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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ROMANCES OF NURSE HELEN GRANT "You Cannot Marry!"

 A Year Ago, We Presented the First Chapter in This Medical Soap Opera One-Shot...

Nurse Helen Grant and Doctor Brian Clark are a team in the operating room...and on the dance floor!
Together, they solve problems both professional and personal...

A series about a totally-loyal, Lovestruck Nurse obsessed with a Handsome Young Doctor whom every female who walks through the Emergency Room doors lusts after!

Unlike Nurse Mary Robin who wavered in her loyalty to her Dr Love Object, eventually ending up with a different doctor, Nurse Grant seems determined to be by Doctor Clark's side...obviously as close as possible...until Death Do Them Part!
Was that the reason there wasn't an issue #2?
We'd have to ask plotter/editor Stan Lee, inker Vince Colletta, and the likely "ghost" penciler, Matt Baker, what they had in mind after this premiere issue of Atlas' Romances of Nurse Helen Grant #1 (1957).
But since they've all passed away, we'll never know!

NELLIE THE NURSE "Who Will Care for the Millionaire?"

After the Last Three Weeks of Conflict and Chaos...

...and what was happening in this blog on Hope Ship was no laughing matter either, we're going to offer some medical-oriented laughs!

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Dan DeCarlo (before he settled in at Archie Comics and visually-redefined the characters for decades), this never-reprinted short from Atlas' Mille the Model Comics #88 (1959) was actually left over from a Nellie the Nurse comic that only ran one issue in 1957!
(The story was meant for #2)

Halloween Hospital Horrors ADVENTURES INTO TERROR "Body Snatchers"

We Begin Out Our Annual Halloween Presentation...

...with an Example of the Way Colleges and Teaching Hospitals Used to Acquire Specimens for Anatomical Study!

Illustrated by Al Luster and plotted by Stan Lee, this sinister story from Atlas' Adventures in Terror #24 (1953) was typical of the 1950s Horror Age material comics published until Dr Fredric Wertham almost destroyed the comic book business with his Seduction of the Innocent hysteria that inflamed the American Public into believing that "comics caused juvenile delinquency"!

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ROMANCES OF NURSE HELEN GRANT "Unmasked Heart!"

Unlike Our Previous Nurse Soap Opera...

...the long-running Private Diary of Mary Robin R.N." this series ran only one issue!
We'll go into the likely reasons at the end of this story!

A series about a totally-loyal, lovestruck nurse obsessed with a Handsome Young Doctor whom every female who walks through the Emergency Room doors lusts after!

Unlike Nurse Mary Robin who wavered in her loyalty to her Dr Love Object, eventually ending up with a different doctor, Helen Grant seems determined to be by Dr Brian Clark's side...obviously as close as possible, until Death Do Them Part!
Was that the reason there wasn't an issue #2?
We'd have to ask plotter/editor Stan Lee, inker Vince Colletta, and the likely "ghost" penciler, Matt Baker, what they had in mind after this premiere issue of Atlas' Romances of Nurse Helen Grant #1 (1957).
But since they've all passed away, we'll never know!

The CrossOver That Shaped the Marvel Multiverse...

When Last We Left Linda Carter...
No, not that Lynda (with a "y") Carter!
This Linda (with an "i") Carter!
...we had learned she has an important place in the Marvel Multiverse!

As Douglas Wolk, author of the monumental work All of the Marvels put it...
"Still, I think of (Linda Carter: Student Nurse), rather than Fantastic Four, as being where the collective Marvel story really begins, for three reasons.
The first is that it was part of Marvel’s first shared-universe, multiple-series crossover, which was published immediately after Fantastic Four #1—and didn’t involve any superheroes."
I'd add that this was the first crossover between non-superhero characters who would also later appear within the Marvel Multiverse!

Without further adieu, here's the never-reprinted milestone from Atlas/Marvel's Patsy Walker #99 (1962)...

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Al Hartley (who, conveniently, happened to do those jobs on both the Patsy Walker and Linda Carter: Student Nurse comics!)

