TRUMP MAGAZINE "Common Cold"

The Dreaded Deadline Doom Caught Us on Black Friday...

...so we hope a re-presented kool short will tide you over until we get back on schedule!

This feature from Playboy Press' Trump Magazine #1 (1957) was written by either Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder (or both) and illustrated by Al Jaffee.

After leaving MAD magazine, Kurtzman and Elder convinced Playboy creator/publisher Hugh Hefner to finance an even more adult humor magazine with the same high-quality production values as Playboy (but in black and white, not color, to keep down costs).

Though the magazine was selling, and the audience increasing as of the second issue, an economic downturn forced Hefner to cut back on titles, so the magazine ended its' run with #2...though the third issue was in preparation at the time.

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TRUMP

Complete Collection

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DOCTOR DAN DAZZLER "Dial EMERGENCY..."

Tucked behind the comic book adventures of TV's Ben Casey...

...was a strip about a young interne (as they spelled it back then)!

This premiere appearance from Dell's Ben Casey Comics #2 (1963) was scripted by Carl Memling and illustrated by Norman Nodel who did several chapters before moving on to other assignments.

BTW, Doctor Dan Dazzler is our new ongoing feature, appearing monthly.

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M.D.

Volume 1

The First Newsstand Comic Dedicated to the Medical Profession!

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NELLIE THE NURSE "Sweets For the Not-So-Sweet!"

Among many "lost", never-reprinted comic book series...

...was this amusing one about childhood "besties" who ended up working together at the same hospital!

Even though Snazzy's an intern/resident, Nellie's a nurse and Speed is an ambulance driver, the three don't allow professional, social or financial status to affect their decades-long relationship as equals!

Also note that Nellie is an extremely-comptetent professional, unlike the stereotype of the beautiful-yet-ditzy nurse prevalent in media of the period!

This story from Timely's Nellie the Nurse #2 (1946) reads like a radio dramedy (there was no TV back then), with lots of witty and charming character interplay.
Sadly, there are no credits for the creatives, even though the book was published by what is today Marvel Comics!
Apparently, they tossed the records during one of their many moves to new offices through Manhattan over the years!
Nellie the Nurse survived for 36 issues from 1946 to 1952, despite a couple of reformattings from this relatively-sophisticated version to becoming a stereotypical ditz, to vaudeville-level slapstick humor illustrated in an Archie Comics/Dan DeCarlo art style before being moved to the back of Millie the Model, where she lasted until 1958!
(She even did a cross-over with Millie the Model, which we'll bring you soon!)

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Night Nurse

CITY SURGEON "Plague"

With RFK Jr about to become the Surgeon General of the US...

...we want to look at an example of how graphic fiction portrayed pandemics such as anti-vaxxer Kennedy seems to want to happen!

So the theme of this never-reprinted tale from Gold Key's City Surgeon #1 (1963)  shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone!

Tell the truth, Nurse Lake seems to be brains of the operation!

She's the one who figures out one of the two missing crewmen might already be deceased, and her quick thinking immobilizes the other when he shows up at the office!

In the early 1960s, one of the most-popular genres in pop culture was "medical drama"!

Spearheaded on TV by hunky prime-time physicians Dr Kildare and Ben Casey along with the related series The Nurses as well as daytime soap operas with hospital settings and paperback romance novels with covers featuring "studs in scrubs" with swooning nurses, comics hopped on the medical bandwagon!

DC and Marvel simply ran more medical-themed tales in their existing romance books.

But the smaller publishers were another matter...

Charlton launched numerous series featuring doctors and nurses in separate titles including Cynthia Doyle: Nurse in Love, Dr Tom Brent: Young Intern, Nurse Betsy Crane, Young Interns, and Sue & Sally Smith: Flying Nurses.

(Oddly, there were never any cross-over stories between the various books!)

Archie Comics published a short-lived series about Young Dr Masters!

Dell had popular comics based on Dr Kildare. as well as their own Nurse Linda Lark!

Gold Key published two different Ben Casey comics (including one done "fumetti" style using photos of the TV actors with captions and word balloons) and created their own doctor in City Surgeon!

Unfortunately, artist Jack Sparling's illustrations weren't consistent, showing Dr Blake Harper as young and virile in one panel and middle-aged in the next on the same page!

Plus there was no romantic element to the book!

For whatever reason, there was never a second issue of the title and Dr Harper never made another house call...

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Cornered

Benign Humor Medical Cartoons

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Post-Halloween Hospital Horror Humor MAD "New Movie Monsters from the Medical World!"

We're Enjoying the Halloween Season So Much...

...We Just Can't End Our Celebration Without One More Entry,This Time, to Tickle Your Funny Bone!

Written by E Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Jack Rickard, this short from EC's MAD #144 (1971) hasn't been seen since a reprint in 1980, so, unless you own one of those 44-year old (or older) issues, this is the first time you've seen it!

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MAD Overboard

1978 Paperback Which Reprints this 1971 Feature!

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