Survival of the Fittest: Who's Got The Best Medicine? (Family Comic Friday)

I haven't done a Family Comic Friday in a while. I haven't given up on the project. Far from it. It's just that I've not really had much time to head to my local library. Plus, for the kids section of graphic novels, they got rid of the ' New Arrivals' section, making it a bit harder to find newer stuff to review. That being said, I did find something recently new at my branch. So let's take a look at Survival of the Fittest: Who's Got The Best Medicine?

Who knew that the animal kingdom had their own version of Shark Tank? Survival of the Fittest is an invention competition where creatures create amazing new products for humans based on the special properties of their very own bodies. Judging the competition as usual are Hammerhead Shark, Cookiecutter Shark and Tiger Shark. Today's episode, hosted by Hermit Crab, the trio of predators will be shown several potential lifesaving medical marvels. 

There's the extremely sharp teeth of the sea urchin that never gets dull as a potential new type of surgical scalpel. Mosquito shares a new form of syringe that is based on the bug's proboscis and is supposedly painless. And much more innovations based on the animals in the sea, land and air are in store!

And don't think that the sharks don't get in on the act too! Great White Shark has an idea to eliminate post-operative infections by having all of the equipment in the operating room textured like the sandpaper skin of those predators of the deep.

I loved the idea behind this book. There's a design segment at the end of the book that explains how such animal based technologies are in the planning stages at current time; along with hyperlinks to help young readers learn more about these amazing inventions. (You'll have to type those out as this is not a digital book that I reviewed.)

I only wish that I could have understood what was going on between the host, Hermit Crab and contestant Octopus. Was the 8-armed invertebrate flirting with the crab as he kept changing shells during every commercial break? Was the Octopus just being friendly? Was there mischief afoot? I really couldn't tell. Those interludes were pantomimed and I really could have used some words, or narrator descriptions to fully follow along with that part of the story.

I also felt that another contestant should have won, having a much better invention than the winner. But that's more of a matter of personal preference and nothing against the quality of this entertaining and educational graphic novel.

There's at least 1 other book so far in the series. 'Who Will Come Out on Top?' is about engineering innovations . If you have a young reader in your life who loves science, especially when animals are involved, this is a series that needs to be introduced to them! The vocabulary and some of the concepts are a bit advanced. I'm thinking that without a trusted adult to read along with, this is a book suited for 4th graders through 6th. 

With the inclusion of the shark tank of judges, this series makes a great summer read!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

ET-ER, Vol. 2

AWA Studios' ET-ER is a series that I just don't understand why it's not gotten the love it deserves. The 3-story first issue debuted in 2021, just a few months after comic book publishers were forced to shutter their print runs due to the pandemic, and were once again able to re-open. With a massive delay such as that, it took a long time for Indy publishers to get back on schedule. The fact that it was almost a year until Vol. 2 came out doesn't really surprise me. What shocks me is that it's been about 18 months since this second issue hit shelves and it doesn't look like the doctor will be in anytime soon. 

The premise behind ET-ER is rather novel. It's literally universal healthcare. In the first of three tales, a distant colony planet is attacked by massive insectoid creatures. Driven mad by a virus, a medical team is sent to inoculate the hive, as well as any humans stupid enough to get in their way.

Episode #2 sees an intergalactic ambulance driver rushing to save the life of a transplant patient. With hyper-lanes shut down do to a crash, the space-faring paramedic will have to cut a narrow path through an asteroid field in order to keep his precious cargo alive.

The last story sees a fledgling documentary filmmaker succumbing to both the stress of not being the next great interstellar director and the narcotics he's turned to in order to keep working. 

3 great medical themed sci-fi stories. That opening tale reflects the poor choices and disinformation spread during the height of the pandemic. The middle story made me go down one path only for that twist ending to gut punch you like many good medical dramas do. Honestly, the final story was a bit too off-the-wall. However, if you'd ask my wife, who works in a medical clinic (on Earth), cases involving drug addicts take some really bizarre turns. As I am never been a part of the drug culture, maybe I just didn't connect to the premise as much as someone who has experimented with mind-altering substances might have.

