PATSY WALKER "Great Idea!"

There used to be lots more to teen humor comics than just Archie and his friends...

...with every comics publisher from the late 1940s through the early 1970s doing them! 

Created by writer Stuart Little (no, he's not a talking mouse) and artist Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in Timely's Miss America Magazine #2 (1944).

Redheaded Patsy Walker, parents Stanley and Betty, boyfriend Robert "Buzz" Baxter, and insanely-rich, raven-haired friendly rival Hedy Wolfe appeared from the 1944 through 1967 in various teen humor anthologies as well as several self-titled comics.

Trivia: Patsy Walker (along with Millie the Model and Kid Colt: Outlaw) were the only titles published continuously by Marvel from Timely in the Golden Age, through Atlas in the 1950s, to Marvel in the  Silver Age!

Patsy, Buzz and Hedy are all part of the Marvel Universe from Marvel's Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) when Patsy and Hedy attended the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm!

Patsy later became the superheroine HellCat, and Buzz was revealed to be the supervillain Mad-Dog!

Patsy (and HellCat) appeared on the NetFlix series Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Defenders, played (at various ages from child to adulthood) by Rachael Taylor, Catherine Blades, and Audrey Grace Marshall, making her part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe!

(Note: she's called "Trish", not "Patsy" in the MCU)

Written and illustrated by the versatile Al Jaffee (before he moved over to MAD Magazine), this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Patsy Walker #36 (1951) promoted contributing to the charity created in 1946 by newsman Walter Winchell (best known today as the narrator of the 1960s TV show Untouchables) to honor his friend, writer Damon Runyon, who died of cancer!

The charity, now called Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, still exists!

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

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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MAD HOUSE COMICS "Donna...She's a Doozy"

Prime-time TV in the early 1960s was filled with medical series...
...and someone becoming obsessed with them wasn't a rare situation...though perhaps not obsessed to the extent of this never-reprinted story's protagonist!

Was this one-shot from Archie's Mad House Comics #35 (1964), illustrated by Dan DeCarlo, meant as a "pilot" for an ongoing strip?

The use of the character's name as the story title instead of a medical-show pun would seem to indicate it!
BTW, the TV show titles in the story are variations on actual TV show titles.
Can you figure them out?
We'll give you two for free...
"Dr Ben Casebook" is Ben Casey, one of the major "heartthrob doctor" shows of the era.
"Ambulance 54" is "Car 54, Where Are You?", which was actually a police comedy!
Good luck with the rest of them...

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CRAZY "Flu Strains from DIfferent Countries"

You thought that, during the 1970s, we were becoming more sensitive to ethnic humor?

You obviously weren't around then, bunkie!

While TV series like All in the Family and films like Kentucky Fried Movie were cleverly skewering racial stereotypes, some pop culture contributors were still indulging in them, as this (not surprisingly) never-reprinted feature from Marvel's Crazy Magazine #43 (1978) proves!

I don't know what writer Fred Wolfe and artist John Langton were thinking when they created this, but the fact that editor Paul Laikin let it see print doesn't speak well for any of their sensibilities!

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ARCHIE'S JUGHEAD "Jughead in 'The Patient' "

What happens when the best friend of America's Most Famous Comic Book TeenAger is taken ill?

Well, it seems the gang's true feelings about him come out...

Written by Dick Malmgren and illustrated by Saam Schwartz, this tale from Archie's Jughead #250 (1976) seems to show how little respect Forsythe Pendleton Jones III engenders in his associates...except for Archie!

I hope the current version of the characters has revised this concept...

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Archie

A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers
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CoronaVirus Comics MAD "Look at Modern-Day Bacteria"

Think our concerns about diseases and a possible plague are something new?

This never-reprinted feature from MAD Magazine #153 (1972) combines humor with medicine and then-current politics!

Among those whom writers Max Brandel & Frank Jacobs and artist Bob Clarke skewer are President Richard Nixon (R), Vice-President Spiro Agnew (R), conservative Presidential candidate George Wallace (I), and the radical liberal Students for a Democratic Society!

(Google them if you're too young to remember!)

Halloween Hospital Horrors CRAZY "Wolf Man"

It's Almost Halloween!
Is it gonna be trick or treat for...

...in this never-reprinted story from one of Atlas' numerous MAD-clones, Crazy #5 (1954)

Artist Dick Ayers rendered this tale in a style quite dissimilar from his usual Western or horror material.

The writer, though, is unknown, but may be Stan Lee, who was the editor of the line, and wrote a lot of the comic's stories.
BTW, we're returning to bi-weekly status for the next month.
If the viewer count remains high, we'll go back to weekly from December onward.

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TRUMP "Tranquilizers"

Ironically, from a 1950s magazine called Trump...

...(not named after a stress-inducing a-hole) comes this feature by artist Al Jaffee and (likely) writer Harvey Kurtzman about the "benefits" of stress-relieving drugs!

Note the Alfred E Neuman-esque figure at the end of the piece!

"What, me worry?', indeed!

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MAD "Failing Health Magazine"

Let's make fun of real-life horror...

...by showing those who over-react to the slightest medical problem (and some problems that don't really exist) in a never-reprinted feature from EC's MAD Magazine #159 (1973)!

Scripted by Tom Koch and illustrated by the legendary Jack Davis, this was the sort of spoof MAD did better than anybody else in the humor mag business!

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Absolutely MAD Magazine

50+ Years on DVD-Rom

The only place this story's been re-presented, albeit in digital low-res!
(Make sure you get the revised 2012 version for as complete a collection as possible)

EH! "Young Dr Baloney!"

This parody is based on Young Dr Malone, a long-running radio (and TV) soap opera...

...about a handsome (and married) doctor who nurses and patients alike constantly lusted after!

Young Doctor Malone had a long run on radio (1939-60) which overlapped the TV version (1958-63).

Because both series aired daily Monday to Friday, the two incarnations had different casts and ongoing plotlines!

(Some series which ran weekly, like Dragnet, used the same cast members in both versions)

The show's creators/producers Betty and Ted Corday, later conceived and produced TV's Days of Our Lives, one of the few soap operas still on the air!
This spoof from Charlton's Eh! (1953), one of the many MAD comic clones of the era, was illustrated by Dick Ayers and likely written by the book's editor, Al Fago!

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