HOPE SHIP Part 2

Before We Continue, a Little Bit of History...

Now, on with the story...

After re-provisioning and taking on replacement crew and medical personnel, the medical ship S.S. Aid responds to requests for medical assistance after an earthquake in the Asian city of Jahira...

To Be Concluded, Next Friday!

The book's unknown writer obviously-wanted to make the oddly-named Dr McDanger an exciting hands-on, yet conflicted, protagonist!

A healer with a mysterious, apparently violence-ridden past, willing to take outlandish risks to help suffering innocents!
Not exactly what a reader picking up this comic might have expected...

HOPE SHIP Part 1

With Don da Con's Proclamation About Sending a Hospital Ship to Greenland...

...(Lord only knows why), it reminded me that there actually was a comic about such a vessel (albeit fictional) from the 1960s!

To Be Continued Next Friday

Produced in 1963, Dell's Hope Ship (1963) was a weird combination of historical fact and hysterical fiction!

While the history of previous medical practices on civilian and military vessels was fairly accurate, the situations the fictional U.S.S. Aid encountered were anything but accurate!

Apparently-inspired by the exploits of the S.S. Hope, the worlds first civilian hospital ship, which had just competed three assignments to international acclaim, this tale, illustrated by Edd Ashe, wasn't sponsored by any medical organization, nor sanctioned by any government department.
It's one of those unusual projects that pops up from time to time, then disappears into obscurity!

MODNIKS "Noel Talent: the Most Unkindest Cut"

By the early 1970s, Jack Davis was an established, successful, and busy, commercial artist...

...so when was this weird filler short, published in 1970, created?

Written by Gary Poole and illustrated by Davis, this one-off tale appeared in the second (and final) issue of Gold Key's Modniks in 1970.

But here's the weird part...

The previous issue of this title appeared three years earlier...in 1967!

That's a loooonnng time between issues!

Plus, Davis had never done any work for Gold Key, and it had been years since Jack had done any work for Dell (which Gold Key split-off from years earlier)!

And, Poole didn't start working in comics until the mid-1960s, after GK had split from Dell, so this wasn't leftover inventory from that period!

Did Davis know Poole (who had been a radio/tv writer for years before coming to comics) and illustrated this as a favor for a friend entering the field?

We'll never know...

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Drawing American Pop Culture: a Career Retrospective
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Best of True Love in the Emergency Room YOUNG ROMANCE "Full Hands - Empty Heart!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Bob Oksner and Frank Giacoia

...Nurse Phyllis Carter and Doctor Allan Tate bond over working together in the ER, and a romance develops between the medical professionals.
But it's a romance with a complication the medical professionals never thought they'd have to deal with...

Wait!

The Doctor she's working with has just been murdered in fromt of her!
Even if she wasn't romantically involved with him...they can't let her sit down and rest?

She's clearly in shock!
I wouldn't want her near patients in her present condition!
Plus, wouldn't the police want to talk to her as a witness to the murder?
Speaking of that...has anybody restrained Johnny?
Written by Robert Kanigher, penciled by John Rosenberger and inked by Vince Colletta, this cover-featured story from DC's Young Romance #194 (1973) tries to jam a legitimate moral into the last few panels instead of giving it an extra page to play out in a more coherent manner.
Editor/writer Robert Kanigher was the most vocal proponent of racial equality in the DC editorial "Old Guard" of the 1950s-70s, scripting numerous anti-racist stories as well as introducing several Black characters into the DC Comics universe including...

...Nubia, the second ongoing character to bear the Wonder Woman title, as well as scripting this somewhat infamous Lois Lane story...

Though he meant well, Kanigher was rather heavy-handed, sometimes sacrificing plot logic (like the ending of "Full Hands, Empty Heart") to make a moral point.
Note: On some pages Phyllis (and other Black characters') skin is gray/purple and on some it's brown.
That's because on the pages showing her as gray, the color separators used the wrong combination of yellow, red (magenta) and blue (cyan) screens.
When the story was reprinted in Simon & Schuster's Heart Throbs: Best of DC Romance Comics (1979) trade paperback, the only editorial change was to correct the Black characters' skin tones.

All the other coloring remained the same.

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Best of True Love in the Emergency Room YOUNG ROMANCE "Full Hands - Empty Heart!" Part 1

Since it's both Black History Month and almost Valentines Day...

..we thought we'd re-present a two-parter featuring a Black medical professional in a romantic relationship!

Note: On some pages Phyllis' skin is gray and on some it's brown.

That's because on the pages showing her as gray, the color separators used the wrong combination of yellow, red (magenta) and blue (cyan) screens.

To find out what happens next...

Be Here Next Week

for the heart-rending conclusion as well as some background about the writer of the tale!

Support Medical Comics and Stories

Heart Throbs
Best of DC Romance Comics
(Which reprints this story)
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