Visual Innuendo: The Lighthouse Cover

The cover of Lovers' Lane 11, published by Lev Gleason, could possibly exemplify an archetypal lighthouse cover because of its reduction to the basic elements, even though it departs somewhat from the usual scenario where such an object is utilized in romance comics. In the early 1950s when, despite the lack of the Comics Code, direct mention of sex in mass media for the general public was taboo, such matters could be inferred through the use of symbols. In the case of this cover, the symbolism helps explain the apparently incongruous use of a lighthouse in what appears to be a picture frame, and a very unusually shaped one at that, given the subject matter. It could be a window, again of a very unusual shape. So what we see here is a young woman preparing for her wedding, lost in meditation on the privileges she will enjoy that night with her legally wedded husband. Hence the beaming smile - not long to wait! The solid, upright lighthouse represents the subject of her reverie, encircled by a pristine, gilt-edged orifice. The older woman assisting with the bride-to-be's preparation is perhaps her grandmother, and as evidenced by the direction of her gaze and the look on her face, she remembers fondly her own earliest encounter with manhood, as she views the same scene but through the veil, representative of the mists of time. More typically, a lighthouse cover involves a couple embracing, usually kissing, in a coastal location or on board a vessel, with the building somewhere in the background, emphasizing the passionate arousal engendered by the encounter. Within the confines of romance comics, then, the lighthouse structure, and its association with the characters and plot, was used as an indirect reference to what older readers would have been able to interpret as 'off-screen' or otherwise hidden events. It was a more innocent time. I wonder what the average person from the early 1950s would think of the degeneracy of modern society's explicit norms.

Nurse Romance Stories: Boy Meets Girl 12 - "Prescription for a Broken Heart"

Lev Gleason only published two romance titles. This one, Boy Meets Girl, which became Boy Loves Girl in July 1952, and Lover's Lane. The examples I have from each series suggest that the rest are worth seeking out - they are nice books, with decent artwork and not too shabby stories. Issue 12, the original cover painting of which should be hanging in the Met, IMO, has a great painted cover, and a nurse romance story that initially looked to me like it was maybe drawn by a young Gil Kane. Following Spectergirl's observation that it was signed 'Kid', a little research on the Grand comics Database indicates that the art is probably by Fred Kida, also known as 'The Kid', and who did sign some of his work 'Kid'. Lydexicuss did a feature on Kida's work on Ringo Kid for Atlas in the 1950s, so it's possible to compare this piece with those stories. Admittedly these westerns are from a different genre and possibly a little later, but what do you think?

http://tencentdreams.blogspot.com/2009/11/fred-kida-ringo-kid-week.html

It's also one of those romance stories where you really get your money's worth in terms of reading. "Prescription for a Broken Heart" quickly sets the scene, with Staff Nurse Marcia fending off marriage proposals and a job offer as his office nurse from Dr. Eric Anders. It seems Marcia's hesitancy to pursue marriage with Eric, or with older doctor, Frank Graham, revolves around her being able to feel that she would be needed by her husband in his climb "up the ladder". Marcia's friend Nora thinks Graham would be Marcia's better option, because he's already established.

Dates with Frank are apparently typically interrupted by emergency calls. But Marcia's okay with that, because Frank's psychological dependence on Marcia gives her the feeling of being useful. I guess we have co-dependency here, but of a slightly unhealthy kind. Frank's been overdoing it, though, and not getting enough sleep. As a result, he has a breakdown during an operation, and has to ask Anders, who is assisting, to take over. Frank is so out of it that he even accidentally calls Anders 'Andrews'. Dr. Anders completes the operation successfully. Frank, however, is now hospitalized himself, with Marcia nursing at his bedside. He pops the question he's been waiting to ask her, but Marcia wants to wait until he's recovered before she answers. Eric, however, acts as if the wedding between Frank and Marcia is now a foregone conclusion, and wishes them luck.

Then comes a twist of fate that will lay everybody's cards on the table. Marcia contracts a serious, contagious disease, and has to go into isolation. Frank declines the opportunity to attend, fearing that he will contract the disease himself. Marcia, shocked, realizes Frank was not the man she had assumed he was. Eric, on the other hand, jumps at the chance to treat Marcia, and guides her recovery. Nora revises the advice she gave Marcia previously, and now advocates for Eric. When flowers arrive from Frank, Marcia's only inclination is to reject them, and Eric agrees as they might cause an allergic reaction. It turns out that Eric is gentle as well as tough and determined, and now Marcia gets to see this other side of his personality. I love panels 3 and 4 on the last page, with Nora walking past and commenting as the two lovers kiss.

