If you want to know what I know about the short-lived 1970's Marvel Comics series Night Nurse, well, just search for the entry on Wikipedia and you'll see almost all of it for yourself.
As for the other two things I know about Night Nurse:
1. The Yaffa/Page issue above reprints the first 3 issues of the Marvel series, omitting the splash page from #2, and;
2. According to a friend of mine (who should probably know better than to know about these things, but alas, it is far too late now) Night Nurse is something of a running joke amongst Bronze Age enthusiasts and original issues are in relatively high demand for a series which is not exactly a regular fanboy favourite.
Apparently the fourth and last issue of the series took a Gothic turn away from the previously established 'urban drama' genre, so just as it's unlikely there is a second issue to the Yaffa/Page series, it's possible the fourth U.S issue is reprinted as a back-up feature in another Yaffa/Page mystery or horror issue.
As for the other two things I know about Night Nurse:
1. The Yaffa/Page issue above reprints the first 3 issues of the Marvel series, omitting the splash page from #2, and;
2. According to a friend of mine (who should probably know better than to know about these things, but alas, it is far too late now) Night Nurse is something of a running joke amongst Bronze Age enthusiasts and original issues are in relatively high demand for a series which is not exactly a regular fanboy favourite.
Apparently the fourth and last issue of the series took a Gothic turn away from the previously established 'urban drama' genre, so just as it's unlikely there is a second issue to the Yaffa/Page series, it's possible the fourth U.S issue is reprinted as a back-up feature in another Yaffa/Page mystery or horror issue.
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1 comment:
Gidday, Spiros- yes, that would be me admitting far more knowledge of "Night Nurse" than is really healthy!
NN was one of the trio of “women’s comics” released by Marvel at the end of 1972; the others were “Claws of the Cat”, and "Shanna the She-Devil". None of the titles made it past about 4 issues.
Of the 3, only NN seems to attract high prices. It certainly lists in the Price Guide for what seems absurdly high amounts, and that's led to a fair amount of guffawing on various comics lists. Nobody seems to know why it lists so high - the only real reason suggested is that it may have sold very few copies, and so is fairly scarce. certainly, nobody seems to know of any fanatical "Night Nurse" collectors...
I recall seeing one issue at the time of release, around early 1973. Sadly I didn’t buy it – there goes my retirement fund!
One interesting bit of trivia is that "Night Nurse" was written by Roy Thomas’ then-wife, Jean. As far as I know it’s the only credited comics scripting by her.
And in a bit of continuity trivia, Marvel's precursor, Atlas, published a “Linda Carter, Student Nurse” title in the late 1950s. I don't know whether the title character of "Night Nurse", Linda Carter, is supposed to be the grown up version of the earlier “Linda Carter", but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. I'm not familiar enough with current Marvel comics to guess whether there's any linkage between Linda Carter and the "Night Nurse" character who's turned up a few times recently, or if the use of the name is just a winks & a nod to the few who know of the 70s version.
This was the first I’d ever heard of a Yaffa reprint of NN - I wonder what other ofddities they may have reprinted?
All the best
Mark Cannon
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