I may not be a fan of AWA Studios co-founder, Axel Alonzo. But I am one to admit when something is worth reading and ET-ER is so worth reading. I just wish fans would enjoy it as much as I do or that AWA Studios would take a greater leap of faith with it. 

Some of you may be wondering why I waited a year and a half to read and review this book if I'm such a fan of it. Sheepishly, I must confess, I misplaced this book. I've got about 2 long boxes full of stuff to bag, tape, organize and add to my collection. ET-ER Vol. 2 was an unfortunate casualty to that overstock. I don't regret having that many books unaccounted for in my possession. I've been taking great steps to fix that over the past few months with reorganizing things. I just hate that my delay on reading and reviewing this awesome one-shot may have resulted in AWA Studios pulling the plug on ET-ER for good.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Ward #1

Imagine it's your first day at a new hospital. You're a trauma doctor. Before you even make it through the emergency department doors, you encounter your first patient. She's bleeding out and she's got a tail!

That's the first day of work for Dr. Nat Reeves. And this encounter is what opens the doors of St. Lilith's, a clandestine hospital for magical creatures. Just like any medical center, it's overcrowded and underfunded. Only it's protected by magical charms to keep it out of the attention of the general public. So how can Dr. Reeves be a part of all this?

Nat's origin is the crux of this story which really intrigued me. Only 24 pages just isn't enough story to reveal it all. This Dark Horse comic is a 4-issue miniseries that debuted last Summer. I read issue #1 almost as soon as it came out in stores. I read it and I then kinda forgot about it. 

I've also got issue #2. Yet I missed the boat on the other 2 issues. So, I'm kinda at a stopping point. Once I get the other 2 books, I'm gonna finish this. I promise. 

This Cavan Scott penned tale was really fantastic. It was a mix of Harry Potter and TV's E/R. It's also the second such comic in as many years to focus on emergency medicine with a twist. AWA's ET-ER is about a hospital that specializes in extraterrestrials. Just as great and not really different as that medical center is secretly housed on planet earth, just as St. Lilith's is.

Well, there is one thing where that other book is superior- it's stories are self-contained whereas The Ward is a string of cliffhangers. 

I hate cliffhangers.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Emergency! #4

Issue #4 was the final issue of this series. While poor sales of the series wouldn't surprise me considering how much Charlton Comics was floundering by the mid-70s, I think the fact that Emergency! was in it's last season had more to do with it.

Based on the first issue, which I reviewed earlier this week, the story here followed the show's formula a lot more closely. Gage rescues a movie star from a car crash during a rescue call. When photographers capture the actress planting a smooch on Johnny as they exit the ambulance, it sets up a whirlwind romance. Sure, the staff of Rampart Emergency and the crew at Station 51 give the paramedic his fair share of ribbing. That he can deal with. But when the actress starts showing up at all of Squad 51's calls, Johnny finds that he may have to call things off.

At least 2 episodes of the live action version of Emergency! actually involved the paramedics and their rescues being impacted by 'fans.' A third episode had Roy dealing with a former patient who develops a crush on him after he rescues her from an action. But that paramour is never seen on screen. 

A big scene of this issue takes place at the mansion of the starlet. While it wasn't common to have the action take place during Roy and John's free time; it did happen occasionally. One episode that comes to mind is when the guys get invited to a Hollywood actor's house party after they rescued him from an angry bear. 

What was unusual for that scene is that it features in only the second time in franchise history Roy's often mentioned wife Joanne. Until this issue, her only appearance was in the pilot 2 hour TV-movie, 'The Wentworth-Townsend Act.' For a limited one-time brief role with maybe only 2 lines in her only scene, the artist of this issue actually did a reasonable job of capturing the likeness of the actress who played Joanne DeSoto, Kathryn Kelly Wiget. As for who is the illustrator of this issue, once again it's a young John Byrne (Sensational She-Hulk).

