JUDGE PARKER #1 (FEBRUARY 1956)

Judge Parker started out as a soap oper-ish comic strip in the Mary Worth mode on November 24, 1952.  It was created by Nicholas P. Dallis, a psychiatrist who signed his work on this strip as "Paul Nichols."  Dallis (1911-1991) wrote the comic strip until 1990.  He also created the popular comic strips Apartment 3-G and, under the pen name "Dal Curtis," Rex Morgan, M.D.  Judge Parker and Rex Morgan, M.D. continue today; Apartment 3-G ended in 2015.  The original artist on Judge Parker was Dan Hellman, who continued drawing the strip until 1965.

Judge Alan Parker is a widower with two children, Ann and Randy.  In the storyline reprinted in this comic book, Ann, the eldest, is a student nurse, and Randy is a 17-year-old boy home from school for the summer.  The other member of the household is Mrs. Lila Benson, a motherly housekeeper.  Randy is enamored with Kathy, the wild (but not too wild) and rebellious (but not too rebellious) seventeen-year-old daughter of wealthy, social-climbing Mrs. Valentine.  Kathy's mother is set on matching her with David Craig (of the socially prominent Wellington Craigs, you know).  David is a crude, self-centered, egoist who tries to put the moves on Kathy -- at least, such moves that would be fit and proper for a 1950s family comic strip.  (Yes, Craig is a cad.)  Randy comes to Kethy's rescue, knocks David out, and takes Kathy home.  At her doorstep, Kathy gives her rescuer a kiss, only to be caught by Mrs. Valentine.  Upset at Randy for a) being a parvenu, and b) for not being one of the Wellington Craigs, you know, she forbids Randy from seeing her daughter.  Randy goes home to mope while Kathy's mother continues to push to make nice with David Craig (of the Wellington Craigs, you know).  Mrs. Valentine forces Kathy to go on a sailing date with Craig.  Meanwhile, Ann convinces her brother to go on a date with a nursing student friend of hers who decides it would be fun to visit the marina.  Craig, of course, had been drinking before he picked up Kathy for the sailing date, and began acting in a very crude manner.  Kathy makes an offhand remark about killing Craig, and one of the dockmen overhears it.  A sudden squall comes in and Craig refuses to head back to the marina.  He also refuses to put on a life jacket.  He falls down, drunk, and hits his head just as the boat capsizes.  After the storm, the Coast Guard spot the wrecked boat, with no sign of the occupants.  Soon, however, Kathy is spotted, clinging to a bit of flotsam.  David Craig has drowned, his body recovered later, with evidence of an injury to his head.  Craig's father blames Kathy and vows to have her prosecuted for his son's death.  He locates the dockhand who had overheard her threatening to kill Craig if she had half the chance.  Although things are looking dire for Kathy, she is believed and Craig's death is ruled accidental at the coroner's inquest.  The door is opened, however, for Craig's father to appeal... 

Throughout the story, Judge Parker is calm and reasonable, dispensing homely advice.  (In one panel he is pictured reading the newspaper in his easy chair, smoking his pipe and wearing a smoking jacket -- it's hard to picture anything more Father Knows Best than that.)  Among some of Parker's bon mots:  "Social presige comes as a reward for good citizenship!  It does not precede good citizenship."  

There's not much for Judge Parker to do in this story except be a calm presence.  And that, my friends, seems to be the essence of Fifties soap opera comic strip fathers.

Enjoy.

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