XMas in the Emergency Room WITHIN OUR REACH "Home for Christmas"

Our Yuletide Tale Involves a Hospital and Terminal Illness...

...but there's no involvement by the patients with a doctor or other medical practitioner!

This tale, written by Shair and illustrated by Eric Shanower appeared in the Yultetide-season charity benefit book Within Our Reach (1991) with proceeds going equally to AmFAR and Sempervirens.

Besides AIDS patients, the comic ran stories about the poor and homeless, undocumented immigrants, and the clinically-depressed, all set at Christmastime.
The one-shot was the final publication by independent publisher Star*Reach, which became a "packager" providing editorial and art services for other publishers through the 1990s.

Merry Christmas

and

Happy New Year

We're taking next week off, but we'll be back the week after New Year's Day.

Behind the Operating Theatre AMERICAN SPLENDOR: ON THE JOB! "Veterans' Rights"

We presented an X-Mas-themed tale from this one-shot title HERE...

...and here's another story of one man's crusade against the Veterans' Administration's bureaucratic incompetence!

There's a lot more to medicine than the stories about doctors, nurses, techs, and ambulance drivers handling life-or-death situations!

There are the stories about how the whole hospital/doctor's practice is kept operating by the people the patient doesn't see...or even know about...like file clerks!

Written by Harvey Pekar and illustrated by Frank Stack, this story from Dark Horse's one-shot American Splendor: On the Job (1997) is part of Pekar's multiple award-winning, long-running, autobiographical underground comic series American Splendor.

After doing a stint in the Navy, Harvey spent most of his adult life as a file clerk at the Veterans Administration Hospital in his native Cleveland, working there (even while, beginning in 1976, writing American Splendor) until his retirement in 2001, at which point, the slice-of-life comic series and related projects became his full-time gig.
He passed away in 2010 from an accidental overdose of antidepressants while dealing with a third diagnosis of cancer.
(He had already successfully-overcome the disease twice.)

Please Support Medical Comics and Stories

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Best of American Splendor
(which contains this story and others from "On the Job")
Or

American Splendor: the Movie
Paul Giamatti IS Harvey Pekar!
(Not available on blu-ray? WHY???)
Paid Link

Xmas in the Emergency Room AMERICAN SPLENDOR: ON THE JOB! "Why Won't They Let Us Out?"

For those who work in support services in medical facilities...

...one tedious day is much like the other, even during the Yuletide season!

Written by Harvey Pekar and illustrated by Frank Stack, this story from Dark Horse's one-shot American Splendor: On the Job (1997) is part of Pekar's multiple award-winning, long-running, autobiographical underground comic series American Splendor.

After doing a stint in the Navy, Harvey spent most of his adult life as a file clerk at the Veterans Administration Hospital in his native Cleveland, working there (even while, beginning in 1976, writing American Splendor) until his retirement in 2001, at which point, the slice-of-life comic series and related projects became his full-time gig.
He passed away in 2010 from an accidental overdose of antidepressants while dealing with a third diagnosis of cancer.
(He had already successfully-overcome the disease twice.)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

&

HAPPY NEW YEAR

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!