As for the likenesses of actors Kevin Tighe and Randolph Mantooth, once more they are spot on. My favorite character, Dr. Early, played by jazz legend Bobby Troup, pops up in the story this time. And Dr. Brackett is in the background in one or two panels. Both good likenesses. But no nurse Dixie! Also missing are the regular crew of Engine 51. No Chet, Mike or Marco. We see someone named Capt. But it's not Captain Stanley nor the actor who portrayed him on TV, Michael Norell. I know that because the character didn't have a thick mustache!

I wonder why none of the minor characters are used in either issue I read. Was it all because of the licensing of likenesses? Seems like such a minor thing. But with Charlton known for being a notoriously penny-pinching publisher, it wouldn't surprise me one bit. 

Again as with issue #1, there's a short prose story. It involved Squad 51 getting called to a domestic disturbance and being held hostage by a gunman. It was a clever story. But like the main illustrated feature, it had an abrupt ending. Let me tell you, that feature ending actually had me scared. The word 'end 'was so tiny that I overlooked it completely. Thus when I turned a page and saw ads, I was afraid that my wife's issue was missing pages. Coming across such a print error has happened to me before. It's infuriating. But thankfully that wasn't the case here.

A much better issue than felt more like an Emergency! comic than just a random story about first responders. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

Emergency! #1

Inspired by having just finished an old issue of Dr. Kildare and a back issue surprise that I'll be getting to tomorrow, I raided my wife's tiny comic book collection. My bride is a huge fan of the TV show Emergency! Running on NBC for most of the 1970s, the show followed the crew of station house 51. With the newly formed paramedic program, fire fighters John Gage and Roy DeSoto were tasked with saving the people of Los Angeles County while educating Californians about emergency services. 

At the time of the show, there were roughly 2 dozen paramedic crews operating in a county the size of Connecticut with a population of Chicago occupying it. The landscape varies from densely packed urban sprawl to sparse wilderness areas filled with cliffs, coastline and lush forests. Thus, Roy and Johnny were expected to save lives hanging from the sides of buildings as well as in the middle of a raging wild fire while being coached via a primitive form of cellular phone by the doctors at Rampart Emergency!

This premiere issue based on the TV show doesn't really follow the format of the series. The story has Roy and John responding to a warehouse fire. Then about 10 pages are devoted to a pair of police officers that have never once appeared on the show, trying to find the owner of the building. On about page 12, we return to the paramedics who learn that the fire was a case of arson and radioactive material stored inside has been stolen. With their shift over, Roy goes home for his wife's birthday. Johnny decides to play detective and with the help of the LAPD, finds the culprit and the stolen material. 

I don't understand why a third of the story focused on characters not even on the show. Sure, cops appear on the series from time to time. But, they're secondary characters at best and not once has the action ever shifted away from Roy and John over to the other boys in blue. Yes, occasionally, Roy and Johnny play detective to help solve a crime or some sort of injustice. But they've never done it off the books in the kind of Dirty Harry without guns sort of way like in this issue.

The artwork for this issue was by comics legend X-Men's John Byrne. Equally legendary is the cover artist, Joe Staton (Dick Tracy). So, I was kinda puzzled by a goof made by him at the beginning of the story. Roy tells John that they need to put on air masks before entering the warehouse fire. Yet, that never happens. Plus, I thought that the ending in which the doctors of Rampart callously watch a patient die alone from radiation sickness was just so very unlike the characters. But that sort of blame is on the writer of which whose name escapes me.

I've learned over the past couple of years that some TV/Movie comic adaptations were rush jobs. The purpose of these books was advanced advertising, mostly to kids. In some cases, the characters had yet to be cast and nor were the sets built. There weren't even established scripts to cull from! So the authors and illustrators had to use a lot of creative license. The earliest Dell Star Trek comics were guilty of this. But Emergency! #1 debuted in 1976; several years after the show had already been on air. So, I really don't understand why the departure from the established tropes of the live action original.

The prose short story, included in order for the publication to maintain its first class postage status, captures the show's format almost perfectly. It's about an elderly man who lives alone and how the paramedics rallied around the guy to keep him active and social. Not the most perfectly written story as at one point Johnny tells Dr. Early over the bio-phone to give the patient an IV. That should be the other way around.

