He'll Be Back

 Saturday Leftover Day.

 Last week I shared the last few weeks of Win Mortimer's work on the 'religious' soap opera David Crane (concieved and written by Mart Trail's Ed Dodd) and the first weeks of Craig Flessel's version. I promised more and here it is. 

After more than ten years on David Crane Craig Flessel left to go and do other stuff (including work for Playboy). The change in his style indicates he had less time to spend on it, so the number of papers carrying this one popular strip may have dwindled beyond the level Craig found his worth his effort. 

But who to replace him? Well, as it happens the original artist Win Mortimer was not having the best time. After Crane he had left for his home land Canada, done a mildly succesful adventure strip and returned to the comics. I have not checked specifically, but from what I remember having seen he was not getting as much work as he used to. He may have been among the people at DC who were phased out and he did do some work on Marvels romance and 'horror' titles - but he was not suited for superheroes and may have been struggling. So... he returned to David Crane and continued it more than four years (but more about that later). He doesn't skimp on rendering, like Flessel did and makes the most of it.

The transition itself was smooth, so I think it was planned. The storyline ends on a saturday and the next Monday Mortimer is back. I don't have the Sundays for this period, so I don't know if the transition was in the same week of two weeks earlier (as it was last time). There is no goodby for Flessel in the last panel, except that the girl asks him if she will ever see him again. But he answers that he she will see him, because he will need help with his studies. Next Monday it is not him who's back, but David Crane and Win Mortimer.

But there is more to come... next week I will look at the last strips by Mortimer. The final goodbye.