Why Does Mary Worth Look Different?

[ Edited the 15th of May, 2017 to add: ] I’m grateful you see this site as a place to learn what’s going on in Mary Worth. My most recent story summaries should be at or near the top of this link’s essays, if you are looking for some idea of what’s happening in the stories as stories and not just how they look.

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I know people wonder this, and will find my blog while searching for questions like “why does Mary Worth look different” and “is there a new artist on Mary Worth” and all that. In early May Joe Giella retired from drawing the Sunday editions of Mary Worth, which are mostly a recap of what had gone on the previous week but in fewer panels. I mean “had gone on” in the serial story comic sense, which is not to say that all that much happens, but it is doing better than Apartment 3-G. June Brigman and Roy Brigman began doing the Sunday strips.

Karen Moy and June Brigman’s Mary Worth for the 25th of July, 2016. The first daily Mary Worth not drawn by Joe Giella in something like a quarter-century. In the current storyline, Tommy’s girlfriend broke up with him, it happens, the same day he hurt his back lifting a thing. So he’s taking prescription painkillers, which because it’s a story comic, means he’s abusing prescription painkillers. Meanwhile Iris thinks late July is the middle of the college semester and is bouncing between classes. Don’t tell her.

Monday, June Brigman and Roy Brigman took over the daily art as well. Karen Moy’s blog explains that Giella is retiring, after a long career in the syndicated comics. That follows a long career in comic books, too, so I’m sure he’s taking some time to be by himself and roll down hills made up of his money. Moy points out that Giella does plan to still take commissions for painting and other artwork and that he’ll be at conventions, so this is your chance to commission that Mary Worth fanfic you’ve had in mind for years now.