Judge Parker
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See also:
- Judge Isaac Parker, United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas 1875-96
- Judge John J. Parker, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit 1925-58
Judge Parker is a soap opera-style comic strip created by Nicholas P. Dallis. It debuted on November 24, 1952.
Alan Parker was a widower with two children, Randy and Ann, who later married a younger woman named Katherine in the strip. Initially a dashing figure who solved crimes and chased criminals, in the 1960s he became an upstanding and serious judge who didn't stray as much from his courtroom. Instead, the spotlight began to focus on handsome young attorney Sam Driver, and Parker was almost entirely phased out of his own strip. Most stories revolve around Driver, his wealthy client and lover Abbey Spencer, and her two adopted children, Neddy and Sophie.
Dr. Dallis, a psychiatrist who also created the comic strips Rex Morgan, M.D. and Apartment 3-G, used the pen name "Paul Nichols" writing the strip. Shortly before his death, he retired, turning over the writing chores to his assistant Woody Wilson in 1990. The strip's first artist was Dan Heilman, who left in 1965 and was replaced by Harold LeDoux. LeDoux announced he was retiring, with his last strip running on May 28, 2006. A new artist, comic book artist Eduardo Barreto, replaced him; his first strip debuted the following day. Barreto suffered a near-fatal injury in a car accident in Uruguay shortly afterwards and couldn't do the strips for December 2006; as a result, Rex Morgan artist Graham Nolan did the strip for a week, and John Heebink took over the following week. Barreto resumed drawing the strip in January 2007.