Both Patsy and Linda would later reappear in Bronze Age Marvel titles!,

Patsy would play a supporting role in ex-X-Man The Beast's short-lived strip in Amazing Adventures before following him over to The Avengers and finding a technologically-advanced costume which enabled her to become HellCat, then joining the team!

She's been a part of the Marvel Multiverse (including the Marvel Cinematic Universe) ever since!

(Fanboy/Girl Note: the costume previously-belonged to a heroine named The Cat...

...who had metamorphed into a were-cat using the name Tigra, and didn't need the outfit any longer!)

(I know, I know...TMI...but it's my blog, so bear with me!)
Linda, whose comic was cancelled after nine issues, would reappear in 1972...

...ironically, the same year as The Cat debuted!

(Amazing how all this stuff overlaps, eh?)

But. before Linda disappeared for a decade, she crossed-over with another character who would also become part of the Marvel Multiverse!

Her final issue, #9 in 1963 featured someone visiting her comic...in the last Linda Carter story published!
Don't let the title deceive you...

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Al Hartley.

Millie the Model was, until its' cancellation, Timely/Atlas/Marvel's longest-running, continuously-published title, (207 issues from 1945 to 1973)!
Millie, along with Patsy (and Hedy) made their Marvel Universe debut in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) as onlookers at the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.
Unlike Patsy, she never gained superpowers (except in a dream, as shown HERE), but has hung out with the Defenders, Dazzler, She-Hulk and The Sentry in their respective series as well as starred in a mini-series called Models, Inc about fashion models involved with superheroes!
But this mini-series is about Linda Carter.
Sadly, we've run our of room for this week.

So, be here next Friday, as we explore the 1970s incarnation of our favorite RN as she becomes...

Night Nurse!

(And we'll tell you the other two things Wolk said!)

It's worth the wait!

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The Secret Behind the Marvel Multiverse and Marvel Cinematic Universe...

...is revealed in this book by Douglas Wolk...

...who read almost every Atlas/Marvel comic cover-dated from September 1961 to the end of 2017, when he started writing this book!

He stated...
"...if there existed, say, an intricately interconnected, occasionally extraordinary 2,700-volume roman-fleuve concerning the nursing staff at a particular hospital over six decades—or a half-million-page comics epic about the same subject—and it had become a touchstone of contemporary culture, I bet I’d be interested in that too.

Around the beginning of Marvel, there was a moment where things could have gone that way.
In the fall of 1961, Martin Goodman’s comics line started putting a little logo on its covers: “M C,” which might have stood for Marvel Comics.
The first series to bear that logo on its debut issue, two months before Fantastic Four #1, was Linda Carter, Student Nurse..."

No, not that Lynda (with a "y") Carter!

This Linda Carter.

Co-created by writer Stan Lee and artist Al Hartley, she was one of the "comedy career girl" titles popular at that point in time.
Others included Tessie the Typist and Millie the Model.
Here's her never-reprinted premiere, setting up the premise and establishing an ensemble of characters...

This Stan Lee-scripted and Al Hartley-illustrated story (which makes no medical sense whatsoever) reads a lot like the other "career woman" strips, including Mille the Model, with a lovely, but slightly-ditzy lead character, a beautiful (but nasty) rival who continually-attempts to undermine the protagonist, a handsome guy both the protagonist and antagonist lust for, and assorted comedy-relief associates!
So why does Polk consider her the linchpin of Marvel fiction?
Again, in his own words...
"Still, I think of (Linda Carter: Student Nurse), rather than Fantastic Four, as being where the collective Marvel story really begins, for three reasons.

The first is that it was part of Marvel’s first shared-universe, multiple-series crossover, which was published immediately after Fantastic Four #1—and didn’t involve any superheroes."
I'd add that this was the first crossover between non-superhero characters who would also later appear within the Marvel Multiverse!
Curious?

Well, that's why you should be here...

NEXT FRIDAY

...to see what the heck he's talking about...and what the other two reasons are!

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All of the Marvels

by Douglas Wolk

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