I never bought Night Nurse. I regret it, but alas, there are only so many comics a kid can get on a limited budget and such a clearly "girly" comic just is not going to make the cut. But I do regret it now as a mature adult who can see the value in such real-life dramas.
Night Nurse was part of three-comic push by Mighty Marvel to break the choke hold that men had on the comic marketplace. They offered up The Cat, Shanna the She-Devil and Night Nurse, all written by women and in the case of The Cat drawn by a woman -- Marie Severin. It was a worthy effort, if in typical Marvel style a tad ham-handed.
None of the three found a lasting audience. The Cat lasted four issues, Shanna lasted five, and Night Nurse left the stands after a mere quartet of appearances. The Cat went on to become Tigra and found a measure of success in that role, blending Marvel's feminist push and monster mash in a single character. Shanna found romance in the arms of Ka-Zar and eventually found an audience there for her nigh-naked jungle antics. But Night Nurse disappeared into the...ahem...night.
Apparently she's turned up time from time in the background of various Marvel comics of the modern day, and as a consequence her four individual comics found a reprint berth in 2015. I missed it and so once again Night Nurse trod her rounds with diligence and verve, but I was not privy to the nobleness of the lovely lady in white -- my loss.
I'd love to find this reprint volume somewhere, but so far no luck. The search goes on. On a brighter note, these three comics were featured in the latest issue of Alter Ego, so get that one if you want.
Rip Off
Nurses were big in 70's Grindhouse Cinema. I was working as a kid usher when our theater showed a double feature of (I think) Night Call Nurses and Private Duty Nurses. My favorite exploitation nurse was Pam Grier as Coffy. Not exactly feminist fare, but I wonder if the preponderance of this stuff gave Martin Goodman the idea to order up a nurse comic. They were certainly all over the Men's Sweat magazines. And it's not as if a Jungle Girl or a Cat-Woman were forward-thinking female comics roles, either.
ReplyDeleteThat's the irony of these "women" comics as they were clearly meant for boys on many levels, usually the most basic ones.
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Hm, I thought the Night Nurse reprint book was pretty easy to find, at least online. That's one I wouldn't mind having, but I have to contend with the high postage to Europe.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Rip, I left a comment on an old post of yours, but I'm not sure if you get notifications and/or check news comments on older stuff - I wanted to let you know about a new Kickstarter you'd find interesting: a hardcover reprint of the Lonely War of Capt. Willy Schultz. It looks like it's pretty close to reaching its funding goal, and there's still almost a month to go.
-Edo Bosnar
Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple on the Marvel Netflix shows is a Night Nurse/Claire Temple mash-up
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