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Post by berkley on Apr 14, 2024 17:16:36 GMT -5
No relation to the comic but I can't pass up the chance to mention another Night Nurse, in this case the 1931 movie with Babara Stanwyck as the title character, Joan Blondell as her friend, and a moustache-free Clark Gable very convincing as a villainous chauffeur. I watched it a few months back, I believe on Hoosier X's recommendation in one of the movie threads, and it's great fun.
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Post by codystarbuck on Apr 14, 2024 19:46:26 GMT -5
And then there is Carry On Nurse......
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Post by Deleted on Apr 16, 2024 2:23:48 GMT -5
I'm seeing Night Nurse described as 'low print run' but wasn't a low print run back in 1973 still over 100,000 copies?
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Post by tartanphantom on Apr 16, 2024 7:59:12 GMT -5
I'm seeing Night Nurse described as 'low print run' but wasn't a low print run back in 1973 still over 100,000 copies? Yes, but with sell-through usually only being around 40% of the print run on a good month (higher on more popular titles), We can "guesstimate" that in theory, perhaps 40,000 copies survived at best (based on the theoretical 100K copies distributed), with the rest being returned, destroyed and/or recycled. Out of a theoretical 40,000 copies, you can then cull the number further by estimating how many of the ones that actually sold are still surviving after 50 years of reading, trading ("I'll give you two issues of Superman for that issue of Night Nurse," yeah, like that's really happening  ), usage as bird-cage liner (it was made of newsprint), or being thrown out with the rest of someone's collection by a well-meaning but mis-guided mother.
With short-run titles that were cancelled inside of 12 months, it's difficult to know, as we never saw the obligatory "postmaster's annual statement of circulation" found in the longer-running books.
I'm certainly not speaking as an authority here... the only way to know would be to get the original print run/return info from Marvel, and that's just not possible these days.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 18, 2024 23:36:25 GMT -5
I heard a Night Nurse #5 was pencilled but never inked and was cancelled after #4. A Fast Willie Jackson #8 was also planned but never made it, and the series ended with #7.
And there's a Joker #10 in the HC but the actual 1975 series ended with #9.
What else was 'prepped' but never made it to final print?
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Post by foxley on Apr 19, 2024 2:10:27 GMT -5
All the stories included in the 2 issues of Cancelled Comic Cavalcade were to some extent prepped (although no necessarily finished) stories intended for series that got cancelled in the DC Implosion. These were:
Black Lightning #12
Claw the Unconquered #13 & 14
Showcase #105-107
Doorway to Nightmare #6
Firestorm #6
Green Team #2 & #3
Kamandi #60 & 61
Prez #5
Shade the Changing Man #9
Steel #6
Secret Society of Super-Villains #16-17
Vixen #1
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Post by Marv-El on Apr 19, 2024 17:50:24 GMT -5
What's the general opinion on the Batman: Shadow of the Bat series?
From what I can tell, the bulk of it was done by Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle which would make me more likely to check it out. For currently, for whatever reason, I do not have a single issue of this series in my collection.
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Post by Calidore on Apr 19, 2024 18:59:20 GMT -5
What's the general opinion on the Batman: Shadow of the Bat series? From what I can tell, the bulk of it was done by Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle which would make me more likely to check it out. For currently, for whatever reason, I do not have a single issue of this series in my collection. I loved it and (think I) still have the full run in storage. Later in the series, Grant did get stuck with having to do installments of the Bat-crossovers, but when he was allowed to do his own thing, it was fun.
IIRC, while I'm pretty sure Grant wrote the whole series, I don't believe Breyfogle was on it very long.
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Post by MWGallaher on Apr 19, 2024 19:49:01 GMT -5
I heard a Night Nurse #5 was pencilled but never inked and was cancelled after #4. What else was 'prepped' but never made it to final print?
