Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Xmas in the Emergency Room YOUNG DOCTORS "Dr Tom Brent: Christmas Comes in August!"

You have no idea how few medical-themed Yuletide comics stories there are...

...until you try to find one...and end up with a tale that's the victim of terrible printing!
This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Young Doctors #6 (1963) unfortunately shows off the terrible printing Charlton Comics was famous for.
The publisher didn't utilize the printing companies literally every other comics publisher used.
Instead, to save money, they printed on old, second-hand presses.
But these presses had been constructed to handle cardboard and plastic packaging, not the much-thinner paper used for comics!
As a result, their comics had an amazing amount of smearing and off-register color, as you can see from the first page.
It's a shame, because the art by penciler Joe Sinnott and inker Vince Colletta deserves a better presentation!
BTW, Young Doctors was an anthology title featuring tales of all the MDs who had their own Charlton books, including, of course, Dr Tom Brent, Young Intern!
We're taking next week off, but we'll be back after New Year's Day!

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

THE NURSES "Heroine in White" Conclusion

...Don't you love it when the cover blurb tells you all you need to know?
Let's dive back into the action...

Written by Paul S Newman (no, not the actor) and illustrated by Jack Sparling, this never-reprinted tale from Gold Key's The Nurses #3, (1963) handled the matter of a nurse performing surgery with discretion (by all but ignoring it).
No penalty!
Not even a reprimand?
Well, it was 1960s TV, right?

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Wednesday, December 9, 2020

THE NURSES "Heroine in White" Part 1

Decades before NBC's Nurses...

...there was CBS's The Nurses, a prime-time TV show popular enough to support a comic book series!
Can a nurse perform surgery on a patient?
Will there be consequences, either personal or professional?
What if the patient dies?
Can she be accused of malpractice...or practicing medicine without a license?
The answers to these, and other questions about this never-reprinted story from Gold Key's The Nurses #3 (1963) can be found here...
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Friday, December 4, 2020

Before NURSES...There Was THE NURSES!

...focusing on (what else?) nurses in a big-city hospital.
But it's not the first prime-time show to emphasize "Angels of Mercy" over the MDs!
Back in the early 1960s, during the "hospital series" fad that swept TV, there was...The Nurses (Note the "The" in the title) on CBS!
To quote the official series synopsis:
Alden General Hospital's relentless war against Death sees the nurses fight shoulder to shoulder beside the surgeons and doctors.
Their operating gowns get as blood stained, their backs ache as cruelly from the grueling hours, their watch over the patients is as continued and concerned.
But there is a difference between the men and women at Alden General!
For within the heart of each woman another war must be waged--the battle between her devotion to her highly-professional career and her woman's need for a man's sheltering love!
This is the story of two of Alden General's finest---one a wide-eyed young student nurse at the start of her career, the other a head nurse, an attractive but lonely widow in her thirties.
How each fought her own war is the story of...The Nurses!
The series was popular enough to generate a number of now hard-to-find collectibles, including a board game, paperback novel series, and a three-issue comic book, from which we'll present a story next week!
Note: the series was retitled The Doctors and the Nurses in its' third (and final) prime-time season before becoming a daily daytime soap opera with the same characters, but totally-recast!
That version...restoring the original title of The Nurses, ran another three years!
Amazing what you can learn on this blog, eh?

Friday, November 27, 2020

Sensation Comics DR PAT "Case of the Absent-Minded Doctor"

The first female doctor to have her own comic feature...

...starts on a new path...medical crimefighter!
So Dr Pat's a liar?
Considering a medico's reputation is one of their primary assets, staging such an outlandish event to capture criminals seems like a poor way to handle the situation.
Obviously writer Robert Kanigher, penciler Carmine Infantino, and inker Frank Giacoia disagree with my belief!
I'm not sure why the creatives made this alteration to the series' concept, but it becomes the overriding them for the remainder of the series.
You can judge the results for yourself next month...
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The First Newsstand Comic Dedicated to the Medical Profession!

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Coronavirus Comics CINDERELLA LOVE "My Secret Yearning"

Beautiful socialite or dedicated lab assistant!
Who will win the handsome doctor?
It's a romantic triangle...created by disease!
Fran Matera illustrated this tale of desires, decisions, and disease from Ziff-Davis' Cinderella Love #7 (1952).
The writer is unknown, but it could be the book's editor Jerry (Superman) Siegel!
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Thursday, November 12, 2020

Sensation Comics DR PAT "Report for Romance"

OK, somebody has to come up with better story titles for this series!

Though the title is typical romance comics twaddle, the tale is anything but!
This never-reprinted story from DC's Sensation Comics #96 (1950) began a change in the strip's concept, as Dr Pat began using her medical skills and feminine wiles against criminals!
The romantic triangle involving both her fellow doctor and the reporter would continue!

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The First Newsstand Comic Dedicated to the Medical Profession!