Motley's Crew was an American newspaper comic strip by Ben Templeton and Tom Forman with satirical social commentary. With readership spread among 250 newspapers in the United States alone, the comic strip acquired a highly devoted but relatively small group of fans during its 23 years of operation.
The comic strip, in general, was about a blue-collar worker named Mike Motley and his wife Mabel Motley. Truman Motley (Mike and Mabel's son) eventually fell in love and married a woman named Tacoma. From that marriage came two sons. Mabel's older brother Abel was often collaborating with his wife Buffy. Her role in being the middleman in the "friendly rivalry" between her brother Abel and her husband Mike is ultimately cancelled out by his mutual respect of both Abel and Buffy; they have a desire to visit Mabel on an occasional basis.
According to a 1997 comics poll conducted by the New York Daily News, Motley's Crew was elected as the 28th most favorite comic strip among readers and visitors to the official Internet site. The comic strip was considered to be more popular than B.C. (still in publication) but less popular than Broom-Hilda (still in publication). However, it also voted as the 30th least favorite comic strip in the same poll; indicating that more people liked the Motley's Crew comic strip than hated it. Templeton and Forman created the comic in 1976. It was first syndicated by what is known today as Tribune Content Agency on September 6 of that year. Templeton and Forman were working together on it until Forman's death in 1996. After Forman's death, Templeton continued alone. It continued until January 1, 2000.
The final week's strips dealt with the cast trying to cope with the possible effects of the Y2K bug. Earl had the computers in the factory "bug proofed" but for the year 3000. Mike had to fix the computers so they were ready for the year 2000 instead. On the first day of the year 2000, the final comic strip ever to be printed presented long-time fans and casual readers with a sign with the words "This space for rent."
Since then, Motley's Crew comic strips have been sought by collectors of contemporary comic strips. Archived comic strips can be viewed on Google News Archives by simply typing in the name of the comic strip. However, not all issues of the Motley's Crew comic strip are available to view on the Google News because they stopped scanning old newspapers in May 2011.
Cast of characters
Mabel Motley
In the comic strip Motley's Crew, Mabel Motley was a stay-at-home mother. Her eyes were drawn throughout the comic strip series as a simple narrow dot. Mabel's primary task in the family was to cook and clean while her husband was working and providing a paycheck for the family unit. Eventually, she became a grandmother later in the lifetime of the comic strip. Mabel revealed some of the aspects of her personality during her time as a wife and a mother. She would frequently complained about her husband spending his weekend afternoons doing nothing but watching sports on the television. With all the masculine elements that the comic strip portrayed, having Mike Motley married to her provided a feminine balance to the comic strip.
Mabel jokingly described her marriage to Mike as a "no-huddle marriage" when they were receiving marriage counseling. She proudly maintains a "smoke-free" house to the chagrin of her husband's friend Cronin. Some issues of the comic strip would show Mabel having a developed bust line, particularly if she is wearing a nightgown. Gardening to an extremely strict daily routine was also a part of her life; even to the point of doing it in a terrible rainstorm and worrying her adult son Truman.
Setting her husband straight was always one of Mabel's things that kept her occupied. After Mike tried to bend the rules for certain situations, she would get upset with him. Strong criticism is often a part of being around her husband Mike. For example, a situation occurred where Mike refused to wear a necktie to a wedding service. Mabel even forced her husband put on a formal outfit that wasn't exactly perfect in order to create an illusion of dignity for Mabel's side of the family.
Abel and Buffy are two beloved members of her family; with Abel being her brother and Buffy being her sister-in-law. Like his brother-in-law Mike, Abel has been known to enjoy a good drink of beer. However, Abel and Buffy both have a "friendly rivalry" against Mike; a stereotypical trait used throughout mainstream media when depicting in-laws.