Polite Dissent

After Fredric Wertham’s infamous Seduction of the Innocent and the subsequent congressional inquisition, Entertaining Comics (EC) had to regroup. They could no longer publish the comics such as Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. Instead, they introduced a “new direction” in their comics. One of these titles was M.D. First published in 1955, it lasted for 5 issues.

The initial page of the first issue discusses the philosophy of the new series:

It is dedicated to Mankind’s Tireless and unceasing battle against disease, and to the man who fights that never-ending battle day after day after day…your Family Doctor…your M.D.

It goes on to state:

This, then, is the theme of “M.D.” It will contain stories of people…people who are helped by their Family Doctor and his associates in the Medical Profession. It will deal frankly and honestly with the diseases and misfortunes that beset people. It will deal graphically and candidly with the treatment they receive. At times, the stories will be poignant…at times they will be sad…at times they will be grim. But at all times, they will be true to life!

[All punctuation is verbatim].
A copy of the Hippocratic Oath closes out the first page.

The opening story, The Fight for Life, is a sweeping history of disease and medicine from prehistoric times until the modern age (well, 1955). Full of hyperbole and generalizations, the story nevertheless works because of the intricate and eye-catching art.

The next three stories each deal with a patient with a different medical condition. The particular condition and its required treatment are highlighted at the start of each story.

The first of these stories is Janie Some Day, which tells the story of Janie, an orphan who has a congenital bone infection in both of her legs. She’s been in heavy plaster casts for her whole life. Dr. Kendall is able to cure her left leg, but is unable to save her right leg which has to be amputated. Of course, the kindly doctor never tells Jenny that she’s going to need an artificial leg; he leads her to believe somehow her original leg will grow back. When she finds out the truth, she is heartbroken. But then Dr. Kendall shows her that she will not need an ungainly wooden leg, but instead an ungainly plastic pink one. She lives happily after ever, and Dr. Kendall and his nurse exit the scene with tears of happiness in their eyes.

The next story, To Fill the Bill, concerns the Saunders. Mr. and Mrs. Saunders are having some financial difficulties, and have been unable to pay their doctor’s bill. Mrs. Saunders begs her husband to pay the doctor at least a small amount, but her husband states that the phone bill is more important. She asks him how he would like it if his company paid their phone bill instead of paying him? He laughs and brushes it off saying, “Don’t be crazy! I belong to a union! We get paid first! Or else! You think I’m nuts?! You think I’d sweat over a machine all day, and get paid off in promises…!” Apparently irony is lost on Mr. Saunders.

In the midst of this argument, their daughter interrupts, saying that their son has swallowed a safety pin. Panicked, the husband realized that he must call the doctor for help. Upon receiving their telephone call, Dr. Bennett grabs his bag and runs from his office to the Saunders’s house, telling a passerby to call an ambulance. Upon arriving at the house, Dr. Bennett finds little Bobby unable to breathe and turning blue. He performs an emergency tracheotomy on the kitchen table and then fishes the pin out with a pair of tweezers. As Bobby is taken off to the hospital, Mr. Saunders sheepishly hands a check to Dr. Bennett and apologizes for not paying the bill. Dr. Bennett refuses the check, telling Mr. Saunders that helping Bobby is all the payment he really needs, and he knows Mr. Saunders will pay when he can. The story ends with the neighborhood cop saying, “I always say ‘You can never really pay ‘em enough!’ ”

The final story, The Antidote, while featuring a patient with acute appendicitis, is actually focused on Dr. Anders. As the doctor returns home after a long day, a patient accosts him, saying that the doctor must help his sick son. Dr. Anders replies that he has a consulting neurosurgeon flying into town that he must meet with, but he allows the patient to drag him along to examine his son. He finds the child in the throes of acute appendicitis. He sends the patient to the hospital and sets up an operation with a top surgeon, but the family insists that he attend the surgery as well. Reluctantly, Dr. Anders agrees, and scrubs in. The surgery goes well, and he goes to tell the family the good news. The father insists that he stay at the patient’s bedside through the night, but the doctor begs off, saying that he must meet with the neurosurgeon. The father accuses Dr. Anders of having no emotions as he leaves for his appointment. Dr. Anders realizes that the father is hysterical due to the stress of his son being sick, and tries not to let his words get to him. In final panels of the story, as Dr. Anders finally meets with the neurosurgeon, we find out the patient the specialist is in town to see is the doctor’s sick wife.

In addition to the stories, there is also a one-page text feature giving the history of Dr. William Morton, the dentist who discovered the effectiveness of ether as an anesthetic.

The art is what is to be expected from EC comics: intricate and highly detailed art with typed lettering.

The stories are designed to tug on the heartstrings. The first with the story of the poor crippled orphan girl. The second story has the selfless doctor who runs through the city to save the life of a child, not caring that his parents haven’t paid their bill. The last story tells of another selfless doctor, arranging the best care for a patient, all the while delaying his meeting with the specialist in town to save the doctor’s wife’s life.

The narratives tend to be unrealistically didactic at times. Dr. Kendall explains to six-year old Jenny that she needs to exercise her leg because the muscles “ need to re-attach themselves as distally as possible. ” As Dr. Bennett is saving young Bobby’s life, he’s explaining the anatomy of the trachea to his mother.

Overall, the stories hold up pleasantly well for a nearly fifty year-old comic.