Kelly Knight has been the longtime babysitter for the Morgan kids. She and her boyfriend Niki Roth, and their friends Justin and Russell, were introduced before when Terry Beatty took over the writing. Maybe even before he took over the drawing. I have only dim recollections of those times but believe they came in as nogoodniks straightened out by the good influence of the Morgans. Their talk about high school feeling like a decade is a gentle tap at the fourth wall, and how even story strip characters only age sometimes.
We don’t learn Justin’s last name, by the way. At graduation he’s announced as “Justin … I have no idea how to pronounce this last name”. I trust this is an extension of the joke Terry Beatty enjoys where we don’t see Edward’s ugly Dog. But I can offer this testimony as someone whose last name people somehow don’t know how to approach: yeah, this happens. Or, more often, my name is read out as “Joseph … [ panicked silence ]”. When I did graduate college we were given a card and asked to write a pronunciation guide to help the poor readers out.
This should catch you up to mid-August 2023 in Terry Beatty’s Rex Morgan, M.D.. If you’re reading this after about November 2023, there’s probably a more current plot summary here. Now to the last three months’ events.
Rex Morgan, M.D..
28 May – 20 August 2023.
My last check-in with Rex Morgan, M.D. was at the end of the Mud Murphy/Rene Belluso story. The next week we got to see Kelly Knight, teenage babysitter for the Morgans for ages now. Graduation is worrying Sarah Morgan, who doesn’t want to lose her babysitter. Also, Kelly is worried that she and Niki will drift apart or worse when they go to college. Also, Niki doesn’t think he wants to go to college. At least not right away; he’s been doing auto body work and is thinking to work in vintage car repair and restoration. It’s a small niche, yes, but one that pays well. Someone should warn him that yeah, but your customers are all Vintage Car Guys.
The 3rd of July starts the middle story of this. It’s the 4th of July story, with the real action coming enough later that the Morgans are annoyed someone’s still setting off fireworks. And then one of the firecracker explosions is followed with howls of pain.
One of their neighbors, Travis, got a firework in his eye. Rex and June examine it and then rush him to the hospital. (We learn that Travis, his wife, and kid, make a living in social media, having gotten into the toy-unboxing craze early. Rex Morgan is a bit stuffy about how is that a thing. But I appreciate the strip presenting that some people have weird jobs and it works for them.) At the hospital, in-between rounds of explaining that fireworks are dangerous and people get injured by them, Rex Morgan learns the hospital’s short-staffed. All those firework injuries plus some folks on vacation. The best chance to save any of Travis’s eyesight is for Rex Morgan to scrub up and do some eye surgery.
The interesting thing is he enjoys this, and realizes he’s missed it. So he talks with June, and then with Dr Jacobs, the head of surgery. He’s going to be taking up some surgical shifts, as many as he likes. It’s a prospect of medical scenes we haven’t had in a while.
That bit, mostly promising future stories, wrapped up the 30th of July. Since then we’ve been in the current story, which started with intellectual property agent Buck Wise and his family. His young girl Angela has a new favorite cartoon, “Li’l Fergus, the Boy with a Beard”. It stars an amiable-looking bearded kid who sings twee songs that her father doesn’t get. Then there’s a knock at the door.
It’s Mud Murphy, last seen in the story that wrapped up my last plot recap. He’s come to Buck Wise to apologize for having been such a jerk. Buck is stunned, since who ever heard of someone apologizing for being a jerk? But Murphy means it, and he explains how his life got turned around by “Doctor Mirakle”, Rene Belluso’s self-help scam that he found true wisdom in.
Much as Buck can hardly believe it, Angie can hardly believe Li’l Fergus is here! Talking with her! And being just wonderful! And here Terry Beatty connects a line that I missed. The guy on the CRUISE SHIP who approached Mud Murphy about this cartoon was Buzzy Cameron. We saw him a little trying to get the cartoon rights for the Kitty Cop books.
The Glendale swing of Mud Murphy’s apology tour has mixed success. Buck Wise is up for it. Lou, owner of the club where Murphy upstaged Truck Tyler by feigning sickness, is not. When he does approach Truck Tyler, a man who calls people “galoot”? Truck makes a big enough scene that diner owner Wanda, a woman who describes things as a “ruckus”, threatens to kick Truck out.
And this is where we’ve gotten this week. What’s up next?
Next Week!
That’s right, it’s the most narratively dense comic strip about high school kids playing softball and stuff! Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Gil Thorp gets an at-bat soon. This I know they’re not going to summarize for me.
To pronounce my last name correctly, whether or not you’re apologizing, say “Knee”, as in the leg joint that aches, and “bus”, as in the omnibus. Stress on the first syllable. To pronounce my last name incorrectly, mimic anyone trying to read my name off a card.
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