Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Saturday, July 11, 2015

SUE AND SALLY SMITH, FLYING NURSES #49 (JANUARY 1963)

Sue (the blonde) and Sally (the brunette) Smith are nurses working for the Emergency Corps, a medical group who provide help wherever needed in the world.  Dedicated, feisty, and high-minded, the two place the welfare of others above all else.

In "Sahara Mission," a typhus epidemic is spreading among workers installing a pipeline in Northern Africa.  Sue, Sally, and Dr. Higby rush to provide medical aid.  There they meet Shiek Alal Farad, the handsome, Princeton-educated owner of many oil wells in the area.  When the native workmen refuse to come in for treatment, Sue goes to plead with Alal Farad.  He agrees to order his men to be innoculated.  Alal Farad is anxious to ask Sue a question but her work keeps interfering.  From his conversation, Sue and Sally believe Alal Farad  wants Sue to join his harem.  Finally Alal Farad rides into camp, swoops Sue up upon his horse, and rides into the desert.  Desperate to save Sue, Sally and Dr. Higby give chase.  **SPOILER ALERT** All ends well.

And in "The Man Nobody Loved," after viewing an interview program on television, Sally sympathizes with Paolo Alvarijo, a rebel farmer in an unnamed Latin America country.  The  country's dictator has been using fear and terror to bleed his citizens dry.  When she discovers the Emergency Corps is planning a mission to the country, Sally and Sue manage to get signed on.  Once there, Sally meets the impressive Alvarijo.  She also meets the brutal Major Perez, the chief of the dreaded secret police.  Sally stands up to the major but, in the process, Alvarijo is shot.  The medical of the Emergency Corps save Alvarijo's life, but he is scheduled to be executed by firing squad.  Sally hides the rebel, again defying Perez.  **SPOILER ALERT** Come the revolution, Sally is a hero.

Sandwich between these two stories are "Unwilling Heart," in which newly-wed Carol refuses to compromise with her husband, and "Doctor's Love," in which 16-year-old Sandra falls in love with her handsome doctor (Sandra's logic:  "Age doesn't matter that much -- and I'm almost eighteen!")

This comic book could have been titled Sue and Sally Smith Really Need and Editor.  Words are misspelled, speech balloons point to the wrong person, letters are dropped (or erased?) from words, and in one panel Sue is horribly misshapened   (As they ready for bed, Sally dons red babydoll pajamas; Sue apparently sleeps in the nude but her right arm -- certainly  it couldn't be her breast, could it? -- is incomplete and horribly distorted.)

This could well have been one of the romance comics my sister used to read.  No wonder she turned out the way she did.

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=58375

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