Comic strip and comic artist, animation showrunner, and graphic novelist Leonard Starr passed away Tuesday, according to this excellent obituary on Mark Evanier’s blog.  Starr was probably best known for his run on the daily Annie strip, which he took over after Harold Gray, but he also did a lot of comics art in the 40s and early 50s; had a long run on his own strip, Mary Perkins On Stage, which ran for over 20 years in the 50s-70s; was the showrunner on Thundercats; and did a series of Kelly Green graphic novels with Stan Drake. 

Mary Perkins on Stage is being collected by Classic Comics Press (Volume 14 in August), which also plans a hardcover volume compiling all of the Kelly Green graphic novels in December.