Polite Dissent

I’ve head many times that most comics of the 1950s and ’60s were targeted at twelve year-old boys, and with most of the stories I’ve read, that doesn’t seem far from the truth.

However, if that’s the case, then why do so many of the public service ads focus on an older audience? Did they really think a twelve year-old cared that much about laws? Or were they assuming that twelve year-old boys would remember this PSA four year in the future? (Or maybe they were hoping that one of Dr. Wertham’s delinquents would pick up the comic, read the PSA, and veer away from his life of crime. Personally, that’s the answer I’m going with).

Hauled before the judge that same day they were caught? And no lawyer or parent in sight. I’m hoping this is one of those “Scared Straight” things and not a huge violation of due process (which would be ironic, coming from a judge who’s lecturing them about the law).

This PSA appeared in various DC comics from March 1958. Jack Schiff, as always, did the script. The art this time was by Bob Brown, who only seemed to collaborate on a few other PSAs — which is a shame, because he brings more lively action in this PSA than in any other PSA I can remember. Check out panels 3, 4, and 5 — his art ads so much the story. It’s a pity more PSAs weren’t this animated.

More PSAs

Tags: comics psa law joyriding jack schiff bob brown

Comics publisher EC took a substantial PR hit in the 1950s thanks in large part to psychiatrist Frederic Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent and anti-comic book congressional hearings. They gave up publishing their crime and horror comics, and instead switched to a “New Direction,” publishing comics designed to be more informative and inspirational. This concept never met with much success, and within a few years, the “New Direction” had failed and Mad Magazine was all that was left of a once successful comic book publisher.

M.D. was one of the “New Direction” comics. According to the preface of the first issue, M.D. was written to “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!”

Every issue of M.D. featured several realistic medical stories, each focused on a particular disease or condition. Issue #5 was the final issue of M.D. and frankly, it shows. The art is as intricate as always — if a little sensationalistic at times (particular when focusing on the grieving mother in the forefront of the panel, her fingers thrust worriedly at her lips) — but the stories are not nearly as compelling as in earlier issues, rather humdrum actually, which is unusual for any EC comic.

“Complete Cure” is the first story and tells of Philip Stuart, who had both of his legs amputated after an automobile accident. He takes the loss of his legs hard and decides to give up on his education and job, much to the concern of his wife and family doctor. In the end, Philip is introduced to another man who lost both of his legs (on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day, which pretty much trumps every other reason), but went on to become a successful surgeon. This inspires Philip who agrees to return to college.

The second story is “Child’s Play” and concerns Jimmy, a young child. He has gone deaf due to audiosclerosis (known as otosclerosis now) and needs an operation and a hearing aid to regain his hearing. His mother refuses, fearing that the other kids will make fun of Jimmy. Eventually, her husband steps in and sends Jimmy for the surgery. It’s a success and Jimmy’s hearing is returned. His mother still won’t let him play with his friends because she is convinced that they’ll reject him. One day she returns home from shopping and finds Jimmy missing. Fearfully, she runs down the street calling out his name, only to find him in the neighborhood clubhouse happily playing with the other kids, his hearing aid an object of interest, not scorn.

The third story, “Emergency” shows what happens in a hospital when a bad storm hits, knocking out both the power and emergency generators. By working tirelessly, the doctors are able to save everyone and even manage to perform an emergency surgery by flashlight. They end the story lamenting the fact that medicine has become so dependent on technology. Bear in mind that this was written over 50 years ago, and their medical technology consisted mostly of lights, x-ray machines, and iron lungs. The doctors of this story would be devastated to learn that modern medicine’s dependence on technology has increased a thousandfold since those halcyon days of not so long ago.

The fourth and final story deals with George Gordon. He is convinced that he has appendicitis, but his family doctor suspects otherwise. He believes that George has somatization disorder, and his depression is the root cause of George’s abdominal pain. George leaves in a huff and visits another doctor and hospital, but is told the same thing. Despondent, he threatens suicide but his family doctor is able to talk him down off the ledge and get him the help he needs. Based on my experience, somatization is never quite this easy to diagnose or treat, plus George seems to have as much a diagnosis of Munchausen’s Syndrome as somatization.

Previous posts on M.D.: Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue #3, and Issue #4.
Previous episodes of Flashback Week.

From Haunt of Fear #26 (August 1954):

Click for the full image

The Grand Comics Database lists the artist as Jack Davis and Albert B. Feldstein as the scripter. It refers to this as a “tongue in cheek attempt to link efforts to destroy comics to Communists.”

Personally, I don’t think it is tongue in cheek. By the time this comic was on the shelves, Dr. Wertham’s infamous book Seduction of the Innocent had already been released (and excerpts published in the Ladies Home Journal) and the House Subcommittee on Juvenile Deliquency had already turned its eyes toward comics. Within just a few months, the Comics Code Authority would begin, and within a year EC was no longer publsihing comics.

Just as psychiatrist is used by comic book writers as as a kind of shorthand (denoting a doctor who may be a little nefarious or have an ulterior motive), surgeon is also comic book writer shorthand. It is used to describe any doctor who is supposed to be a cut above (pun intended) and particularly brilliant.

(On the other hand, some writers seem to be lazy and use the terms surgeon and doctor interchangeably. The phrases may have meant the same thing once — in the 19th century for instance — but surgeons have been considered a specialty for a long time now.)

It requires a minimum of 5 years of surgical residency to become a General Surgeon (some residencies require a sixth research year). Surgical subspecialties (such as Vascular Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Neurosurgery and Orthopedics) require even longer residencies. In contrast, most primary residencies (including Family Practice) take 3 years.

Comic Book Surgeons:
The Good Guys:
Dr. Mid-Nite Charles McNider; the original. Surgeon and Golden Age super-hero. JSA member.
Dr. Midnight Beth Chapel. A surgical intern, and student of the Charles McNider. Member of Infinity Inc. The Comic Treadmill sums Dr. Midnight up well in this description of her first appearance in Infinity Inc. There is also a picture of her painful-to-look-at costume (yep, she definitely was blind).
Dr. Mid-Nite II Pietr Cross. A surgeon who also had been a student of McNider. A frequent target of my posts.
Dr. Strange Stephen Strange was a succesful surgeon before a car accident led to alcoholism and mysticism.

The Bad Guys:
Cardiac Eli Wirtham, criminal “vigilante”. (Why are so many comic book doctors named some variationof Wertham?)
Hush Thomas Elliot…not just a surgeon, a neurosurgeon! And he’s the “best neurosurgeon in the world!” (The phrase “best neurosurgeon in the world” is ? and ™ 2004 by Polite Dissent)

What commentary could exist on pyschologists and psychiatrists in comic books without touching on two real-life doctors who significantly influenced the history of comic books?

Dr. Frederic Wertham, writer of the infamous (and flawed) book Seduction of the Innocent, was a psychiatrist who was convinced that comic books were directly responsible for juvenile delinquency. His outspoken views led to congressional hearings, the fall of E.C., and the institution of the comics code. An excellent article on Wertham can be found here.

Dr. William Moulton Marston was a psychologist and an educational consultant for Detective Comics in the 1940s. Concerned that their were no female super-heroes, and thus no role models for female readers, Marston created Wonder Woman, who debuted in All Star Comics #8. An interesting article from the August 14, 1942 issue of Family Circle concerning Marston can be found here (link courtesy of Wonder Woman Online).

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.