M.D.

This is issue number 4 of volume 1. I bought it on ebay, out of curiosity really. I don’t think I’ll be combing the internet or comics conventions for the other issues. It is pretty terrible, fits into the genre of “medical melodrama”. There is not a lot to commend it, other than it is “of its time”, a time when EC comics, hobbled by the comics code authority, was apparently producing tame, sentimental, wholesome pap.

It contans four stories (sample title: “So That Others May Walk”), each preceded by a diagnosis (poliomyelitis) and procedure (physical therapy). The doctors may not have the best bedside manner, and may sometimes be misunderstood by their anxious patients, but they all turn out to be tremendosly dedicated and thoroughly good. The dialogue is pretty hillarious; my favourite panel shows a maxillofacial surgeon being tearfully embraced by a grateful, and totally unblemished, young woman on whom he has just repaired a fractured mandible, depressed malar process and a fractured nose:

“Oh doctor! I…I can’t BELIEVE it! I…sob…how can I ever THANK you?”

doctor: “Your joy and happiness at this moment is THANKS ENOUGH,              Marian. It’s times like this that make me PROUD to be a doctor!…”

enough said?