MARY LEE

Of all Hampson’s unpublished strips this is the most problematical. The fact that Mary Lee contains little or no dialogue (lost in the copying process) does not help. Nor could we find Frank’s notes. We do not even know who (or what) Mary is, but surmise she is either a woman detective or high-powered lawyer.

Her father (as you see) is injured in a car accident, and in the penultimate frame the doctor tells us: 'He's going to live all right, Miss Lee’. But in the final frame, where we can't read the dialogue, there's a proviso. And I suspect Dad ends up in a wheelchair, rather like the attorney hero Ironside, from American TV. Limited by paralysis, he uses his time helping Mary research and rethink her cases.

I stress, however, that this is speculation. If you know otherwise please get in touch.