Nurses, according to this story: they're pretty, young, white women who work in hospitals at the patient's bedside. While they are invested in their work, a component of their being a nurse is the opportunity the job presents for romance with doctors, and ultimately marriage with one.

Crime... and Medicine... Do Not Pay!

My proposal for a book chapter on the image of nurses in Containment Era comics was accepted by the editors with a deadline of August. So now the writing has to begin. I've already collected together a good number of actual romance comics with nurse stories, as well as some scanned issues from various sources, so there's more than enough material. I had wondered about buying a copy of Crime Does Not Pay 132 (March 1954) that I'd seen on eBay, with this 'tough dame' nurse cover by Charles Biro. Luckily I thought, "Why don't I check the Digital Comic Museum to see if they have a scan of it?" and bingo! One thing of note on the cover is the stereotypically red-headed nurse, wearing high heels in the operating theater, who's also handy with a gun! That's my kind of gal!

With this cover I was expecting the story to be something like that Marvel Night Nurse issue, featured recently on Jacque Nodell's Sequential Crush, where a gangster is receiving treatment in the hospital, a rival mobster comes to bump him off, and the nurse gets between the two, insisting that he'll kill the patient over her dead body. This crime cover may even have been the inspiration for the Night Nurse story, but alas, this issue is one of those where the actual story contents don't match the expectations generated by the cover illustration. The story and art are credited to Dick Rockwell by the Grand Comics Database. Instead, what we have is a rich patient in his last days, and a ne'er-do-well doctor obviously not getting paid the big bucks that medical men get nowadays. Envious of the old man's wealth, the doc cooks up a scheme to relieve the elderly citizen of some of his accumulated cash. Gaining his trust, the doctor acts as scribe for his will, for which the patient awards $50 in gratitude for this simple task (he could have bought 500 new comics with that much cash back then!). The doc isn't satisfied with fifty, and adds a couple of zeros after the patient has signed the will, deliberately avoiding contact with the old man's attorney Ed Harris.

At this point in the story the nurse character breezes in and out providing her care in the expected fashion.

Subsequently, with his plot in danger of being exposed, Dr. Burton does what any down-on-his-luck graduate of medical school would do - he bumps off his patient while the nurse is out of the room. She's suspicious though, and when Burton offers her $1000 to keep quiet, she knows he croaked the old guy and wants $3500 to keep schtum. Unfortunately for her she should have blown the whistle instead of thinking she stood to gain from the doctor's impropriety. He leads her along, her mind so bewildered by the thought of all that cash that she doesn't realize the danger she's in until it's far too late. One strangulation, a taxi ride with the body wrapped in a rug, and quick deposit in the mortuary later, Burton again thinks he's in the clear. What he doesn't know is that attorney Ed Harris is wise to him, having sent his assistant Tom Whitaker to spy on his conversation with the nurse. Tom's inability to read the circumstances allowed the doc time to kill the nurse, but a bit of further investigation reveals the doc's plan. The nurse's disfigured corpse is identified in the morgue, and ex-G-man Harris heads Burton off at the train station. Burton's for the chair, but the poor nurse paid a heavy price for giving in to temptation and exhibiting highly unethical conduct for a self-sacrificing angel.

The cover states that the contents of the book are all true crime stories, but this doctor is a little unbelievable - how on earth did he qualify with the kind of outlook he has? But then I guess it takes all sorts. Same with the nurse. This story is one of those that makes me thank Wertham, though, despite regretting that his testimony eventually resulted in the loss of the great EC. I'm not a fan of the crime genre, and this tale does slight the medical profession big time. As far as the image of nurses that this promotes - to begin with she's the polite and helpful provider of care we expect, but all of a sudden she transforms into an unscrupulous wannabe moll, abandoning her professional code of conduct seemingly at the drop of a hat. As such there is the suggestion that nurses will engage in extremely unethical conduct if the opportunity arises to benefit financially from doing so. Yuck!