| Apartment 3-G | |
|---|---|
 Panels fromApartment 3-G (1969), with the series' lead characters (l. to r.): Abigail "Tommie" Thompson, Lu Ann Powers and Margo Magee. | |
| Author(s) | Nicholas P. Dallis (1961–1991) Alex Kotzky (1991–1997) Lisa Trusiani (1997–2006) Margaret Shulock (2007–2015) |
| Illustrator(s) | Alex Kotzky (1961–1997) Brian Kotzky (1997–1999) Frank Bolle (1999–2015) |
| Current status/schedule | Daily and Sunday; concluded |
| Launch date | May 8, 1961 |
| End date | November 22, 2015 |
| Syndicate(s) | Publishers Syndicate (1961–1988) King Features Syndicate (1988–2015) |
| Genre(s) | soap opera, adults |
Apartment 3-G is an American newspapersoap operacomic strip about a trio ofcareer women who share an apartment inManhattan. Created byNicholas P. Dallis with art byAlex Kotzky, the strip began May 8, 1961, initially distributed by thePublishers Syndicate, which later merged withKing Features Syndicate in 1988.
The strip went through several changes of writers and artists over its 54-year run, finally ending on November 22, 2015.[1]
The strip's situations and characters were influenced by the soap opera stripMary Worth as well asRona Jaffe's bestselling 1958 novelThe Best of Everything.[2]
The three main characters are Margo Magee, abrunette who has variously held positions as a secretary,actors' agent,publicist andevent planner; Abigail "Tommie" Thompson, aredheadednurse; and Lu Ann Powers née Wright, ablondeart teacher.The appearances of the three main characters were loosely based on real actresses: Tommie was based onLucille Ball, Margo onJoan Collins and Lu Ann onTuesday Weld.[3]
Kindly neighborProfessor Aristotle Papagoras serves as a father figure.
Lu Ann, originally single, met and married aU.S. Air Forcepilot named Garth Powers (renamed Gary in a 2011 story arc) in 1964, after which she moved out of the apartment. She was replaced by another blonde, Beth Howard. Lu Ann's husband was later killed inVietnam and she eventually moved back into the apartment, while Beth was written out after falling in love with young physician Lester Pride.
There have been a number of other notable supporting characters in the comic strip throughout the years. Byron Frost was Margo's generally supportive boss from 1962 to 1990. Newton Figg (1966, 1971, 1977, 1980, 1986), the handsome but childlike author of children's books, talked to his pet stuffed animals as though they were real. Not surprisingly, he had some romantic challenges. Roberta Magee, Margo's temperamental mother, caused recurring troubles.
When Lisa Trusiani took over scripting the strip, stories began to revolve more around family relations. Gabriella Gatica turns up in 1999 as Margo's biological mother, a maid that Margo's father had had an affair with. Blaze Wright, Lu Ann's employment-challenged cousin and an aspiring actor, first appeared in 1998 and appeared off and on through 2011. Ruby Wright followed in 2007 and turned out to be Lu Ann's biological mother. Eric Mills, owner of the Mills Gallery, nurtures Lu Ann's interest in painting; he also became a reoccurring romantic interest for Margo in 2006-2008 (when he is presumed dead in an avalanche) and in 2014-15 (when he turns up alive after all).[4]
Alex Kotzky, who drew and inked in a tight and crisprealistic style, was the artist ofApartment 3-G for more than 30 years. When Dallis died in 1991, Kotzky began writing the strip. With Kotzky's death in 1996, his son, Brian Kotzky, took over as theApartment 3-G artist, and Lisa Trusiani became the scripter. In 1999,[6]Frank Bolle stepped in as the illustrator when Brian Kotzky left to become a teacher. WriterMargaret Shulock later succeeded Trusiani.
Dallis, formerly a psychiatrist, also created the soap opera comic stripsRex Morgan, M.D. andJudge Parker.
Alex Kotzky received the 1968National Cartoonists Society's Story Comic Strip Award for his work onApartment 3-G.