Not Who You Think WILD "Florence Nightgown"

Almost everyone in medical practice (especially nursing) knows of, and is inspired by...

...the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale, OM/RRC/DStJ.

However, our tale today sure as heck ain't about her...

Illustrated by Al Hartley, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Wild #3 (1954) was typical of the four MAD comic clones (Riot/Snafu/Crazy/Wild) the company had out at the same time!

Each one had a parody of a historical figure, a spoof of a current movie/tv/radio show, a humorous look at a genre like horror/Western/romance/crime, and a couple of 1-2 page features about almost anything!

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Sincerest Form of Parody
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Sisters in Medicine SUE AND SALLY SMITH: FLYING NURSES "No Serum for Greed"

Though the title characters usually worked together...

...both Sue and Sally also had solo globe-trotting adventures!

The fraternal-twin Smith sisters worked for "Emergency Corps", a Doctors Without Borders-type organization that sent medical personnel to hot spots all over the world.

From forest fires to typhus outbreaks, the Flying Nurses could handle it all, as this never-reprinted story by writer Joe Gill, penciler Joe Sinnott and inker Vince Colletta from Charlton's Sue and Sally Smith: Flying Nurses #48 (1962) proves!

Notes: #48 was the duo's first issue!
Before that, the comic was My Secret Life, but after the duo debuted in #47...

...the book was renamed for them!

No mention of a psychic link the two shared in this debut tale was ever made again...which is a shame, because it really would have come in handy for them in later stories...at least until the book was cancelled with #54!

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Night Nurse
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DR ANTHONY KING: HOLLYWOOD LOVE DOCTOR "Too Fat for Love!"

 Remember "John Anthony", the radio talk show host who dispensed advice about romance?

Well, when he received his own comic, it inspired at least one publisher to put out an imitator!

Note that, though the cover reads "Hollywood Love Doctor", the feature itself is called "Hollywood Psychiatrist"!
(Perhaps the publisher thought putting "psychiatrist" on the cover would scare away readers!)

This never-reprinted tale of body-shaming from Toby's Dr Anthony King: Hollywood Love Doctor #1 (1952) was illustrated by Myron Fass.

The writer's name is lost to the mists of time.

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Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics
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LINDA LARK: REGISTERED NURSE "Prize Catch" & "Epilogue"

After Witnessing Dr Blasko (Whom She's Enamored of) on the Arm of an Actress Who Lusts for Him...

...Linda Lark leaves for the weekend and her BFF, Charley, assumes she's going home to Mother.

But she's actually spending the weekend with rich Dr Mayne...who lusts after her!

And now, because we don't want you to have to wait another week...

We can only speculate about Dr Blasko's answer since the story ends here.
Nurse Linda Lark will Return in July!

LINDA LARK: REGISTERED NURSE "The Play's the Thing!"

A Hospitalized Actress' Flirtations are Rejected by Dr Blasko!

And when the actress' significant other (who's also her co-star in a currently-running play) shows up, and flirts with Nurse Linda Lark, the actress dumps him and plots revenge against Lark...who's currently dating Dr Blasko!

The actress, Joyce Wilson, sends two tickets for tonight's performance of her play to Lark (whose date that night with Blasko is mysteriously cancelled)!

These events are all linked, as we shall soon see...

So Linda's not going home to Mommy!

She's going somewhere with rich physician Dr Mayne, who sees an opporutinity to lure her away from Dr Blasko!

Can this get any more soap opera-ish?

Judge for yourself, when we rejoin our carousing cast...Next Friday!

LINDA LARK: REGISTERED NURSE "Doctor Drama"

We're returning to the story of Nurse Linda Lark...

...noting that, in the space of a single issue, she's gone from student nurse to registered nurse!
Talk about your "best and brightest"!

The Drama Continues Next Friday!

This never-reprinted issue of Dell's Linda Lark: Registered Nurse #2 (1962), scripted and laid-out by John Stanley and penciled/inked by John Tartaglione is actually a soap opera-esque storyline spread over four chapters!
So, instead of spreading it out over several months, we're going to run it in weekly installments!
What we'll do with the remaining issues, which follow this format is yet to be decided...

EMERGENCY! "Hot Cargo!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Responding to a warehouse fire, Paramedics Gage and DeSoto discover the fire was set to cover the theft of cases of highly-radioactive radium chloride!

Unfortunately, the thieves damaged the casing of at least one of the containers, which is now leaking!
With one of the thieves captured and hospitalized, the police and paramedics have to find the thief still at large, secure the leaking containers, and treat the thief before radiation poisoning kills him and injures (or kills) any innocents he encounters!

Written by Joe Gill and illustrated (pencils and inks) by John Byrne as "Byrne Robotics", this never-reprinted, book-length story from Charlton's Emergency! #1 (1976) was part of a push by Charlton to do tv-tie-ins in both four-color comic book and b/w magazine formats!

(Besides Emergency!, they also did Six Million Dollar Man and Space: 1999 comics & magazines!)
Gill follows the TV series bible accurately in terms of characterization and Byrne is surprisingly-good at accurately-caricaturing the regular-cast!
Unlike the b/w magazine, the comic didn't adapt any aired episodes, but may have utilized plots and screenplays that weren't produced (reports vary).