&d_origin=transcripts&z=NR&p_theme=nr&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F574CB022ADFCBA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
|url-status=dead
|date=March 3, 1995
|access-date=February 9, 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608185151/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NR&d_origin=transcripts&z=NR&p_theme=nr&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0F574CB022ADFCBA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
|archive-date=June 8, 2011}}</ref> 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{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}}. The story's constant realism about these issues has led groups such as the Leahy Foundation to use ''Rex Morgan'' as a teaching tool{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed, identify Leahy Foundation.|date=May 2020}}. In the case of the Leahy Foundation, the strip has been used to teach their students about epilepsy at [[Harvard University]]{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed for the whole sentence.|date=May 2020}}. Some issues, particularly in the strip's early years, proved too controversial.{{Citation needed|reason=Reliable source needed for the whole sentence|date=May 2020}} In 1950, the ''[[Newark News]]'' 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."<ref>"Operation on the Doctor," ''Time'' (Dec. 26, 1950).</ref>

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]] often put Rex back in medical settings, either at his clinic or in the hospital. Beatty also had Morgan tackle [[pseudoscience]] in the form of a scam perpetrated by recurring [[con artist]] René Belluso, as discussed in a 2019 interview in [[Skeptical Inquirer]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/an-interview-with-terry-beatty/|title=An Interview With Rex Morgan, M.D. Writer/Artist Terry Beatty|work=Skeptical Inquirer|date=September 24, 2019|access-date=October 1, 2019|author=Susan Gerbic|author-link=Susan Gerbic}}</ref>

In 2019, the strip introduced Marti, a friend of Sarah's with [[Down syndrome]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.seattlepi.com/comics-and-games/fun/Rex_Morgan/2019-05-07/|title=Rex Morgan strip|work=[[Seattle Post-Intelligencer]]|date=May 7, 2019|access-date=May 16, 2019}}</ref>

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.<ref>https://comicskingdom.com/rex-morgan-m-d/archive Rex Morgan, M.D. at Comics Kingdom, Sunday, January 30, 2022</ref>

==Artists and writers==
[[Nicholas P. Dallis|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 (comic strip)|Terry and the Pirates]]'' assistant [[Frank Springer]]. [[Fernando Da Silva]] briefly took over the strip in 1982, then in 1983 [[Tony DiPreta]] became the main artist. On 19 June 2000, long-time [[DC Comics]] artist [[Graham Nolan]] began a 13-year stint. On 30 December 2013, [[Terry Beatty]] 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 (artist)|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]]'' episode "[[Krusty Gets Kancelled]]", Homer Simpson is reading the [[Sunday comics|funny pages]] and comments, "Ah, ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'', you have the prescription for the daily blues."

Cartoonist [[Bill Watterson]] occasionally drew his syndicated newspaper comic strip ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' in the realistic style of ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'', when depicting six-year-olds Calvin and Susie playing "house."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/4/21/2912173/calvinhobbes|title=25 Great Calvin and Hobbes Strips|work=Progressive Boink|access-date=2017-10-28}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/16/dear-mr-watterson-celebrates-the-glory-of-calvin-and-hobbes-on-film|title='Dear Mr. Watterson' Celebrates the Glory of Calvin and Hobbes on Film|last=Jones|first=Malcolm|date=2013-11-16|work=The Daily Beast|access-date=2017-10-28}}</ref>

==See also==
*EC Comics' ''[[M.D. (comics)|M.D.]]''
*''[[Medic (TV series)|Medic]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://kingfeatures.com/comics/comics-a-z/?id=Rex_Morgan ''Rex Morgan, M.D.'' at King Features]
*[http://www.toonopedia.com/morgan.htm ''Rex Morgan, M.D.''] at [[Don Markstein's Toonopedia]]. [https://archive.today/20240528010904/https://www.webcitation.org/6nVxtXWhq?url=http://toonopedia.com/morgan.htm Archived] from the original on January 14, 2017.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20151018021742/http://articles.philly.com/1989-02-24/news/26155117_1_sally-starr-interviews-hound Rex Morgan, 67, Tv Personality During The '60s]
*[https://www.markcarlson-ghost.com/index.php/2019/01/07/rex-morgan-june-gale/ Rex Morgan and June Gale's Romantic Conundrum]

{{King Features Syndicate Comics}}

[[Category:1948 comics debuts]]
[[Category:American comics characters|Morgan, Rex]]
[[Category:American comic strips]]
[[Category:Comics characters introduced in 1948|Morgan, Rex]]
[[Category:Drama comics]]
[[Category:Fictional American physicians|Morgan, Rex]]
[[Category:Fictional American psychiatrists|Morgan, Rex]]
[[Category:Male characters in comics|Morgan, Rex]]
[[Category:Psychotherapy in fiction]]