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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Sincerest Form of Parody

Young Love PRIVATE DIARY OF MARY ROBIN, R.N. "Someone--Hear My Heart!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

While her on/off romance with Dr Ames enters another "off" period, Nurse Mary Robin is assigned a new patient, actor Val Stevens, star of the Young Doctor TV series.
The thespian steals a kiss from the RN...but he has an ulterior motive in doing so...

It's ironic that the characters in a comic book series that seems to revel in medical inaccuracies are so concerned bout medical accuracy on the set of a TV series in their "reality"!

Trivia: we mentioned yesterday that the splash page (and the cover) of this tale offered a clue as to what was going on!

• 1) "Dr Val" is a totally-new character who never appeared before.
• 2) The dialogue was overwrought even for this series!
• 3) The coloring showed what was supposed to be a black-and-white video image!

Until 1965, most American TV series/shows were broadcast in black-and-white...though some series, like Adventures of Superman, filmed their later seasons in color.
Read about the transition HERE.
In 1964 (when this story was published in DC's Young Love #49), all the daytime soap operas were recorded on videotape and broadcast in b/w.
So the splash and cover show the Young Nurse TV series characters as they were recorded and transmitted!

Note: As of this posting, we're decreasing frequency to bi-weekly for the foreseeable future.
Though this is the only ongoing blog about medical-related comic books and comic strips in existence, it isn't drawing the audience our other RetroBlogs pull.
There will still be periods (like October for our annual Halloween Hospital Horrors blogathon) when we'll return to weekly posting.
We're watching the hit count, and, if numbers tick up, we'll happily return to weekly status.
Please recommend to your like-minded friends/family/fellow lurkers that they have a look at this blog.
We thank you and we believe they'd thank you as well!

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Showcase Presents

Young Love

...which reprints the complete first part of the comic's run from 39 to 56, including the entire Private Diary of Mary Robin R.N. strip (not in color, as we're doing, but in black-and-white)!

Young Love PRIVATE DIARY OF MARY ROBIN, R.N. "Someone--Hear My Heart!" Part 1

Yes, this ongoing series about a nurse is a comic book version of a soap opera!

(Not that we've ever denied it!)

And it's about to go "meta" in a way you'll never see coming!

Do you know where this plotline is headed?

The splash panel holds the clues, both in the dialogue and the coloring!

Remember, this story was published in 1964!

To Be Concluded...

TOMORROW!

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Showcase Presents

Young Love

...which reprints the complete first part of the comic's run from 39 to 56, including the entire Private Diary of Mary Robin R.N. strip (not in color, as we're doing, but in black-and-white)!

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)

TREASURE CHEST OF FUN AND FACT "What can YOU do? Registered Professional Nurse (R.N)"

Want to see how the medical industry tried to lure impressionable Catholic grade school/junior high girls into becoming nurses?

Read this never-reprinted feature from Pflaum's Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact V14N12 (1958).

This story, by writer William Treon and artist Bill Martin, was part of an ongoing feature called What Can YOU do? which showed the training various professions including nursing, printing, office work, and carpentry required.
If you've never heard of it, Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact was s subscription-only bi-weekly comic distributed exclusively to Catholic schools during the school year (September-June) from 1946 to 1972.
Note: they tried a bi-weekly summertime edition mailed to subscribers' homes, but that was dropped after a couple of years.
The roster of established comics/juvenile fiction writers and artists who contributed to the title included Murphy Anderson, Bernard Baily, Ed Hunter, Graham Ingels, Ed Jurist, Jim Mooney, Joe Orlando, Clara Elsene Peck, Bob Powell, Sid Quinn, Joe Sinnott, and Ozella Welch.

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M.D.

Volume 1

The First Newsstand Comic Dedicated to the Medical Profession!