Back when I got The Washington Post daily, one thing I did every day, even if I didn't glance at the majority of the paper, was read the comic strips. Back in ye olden days, I started reading The Comics Curmudgeon, which is still going strong and still a great read. Josh introduced me to a number of comic strips and frequently covers the somehow still-ongoing legacy strips that are comic strip soap operas. I ignore most of them, but for some reason have become engrossed by Mary Worth.
Mary Worth is a classic soap opera. Storylines are bonkers and also take forever. For example, it's wrapping up a storyline that began in early March. The strip is set in Florida, I think; Mary Worth is an older lady lives in a condo complex called Charterstone and storylines mostly revolve around hijinks of the other residents; she usually pops up to give advice. Sometimes the storyline revolves around her (most famously in the days of her stalker Aldo Kelrast [yes, his last name is an anagram of "stalker"]), but usually not. The sad sack who frequently takes the spotlight is Wilbur Weston--balding, overweight, living alone with a fish, but somehow also the writer of an advice column called "Ask Wendy." His love life often provides fodder for the strip. He's kind of awful, but still manages to get a lot of girlfriends, so kudos to you, Wilbur!
In this current storyline, Wilbur recently took a vacation to Cancun, where he found a ladyfriend named Belle. Belle then shows up at Wilbur's doorstep and promptly tries to kill Wilbur's daughter Dawn, eat Wilbur's fish Willa, and then try to kill Wilbur and Dawn after Wilbur got upset at the potential fish-eating. Wilbur and Dawn were saved at the last moment when Belle's brother shows up to take her away, saying she's gone off her meds. The best part of this is that her brother looks exactly like Wilbur, just slightly taller and slightly thinner. It's amazing. Dawn comments on it, but...that's it. Dawn and Wilbur then spend a week consoling each other (Dawn is just coming out of a brief abusive relationship herself).
I'm not sure if other legacy comics strips go this hard. But there are enough storylines like this in Mary Worth that even now, long after giving up my daily Washington Post, after giving up my weekly Post as well, I will invariably go to ComicsKingdom.com to see what's going on. I never really watched soap operas growing up, other than a couple seasons of Sisters, if that counts. I guess this is how I make up for it. A guilty pleasure? Sure. I love that it's still being made in the year of our Lord 2025.
If you want a really deep dive into this, including an interview with Mary Worth's current writer and artist, you need to check out this entry on The Comics Journal.
“I do find that readers seems to enjoy the... wackier stories more?” [writer Karen] Moy told me. “I think Wilbur is a character that readers both love and hate. He’s kind of like George Costanza in Seinfeld, where readers are fascinated by him, but they can’t stand him. Some readers said that they would like to see him killed off three times a year. What fascinates people about this particular story is just Wilbur himself.”
I can't argue with that, honestly.
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