Best of True Love in the Emergency Room YOUNG ROMANCE "Full Hands - Empty Heart!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Art by Bob Oksner and Frank Giacoia

...Nurse Phyllis Carter and Doctor Allan Tate bond over working together in the ER, and a romance develops between the medical professionals.
But it's a romance with a complication the medical professionals never thought they'd have to deal with...

Wait!

The Doctor she's working with has just been murdered in fromt of her!
Even if she wasn't romantically involved with him...they can't let her sit down and rest?

She's clearly in shock!
I wouldn't want her near patients in her present condition!
Plus, wouldn't the police want to talk to her as a witness to the murder?
Speaking of that...has anybody restrained Johnny?
Written by Robert Kanigher, penciled by John Rosenberger and inked by Vince Colletta, this cover-featured story from DC's Young Romance #194 (1973) tries to jam a legitimate moral into the last few panels instead of giving it an extra page to play out in a more coherent manner.
Editor/writer Robert Kanigher was the most vocal proponent of racial equality in the DC editorial "Old Guard" of the 1950s-70s, scripting numerous anti-racist stories as well as introducing several Black characters into the DC Comics universe including...

...Nubia, the second ongoing character to bear the Wonder Woman title, as well as scripting this somewhat infamous Lois Lane story...

Though he meant well, Kanigher was rather heavy-handed, sometimes sacrificing plot logic (like the ending of "Full Hands, Empty Heart") to make a moral point.
Note: On some pages Phyllis (and other Black characters') skin is gray/purple and on some it's brown.
That's because on the pages showing her as gray, the color separators used the wrong combination of yellow, red (magenta) and blue (cyan) screens.
When the story was reprinted in Simon & Schuster's Heart Throbs: Best of DC Romance Comics (1979) trade paperback, the only editorial change was to correct the Black characters' skin tones.

All the other coloring remained the same.

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Best of True Love in the Emergency Room YOUNG ROMANCE "Full Hands - Empty Heart!" Part 1

Since it's both Black History Month and almost Valentines Day...

..we thought we'd re-present a two-parter featuring a Black medical professional in a romantic relationship!

Note: On some pages Phyllis' skin is gray and on some it's brown.

That's because on the pages showing her as gray, the color separators used the wrong combination of yellow, red (magenta) and blue (cyan) screens.

To find out what happens next...

Be Here Next Week

for the heart-rending conclusion as well as some background about the writer of the tale!

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Best of DC Romance Comics
(Which reprints this story)
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Best of Xmas in the Emergency Room YOUNG DOCTORS "Dr Tom Brent: Christmas Comes in August!"

Its' the Day After Christmas...

...and I'm too full of spiked eggnog to do a new post, so here's a re-presentation of our first Christmas post from 2020!

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!
See you January 9th, 2026!

DOCTOR DAN DAZZLER "I Can't Breathe"

Here's Dr Dazzler's Final Improvised Medical Miracle...

...illustrated by returning artist Gene Colan!


It's odd that this never-reprinted story from Dell's Ben Casey #8 (1963-4) and the previous Dr Dan Dazzler tale illustrated by Gene Colan (shown HERE) feature the same basic plot...Dr Dan desperately needs rest, but circumstances keep him on his feet, heloping people!
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DOCTOR DAN DAZZLER "9 Lives Has Dr Dazzler"

One of the Weird Things About This Series...

...is that it reads like a series of one-shot stories about different doctors!

In the tale from the previous issue of Ben Casey, Dr Dazzler is shown to have acrophobia!

Yet here he is, merrily prancing around the building's superstructure without a care in the world!

Considering the same writer, Carl Memling, wrote all the Dr Dan Dazzler stories, the only way I can attribute this inconsistency is that they were initially-scripted as different doctors at the same hospital, but the (unknown) editor decided to make the feature about one doctor and just had whatever name was in the script relettered!

I'd also point out that, in every story, "Dr Dazzler" is drawn with different hair and facial features ranging from a callow 20-something with a full head of hair, to a middle-aged guy with a receding hairline!

It's a 'medical' mystery that'll never be solved...

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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!

MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS "No. 9 Swanson St."

Matt Baker Illustrated Few Medical-Oriented Tales...

...that didn't involve a hot 'n heavy romance featuring a doctor, nurse, or both!
But, this never-reprinted story is one of them!

From Charlton's Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #14 (1959), this Joe Gill-scripted, Matt Baker-penciled, and Vince Colletta-inked tale of a medical technician who eneded up at the wrong address wouldn't have been out of place as an episode of The Twilight Zone!

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CoronaVirus Comics UNUSUAL TALES "Incredible Advice"

Most of pioneering Black comic artist Matt Baker's work on medical-themed comics...

...usually involved beautiful nurses in torrid romances!

But not this never-reprinted tale...

This story from Charlton's Unusual Tales #20 (1960), written by Joe Gill, penciled by Matt Baker and inked by Vince Colletta has a weird Twilight Zone vibe to it.

Was it coincidence or fate...or something more that lead him to this particular old farmhouse?

Was the kindly old couple a pair of messengers?

And how did his sudden obsession with blueberries come about?
If we knew the answers, this wouldn't be such an...Unusual Tale...would it?

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