The Press: Operation on the Doctor

• Share

At the Newark (N.J.) News (circ. 257,000) one day last week, Editor Lloyd M. Felmly studied some advance proofs of the comic strip, Rex Morgan, M.D., and came to a sharp decision. He killed the strip, in its place ran an explanation: future sequences "dealt with an attempted mercy killing and had no place on this comic page."

The Newark News was not the only paper that was disturbed by Rex Morgan, M.D., although it was the only one that threw it out. From Canada the Hamilton, Ont. Spectator dashed off a query to the syndicate; so did the staid Providence, R.I. Bulletin.

The strip worried them because it depicted a hospital nurse who had decided to engineer a mercy killing of her sick father. She had put an overdose of narcotics in a hypodermic so that her father's nurse, thinking she was giving a normal dose, would inject it and kill him. Was Dr. Morgan in favor of euthanasia? Said the syndicate: the strip did plan to present the pros & cons of euthanasia. But the syndicate added comfortingly: Dr. Morgan would not forget his Hippocratic Oath.

Mystery Man. Actually, none of the 235 papers (combined circ. 27 million) which print Rex Morgan should have been surprised at his new adventure. In the 2½ years since the strip first appeared, Rex Morgan's concern with the problems of medical life has prompted him to take up questions that old-fashioned cartoonists and some editors might well think "had no place" on a comic page. But for its sharp and accurate commentary on medical problems, Rex Morgan, M.D. has won the admiration of medical men across the land.

The big reason for its success among physicians is that the originator of Rex Morgan is a doctor himself who uses the pen name "Dal Curtis." His identity is kept a secret by Publishers Syndicate because Curtis, now 40, is practicing in an Eastern city and he fears his fellow doctors wouldn't like the idea of his comic-stripping on the side.

The Real Issue. As a boy, Curtis wanted to be a cartoonist, later changed his mind and attended medical school.

After his practice was well established, he turned to cartooning again, now sends his rough sketches and continuity to Chicago Artists Marvin Bradley and Frank Edgington to polish up. Bradley and Edgington collaborate in their detailed and realistic pictures of hospital life. Says Edgington, apropos of the endless hospital scenes: "I'm about the world's greatest expert on the drawing of beds."

The idea for Rex Morgan's current sequence came from a Roman Catholic priest. He suggested to Presbyterian Curtis a few months ago that people do not know enough about euthanasia or what the real issues are. Curtis decided to enlighten his readers as he has before on cancer quacks, police and psychology. All have brought a flood of mail from medical men. The letter that Curtis prizes most came from Dr. Charles S. Cameron, medical and scientific director of the American Cancer Society Inc. Wrote Dr. Cameron: "May I compliment you on the splendid service you are rendering the public?"