Issue #1 wasn't the worst TV adaptation I've ever come across. (A 1980s version of Lost in Space has that current distinction). It's just that a majority of the flaws that occur in this book are things you'd expect in early run books. Not something to find in stuff based on properties already established on TV. Nice renderings of the actors who play Roy and Johnny. And a very youthful but amazing capture of songstress Julie London who played head nurse Dixie McCall. 

It's a good overall interpretation of Emergency! Only it doesn't quite feel like an episode of the 70s medical adventure drama.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Dr. Kildare #3

There's just something about the TV comic book adaptations from Gold Key and Dell. They're a little bit dated and yet I find them to be classic, wholesome, fun reads. Even though I might not have ever seen the TV series the book was based on, if I can find one for a good deal, I'm gonna get it. 

All of that is exactly the case for how I ended up with today's book: Dr. Kildare #3. I've never seen the show. My mom might have been a fan; I just don't rightly recall. I know star Richard Chamberlain right well from his starring in miniseries like Shogun and The Thornbirds. Yet upon a recent trip to a used bookstore, I found a copy of Dell's adaption of the young surgeon who often finds love with his patients or their loved ones, for less than $2! And since I had trade credit, I just couldn't pass it up. 

This issue is from 1962, during a time where America is riding a high wave of positivism. The Kennedy Camelot is in full swing. Vietnam is a distant blip down the road. And though dark days are ahead, an economic boom is making Americans feel euphoric and invulnerable right now. But that's not the case for Dr. James Kildare.

A shortage of doctors has Kildare working double shifts. Managing a few hours of sleep, the young surgeon is called back into the hospital to care for a young woman injured in a gruesome car wreck. The surgery is intense. But it's the drama outside the operating room that is boiling over. 

The girl's father doesn't approve of her boyfriend, a struggling playwright. Complicating matters is that the patient's injuries aren't properly healing. With Kildare needing to go back in to do some complicated skin grafts, can the doctor also heal the rift between his patient's loved ones?

As a secondary plot, Kildare's mentor, Dr. Gillespie, must amputate the leg of a very young boy. An act which really rattles the elder physician and Kildare uses as a learning opportunity.

Having watched the TV show Emergency! a ton of times with my wife, I am not very surprised at how technical the medical dramas of the 60s and 70s were. But I am surprised how detailed a 1962 comic book aimed at young readers was. In the first 1-2 pages, Kildare works on a gunshot patient. That in itself probably isn't too controversial for the time period. But the GSW was a head wound with a very gruesome wound. Even more surprising is that this book doesn't have a Comics Codes label on the cover!

Adding to the medical jargon that fills this story are 3 educational one-page comics that fill the inside covers and the back outside cover. Two of them are about doctors and their influence in military history and aviation lore. The third strip is about how researchers develop vaccines. The story is basically about Dr. Jonas Salk and one of the sketches is clearly that of the polio vaccine developer. But I'm stumped as to why they don't acknowledge Salk and his achievement in that segment...

The artwork was a pretty good representation of star Richard Chamberlain. Unlike with my experience with the Car 54... Where Are You? comics, it doesn't appear that the artist kept reusing the same 5 or 6 head sketches of each main character. But I am sure I'd need to see other issues of the series to know that for sure. 

As for the appearances of other characters in this book, I have no idea if they look like the actors they're meant to resemble or not. I'm just not that familar with them or the show. I do wish that whoever colored this book would have got Kildare's hair color right. He was not a man with raven colored locks.

I also thought that the plot was a bit too full. Dell was guilty of this a lot. They'd build up this really engaging story that was complex and rather intelligent. Then- BAM! They'd run out of pages and everything is sloppily wrapped up in 2 pages. We don't really find out what happened to the kid amputee and that might be Dr. Kildare in the last panel. It just doesn't look like him and it's not mentioned. 

