Nurses in the comics

Marvel are publishing a comic focusing on nurses. What a novel idea, even if it does seem to be the primary care equivalent of a Kentucky Fried Chicken tie-in. Am I being cynical?

Being a Marvel Comic there is a degree of superherofication about The Vitals: True Nurse Stories. It's kung-fu caring at its best. Not that nurses aren't worthy of a salute in these pandemic times (and in the UK we gave nurses a clap during our initial lockdown), but it seems a bit plastic. Is there an issue where they kick the patient out because they don't have medical insurance?

Marvel do have some track record on the nurse front, and I'm not just thinking Thor's squeeze Jane Foster. Their vocational series Linda Carter, Student Nurse got a Seventies gothic make over as Night Nurse. then a more recent mysterious superhero sidekick look in Daredevil and Doctor Strange.

There was also the emergency services themed The Call of Duty line around 9-11 which started straight then went supernatural. Marvel published three threads, Police, Fire and Ambulance.

Charlton have been know to get in on the act as well with Three Nurses and Cynthia Doyle Nurse in Love. 

Wonder Woman and Lois lane both did stints as nurses in DC Comics publications. Marvel also had Nellie the Nurse in times of yore. That name was also used by Dell for a humour title. Dell's main girl was Linda Lark and she seemed to have a few. Gold Key went for the inevitable tv adaptation with The Nurses.

We were, perhaps, more genteel in the UK.

Nurse Nancy hails from Twinkle, a weekly from DC Thomson. It was mostly illustrated by Sabine Price. Readers could even dress like her if they bought the right issue. Popular girl, Nancy. Twinkle ran 1968 to 1999 with 1,612 issues. 

Nurse Nancy's work in the toy hospital was rewarded with a series of specials and annuals and later books. She even got her own postage stamp.

The competition at Fleetway/IPC deployed their own Nurse Susan and Doctor David in the pages of Teddy Bear. David used to get so cross. This feature became embroiled some controversy when it was pointed out that girls could be doctors too. Mind you, we all know Susan did all the work.

But maybe you want something with a bit more drama? Hop over to the pages of Girl for Susan of St Bride's. This feature ran 1954 to 1961 with art by Peter Kay, Ray Bailey , Philip Townsend, Leo Davy and I suspect some of the Dan Dare team on occasion. Titled Susan Marsh to begin with, it was written by Ruth Adam who also penned a novel, A Stepmother for Susan of St Bride's. A Christian Socialist Feminist, Adams strove to counter the passiveness of some girl's heroines.   

Susan was replaced by Calling Nurse Abbott! Having left the orphanage, Ruth Abbott overhears St Bride's nurses talking about a nurse who has graduated and this encourages her to take up the calling. However, the strip only lasted a year. 

Some will tell you that TV soap Emergency Ward 10  had a strip in Girl. Can't find any samples. But Eric Dadswell who drew Three Sisters of Haworth (wonder who they were?) did some EW10 annuals for Purnell. If there was a Girl version, I'm guessing it was more sophisticated than the TV Picture Stories digest that was published during the Fifties. There is an issue here, called Trouble for Simon!

Like Eagle, biographical strips were a feature of Girl. Samaritans and Forum founder Chad Varah wrote a Florence Nightingale biography for Girl. Called Angel of Mercy it was drawn by Gerald Haylock (who gets more attention for Doctor Who and Star Trek). I'm sure there were other biographies with a nursing theme, but haven't managed to find an index

Head back to Dundee and First Aid Fay could be found in the pages of Judy, a DC Thomson weekly. Fay was slumming it because her rich parents didn't want her to be a nurse. Drawn by Geoff Jones and Emilio Frejo, Fay Farrell got to work at sea, in problem schools, with the army, as a district nurse, in a factory, etc. The strip ran 1963 to 1968, with annual appearances until 1973.

Stablemate Bunty had Katy O'Connor in the late Fifties-early Sixties.  Mandy had The Secret Nurse. 

As ever, I'm just scratching the tip of the iceburg, but I wanted to end with Creighton Ward which is a bit of an oddity. The stories are straight forward enough, but somebody might have had their tongue-in-cheek. It was a feature in Lady Penelope, which was loaded with tv tie-ins. There came a point where licensed features began to phase out. It had a character called Penelope and Creighton Ward has a synergy with a bored aristocratic spy. Just don't call International Rescue for a bed pan.

Anyone of note you think I have missed?