The legacy comic strip Mary Worth has appeared in American newspapers, in various forms, for over ninety years.  The strip's well-known format -- in which the eponymous, widowed matron encounters people at a crisis point in their lives and then, after bearing witness to, counseling, and sometimes actively aiding them, moves on -- has entertained and amused generations of readers.

The strip has, of necessity, undergone many changes since its heyday when it was written and drawn by Allen Saunders and Ken Ernst, respectively.  In later years, the title character became less peripatetic, having moved to the Charterstone condominium community in the fictional town of Santa Royale, California.  Nevertheless, she continued to travel on occasion and would have new adventures and, while at home, the stories often would feature any of a rotating cast of regular characters.

In July 2016, the team of Karen Moy, who had been writing the strip since 2004, and June Brigman, who began drawing the Sunday strip in May 2016, took full creative control.  

In the nine years since then, the Mary Worth franchise has gone into steep decline.  It is marked by lazy drawing (Brigman relies heavily on recycled panels, among other artistic sins); poorly plotted and incoherent storylines that do not provide a narrative arc, true conflict, or resolution of any kind; an almost complete dependence on cliché, sentimentalism, and empty rhetoric; the degradation of regular characters into broadly drawn caricatures; a winkingly-offered array of internal rituals (the muffin interlude, the sunset cruise aboard Dr. Jeff's yacht followed by dinner at the Bum Boat) that appear to be intended as camp but are in fact irritating and narratively unnecessary; and, finally, the incompetent execution of the stories, each of which lasts far longer than it should, denies readers any of the satisfactions implied by the premise, and is followed by a ridiculously drawn-out and completely redundant epilogue.

The currently concluding storyline offers a case in point: Wilbur Weston, who began as a competent if somewhat unexciting journalist and single father but has degenerated in recent years into an unsympathetically clownish boor, invited a casual paramour into his home who turned out to be an unmedicated, murderous psychotic.  Although it may have been unrealistic to hope for Moy and Brigman to deliver actual mayhem to the Weston household, the storyline, despite offering some initial promise, ended on an abrupt and most unsatisfactory note.  Most unforgivably, the extended aftermath of the story, in which various configurations of characters meet to discuss its events and implications (while saying absolutely nothing of substance about them), has been dragging on for nearly a month.  

It seems almost as if Moy and Brigman are deliberately conspiring to destroy the Mary Worth franchise -- once again, a proud legacy strip with a long history -- through incompetent and lazy storytelling and art. What is beyond doubt is that they are not attending to their duties with the care and engagement one might reasonably expect from those in charge of a nationally syndicated comic strip with a devoted readership.  

We, the undersigned, demand that Moy and Brigman be replaced by a writer/artist team who are committed to restoring Mary Worth to its past glory and providing stories and art commensurate with its future potential.