Polite Dissent

Two television doctors with their own comic books are next on the list.

#5 – (tie) Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey

Dr. Kildare was originally a series of heartwarming movies in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s and then was re-invented as a television show starring a young Richard Chamberlain which ran on NBC from 1961 to 1966.

In terms of comic books, Dr. Kildare first appeared in Dell’s Four Color Comics #1337, but then graduated to his own title (appropriately named Dr. Kildare) that had nine issue published between 1962 and 1965. As is common to comic book (and TV and movie) doctors, Kildare had an expanding set of duties. For instance, despite being an internal medicine resident, he seemed to spend a suspicious amount of time in the operating room.

Similar to Dr. Kildare, Ben Casey was a television show that ran from 1961 to 1966 on ABC. Casey was a neurosurgery resident, though that didn’t stop him from sticking his nose into all sorts of other medical situations. Gold Key published Ben Casey Film Stories in 1962, not really so much of a comic as a series of black and white stills from the show with captions underneath. Dell then published ten issues of the Ben Casey comic book from 1962-1965. While the Overstreet Guide mentions the Ben Casey comic, neither ComicBase nor The Standard Catalog of Comic Books seems to realize it existed.