Ken Ernst

[1] With his realistic style, uncommon in those early years, Ernst paved the way for soap opera strips that followed.

[7] Ernst also worked for National Periodical Publications on Larry Steele and at Western Publishing on Buck Jones, Tom Mix and Clyde Beatty.

According to Ernst in a comic-style segment from the January 8, 1949 issue of Collier's ("Mary Worth and Us" by Ken Ernst and Allen Saunders, p. 45), he and writer Allen Saunders replaced the "tear-stained melodrama" of Apple Mary, the strip's previous incarnation, with more "modern material-- stuff that might appear in slick paper fiction."

Ernst rendered the strip in a realistic style "inspired by that of his mentors Milton Caniff and Noel Sickles.

[8] Eminent comic strip historian Coulton Waugh made note of Ernst's "smooth, smart, dressy, modern style."

[12] In terms of style, later strips such as Rex Morgan, M.D., Judge Parker,[13] The Heart of Juliet Jones and Apartment 3-G[14] among others are said to have followed Ernst's lead.

On February 5, 1947, Ken Ernst chose University of Wisconsin student Ruth Schmitt as the model for a new character in his Mary Worth comic strip.