- This article is about the comic strip. For the evil spirit that is sometimes known by this name, see Bloody Mary (folklore). For the poet, see Mary Wroth.
Mary Worth is a
newspaper comic strip, which has had a seven-decade run since it began in 1938 under the title
Mary Worth's Family. Distributed by
King Features Syndicate, this pioneering
soap opera-style strip had an influence on several realistically drawn continuity strips that followed. The strip, by
Allen Saunders and Dale Connor, initially appeared under the
pseudonym "Dale Allen".
Ken Ernst succeeded Connor as artist in 1942, and the title was shortened.
Harvey Comics published a comic-book spinoff,
Love Stories of Mary Worth, from 1949 to 1950.