Friday, September 24, 2021

TRAMP DOCTOR "Fugitives"

Crime comes to the island...
...as a couple in trouble arrive surreptitiously by boat!
Mikeli is a real blabbermouth, isn't he?
On the other hand, Dr McCutchin knows how to utilize his snoopy tendencies to advantage, as seen here!
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Friday, September 17, 2021

MR ANTHONY'S LOVE CLINIC "If Only You'd Grow Up"

You think today's 18-30 crowd has problems "adulting"?
It ain't a new phenomenon, as this never-reprinted tale from Hillman's Mr Anthony's Love Clinic #1 (1949) proves!
You may well ask: "Who the hell is this Dr Phil wannabe?
To start with, he wasn't actually "John J Anthony".
His name was Lester Kroll.
He wasn't a doctor,...or even a licensed therapist!
In fact, he was a high school dropout!
But he had a great voice, so he became a radio disc jockey!
He suffered clinical depression and sought therapy...which gave him an idea.
Utilizing his sons' names (John and Anthony) he created the persona of "John J Anthony" and his show dropped the music format, creating what many historians consider the first interactive "talk radio" show!
If you're wondering why people accepted him without question as an authority on such things, he claimed he was the director of the Institute of Martial Relations on the campus of Vassar College...then a women-only university!
(So, no, the Institute didn't exist!)
His top-rated radio show became the basis for a licensed romance comic from Hillman in 1949.
But the show's name (Good Will Hour, later The John J Anthony Hour, wasn't dramatic enough!
So the comic was given the catchier title "Mr Anthony's Love Clinic"!
The comic seems to have been based on actual situations drawn from episodes of the radio show, but since so few of them survived to the present in any form, there's really no way of knowing!
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Friday, September 10, 2021

9/11 Tributes to Medical Personnel

Many consider EMTs (Emergency Medical Techs) to merely be glorified ambulance drivers!

Those idiots couldn't be further from the truth!
Full-page art from Marvel's Heroes #1 (2001) Art by Phil Winslade.
The story below is from DC's 9-11 The World's Finest Comic Book Writers & Artists Tell Stories to Remember #2 (2002).
Both comics were "benefit books" whose creatives, production staff, printers and distributors took no payment for their services!
Even the cost of the paper and ink was absorbed by the publishers!
All money earned went to 9/11 relief funds!
Written by John Krach, penciled by Scott McDaniel and inked by James Pascoe.

Friday, September 3, 2021

Coronavirus Comics HIT COMICS "Red Bee vs the Medical Grifters"

Numerous comic book characters have fought to protect America from medical threats...
...whether from terrorists/saboteurs from other countries or criminals right here in the good ol' USA!
This never-reprinted story from Quality's Hit Comics #2 (1940) was written by Toni Blum (one of the few women writing comics during the Golden Age), but the artist under the "B H Apiary" pen-name is unknown. (An apiary is a group/colony of separate bee hives close together)
While other characters like The Crimson Avenger and The Sandman borrowed The Green Hornet's "wanted criminal in a fedora and overcoat" motif, the Red Bee took the "colorful insect wanted by the police" concept and went in a different direction...a skintight costume with transparent sleeves and actually using live insects!
Besides trained bees (Can you actually train bees?), the two-fisted adventurer used a "stinger" gun that shot tranquilizer darts (paralleling the Green Hornet's knockout-gas gun)!
Note: bees, wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets are all from the same sub-species of insects.
Quality's editors must've thought the concept was a winner, since the Red Bee was cover-featured on Hit Comics' first issue, plus a run of several consecutive issues a few months later.
(Most of the time, characters were rotated, with each one getting a cover every 3-4 issues!)
Despite the promotional push, the Red Bee disappeared after Hit #24, but returned in DC's All Star Squadron in the1980s, only to be killed off shortly after his reappearance!
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PICTURE STORIES FROM SCIENCE "Fighting Germs with Germs: the Story of Vaccination and Innoculation"

This comic tale from the 1940s explains the benefits of vaccination  in such a simple, graphic way... ...that even a regressive Reich-wing a...