Nor would Saunders, protesting: “Joe is very new on the job. North America Syndicate would not give out his telephone number. Giella, who Saunders says is in his 60s, could not be reached for comment. “I’ve had to write to them and tell them what happened.” “I had a couple of rather irate letters saying, ‘What’s the matter with you jokers? Do you hate us old people?’ ” Saunders says. David Aster, an associate editor of Editor & Publisher magazine, ranks Mary Worth 40th in popularity among the estimated 200 comics handled by major syndicates.īut a few of Mary’s fans were not amused when it appeared their heroine had surgically reversed the ravages of time. Mary Worth might not appeal to youthful readers who like Doonesbury or The Far Side, but she appears in about 400 newspapers throughout the world. In fact, she doesn’t quite understand the younger generation.” “Mary Worth is the last person in the world who would attempt to hide her age. We’ll start putting little chicken tracks around the eyes and a couple of laugh lines.’ She will age slowly and eventually get back to where she looks her age.” But I belive it is losing a large portion of possible fanbase by being right-winged to the extreme. The art fits well, the characters are fantastic, and it has a croud pleasing formula. When I spoke to Joe about it he agreed and said, ‘I’m having a problem with Mary. Nip and Tuck is my favorite out of RH Juniors set of comics, particularly because of its consistancy of being funny. “It also took me a while to realize Mary didn’t look quite the same. Saunders says he didn’t speak to Giella about changing it until about three months ago, mostly because he wanted Giella to get used to drawing Mary before he started criticizing his work: She’s a senior citizen.”īut what about Mary’s smooth, taut, wrinkle-free look? For all intents and purposes, she will always be a matronly lady, someplace below the age of 70-not far below. “Ken Ernst modeled Mary Worth after my mother. “They gave Apple Mary a whole set of new clothes, a stock portfolio and surrounded her with beautiful people,” says John Saunders, now 67, who took over writing Mary Worth when his father retired.
Saunders’ father, Allen, began doing the scripts and cartoonist Ken Ernst created the drawings-and Apple Mary was overhauled. In 1938, Orr got married and gave up the comic biz. The comic, created by Martha Orr, first appeared in 1934 as “Apple Mary.” Depression-style Mary was a bag lady, modeled after a character in the 1933 Frank Capra film, “Lady for a Day.”
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