I tend to be a little kind to these abrupt endings like when I reviewed that batch of John Wayne movie adaptations from Dell. But there's no excuse here. I understand that according to US Postal regulations, the publisher had to include a prose story in order to maintain their first class postage. So no complaints for that. But there was a very clunky 4 page story about a pair of doctors operating in the African bush that could have been set aside for a future publication in order to devote a little more time and energy to the main story. 

For the price I paid for a 60 year old comic from a publisher I hold dear in my heart and memories, I don't regret my purchase. It was very entertaining. But it wasn't perfect. You can still like things that have flaws to them. If only the rest of the world could be a lot less like the dad in this book and overlook the blemishes in others.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

ET-ER #1

When an up-and-coming emergency medicine doctor witnesses an after hours car crash in the hospital parking lot, she scrambles to the scene. It's a decision that will change Dr. Chen's life forever. A team of orderlies quickly arrive and take the victim to the basement. But there's no emergency ward in the basement! Is there?

Underneath a major medical center somewhere in the United States, there's an emergency room for intergalactic patients. And they serve anyone, anytime. From a convalescent that is a literal planet killer to an invalid with a weaponized immune system to a medium-sized green man in desperate need of a universal translator, Dr. Chen will learn the true meaning of universal healthcare. That is if she decides to join the staff of the ET-ER.

I wasn't expecting this story to take place on Earth. I was thinking that the ET-ER was going to be like Grey's Anatomy on Deep Space Nine. Instead, this series is more like Men In Black meet Chicago Med. But I loved it. 

This late 2021 series was lauded as a one-shot from AWA as part of the publisher's Upshot imprint. Upon finishing this book, I was disappointed, thinking that my visit to the emergency room to the intergalactic stars was over. But I am happy to say that another issue is on the way sometime this year. There's a Frank Cho cover coming that I may have to pounce on!  I'm so ready to schedule a follow-up visit with this team of extraterrestrial physicians.

Oddball drama with sci-fi medical science. Featuring a slew of talent including Dan Panosian (Alice Ever After) and Mark Texeira (Moon Knight), it's the best care anywhere!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Nurses #2

The Nurses was a CBS medical drama that ran from 1962-1965. Due to another show from ABC with the same name, the show changed it's name to The Doctors and the Nurses. The show starred Zina Bethune as intern nurse Gail Lucas. Her nurse mentor was played by Shirl Conway.

I found this Gold Key comic during my annual pilgrimage to the 301 Endless Yard Sale. I paid $2 for it and when I saw it, I knew I had to have it. In fact, I think the comic book called out to me. Yet for all that, I know nothing really about this book, other than what I researched. 

I know nothing about the show's stars or really the show itself. Except, that I remember my mother telling me a very long time ago that she loved the series. She claimed that it was one of several TV shows that inspired her to become a nurse. So, I really did have to have this comic book you see.

For a comic book adaptation from the 1960s, this is actually one of the better ones. I've been learning that when a TV show inked a deal with a comic book publisher, there was very little time to mock up issues- nor was there very much info on what to go on. For example, when Marvel got the rights to Star Wars, several characters hadn't even been cast or designed yet. That's why Jabba the Hutt looks like some weird great turtle dude instead of a slug. When Gold Key, the very publisher of this comic book, got their hands on Star Trek, they colored all of the uniforms wrong and supposedly made Uhura and Sulu white in one issue by mistake.

I am wondering if knowing next to nothing about this series was what made it a good read. I didn't have any background knowledge in this series to be upset if there were any mistakes. The artwork itself looked really good, like of a young Neal Adams quality. Plus, the stories themselves were very interesting and engrossing. 

There was also a pre-9-1-1 story about a pair of men called the Rescue Crew who have to save a man having a heart attack from a ship leaking gas. But in order to move the man, they have to use Oxygen, which is highly flammable. It was a very creative story for 1960s drama comics. Unfortunately, I can't find further info on that series either and I really would like to find more of their exploits. 

A great gem of a comic. It was retro. It was in really good shape. Plus it's kinda fueled my new addiction- finding comic books of movies and TV shows from the 50s-70s.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.