Heart of the City

Heart of the City is a comic strip created by Mark Tatulli and currently drawn by Christina "Steenz" Stewart that began syndication by Universal Press Syndicate on November 23, 1998. It is currently syndicated by the Newspaper Enterprise Association. The strip centers on a young girl, named Heart, who lives in Philadelphia. Characters Heart Lamarr: Heart is the precocious and somewhat egotistical title character of the comic. In Tatulli's strips, Heart's primary characteristic is her obsession with all things Hollywood and celebrity fads. In Steenz's strips, her interests focus more on theatre and acting. In the first 20 years of the strip, her main goal in life is to be a mega-star before hitting the teenage years, a goal which is continuously thwarted by the combined forces of reality and her mother. Her goals eventually shifted to becoming a writer (during the final years of Tatulli's run) and later to becoming an actress (during Steenz's run). She is good friends with Kat and Dean but is nevertheless not immune to conflicts with them, which are often driven (especially during Tatulli's tenure) by her jealousy (in the case of Kat) or disdain towards geek culture (in the case of Dean); these conflicts occur less frequently in Steenz's version of the strip. She takes obsessive interest in various different media sensations throughout Tatulli's run, such as The Jonas Brothers in the 2000s and One Direction in the 2010s. Heart got her unusual first name from a poem given by a nurse to Heart's mom shortly after she was born:  "A mother holds her child's hand for a while ... her heart forever." Dean: Heart's "boyfriend," the term she uses to describe him (though Dean does not appear to think they are a couple, he does reciprocate her feelings of affection). A typical young boy who is obsessed with various franchises, chief among them being Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. He is often seen dressing up in costumes as various characters from his favorite movies and acting out random scenes, occasionally with Heart's help. His last name is revealed to be "Tatulli" in the Steenz version of the strip. Addy Lamarr: Heart's mom, a single mother constantly struggling to hold on to sanity. She is often seen struggling to pay bills while balancing her career with her time with Heart. Addy had wanted to be involved in film production, a dream job she sacrificed after her whirlwind marriage and the birth of Heart.