I've never heard that a fifth NIGHT NURSE was prepped, but there was a fifth issue of THE CAT that never got completed; maybe that's what you are thinking of? The Ramona Fradon pencils for that one are extant, and scans are pretty easy to find online. As for other never-published issues, there's SWAMP THING #25, which would have been the first issue establishing the unlikely team of Swamp Thing and Hawkman, which would have been ongoing, and TALES OF THE ZOMBIE #11, which reanimated Simon Garth. Both of them can also--at least partially--be found online. |
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Post by foxley on Apr 19, 2024 22:27:57 GMT -5
What's the general opinion on the Batman: Shadow of the Bat series? From what I can tell, the bulk of it was done by Alan Grant & Norm Breyfogle which would make me more likely to check it out. For currently, for whatever reason, I do not have a single issue of this series in my collection. I loved it and (think I) still have the full run in storage. Later in the series, Grant did get stuck with having to do installments of the Bat-crossovers, but when he was allowed to do his own thing, it was fun.
IIRC, while I'm pretty sure Grant wrote the whole series, I don't believe Breyfogle was on it very long.
Breyfogle did the first six issues, which was "The Last Arkham" story and and a pair of standalone stories. Tim Sale then did the art for the next 4 or 5 issues. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2024 0:30:29 GMT -5
I've never heard that a fifth NIGHT NURSE was prepped, but there was a fifth issue of THE CAT that never got completed; maybe that's what you are thinking of? The Ramona Fradon pencils for that one are extant, and scans are pretty easy to find online. The 'tentative' #5 was mentioned in the comments here (scroll down to one dated August 13, 2015)
Who knows...as it's just a mention but no actual pics are provided. That said, I do have a big chore ahead trying to get the other 4.  |
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Post by MWGallaher on Apr 20, 2024 5:37:55 GMT -5
I've never heard that a fifth NIGHT NURSE was prepped, but there was a fifth issue of THE CAT that never got completed; maybe that's what you are thinking of? The Ramona Fradon pencils for that one are extant, and scans are pretty easy to find online. The 'tentative' #5 was mentioned in the comments here (scroll down to one dated August 13, 2015)
Who knows...as it's just a mention but no actual pics are provided. That said, I do have a big chore ahead trying to get the other 4. Thanks, @hots ! I found the proof:  It makes sense that a fifth issue would have been in the works, since that was true of the other two comics in the sub-line when the ax fell. I didn't buy NIGHT NURSE at the time (that would have been embarrassing, and I didn't have any interest anyway), but the logo always stuck with me for some reason. When I read them years later, I found them to be my favorites of this female reader-seeking trio. I remember the explosion of gothic romance in the paperback market in the early 70's, and there was a lesser but still profitable boomlet of nurse romance paperbacks as well. DC tried for the gothic readers and failed with its pair of gothic comics and a heavy lean in that direction in HOUSE OF SECRETS, as well as in superhero comics like TEEN TITANS and even BATMAN. |
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Post by Ricky Jackson on Apr 20, 2024 8:48:23 GMT -5
I did read the 3 early 70s women's series' in the last few years and Night Nurse was indeed my favorite. If Fradon had been the artist on The Cat for the entire run, it would be no contest though. Love her art on the unpublished issue 5!
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Post by MWGallaher on Apr 20, 2024 10:22:22 GMT -5
I notice that the collection of NIGHT NURSE #5 pencils which I sampled above is from a story that ends on page 14. I suspect that, like many of the lower-tier Marvel comics of that era, they intended to save money by padding it with reprints. I wonder what would have been slotted here--a short romance from the 60's? a 5-pager from LINDA CARTER, STUDENT NURSE?
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Post by chadwilliam on Apr 20, 2024 11:05:11 GMT -5
I loved it and (think I) still have the full run in storage. Later in the series, Grant did get stuck with having to do installments of the Bat-crossovers, but when he was allowed to do his own thing, it was fun.
IIRC, while I'm pretty sure Grant wrote the whole series, I don't believe Breyfogle was on it very long.
Breyfogle did the first six issues, which was "The Last Arkham" story and and a pair of standalone stories. Tim Sale then did the art for the next 4 or 5 issues. "The Last Arkham" ran for the first four issues and I highly recommend it. It introduces Jerimiah Arkham and Victor Zsasz; features some beautiful Norm Breyfogle artwork as he gets to spend time with various members of Batman's rogues gallery (though, not perhaps as much as you might think such a storyline would), and is just a strong story on its own merits. Unfortunately, Breyfogle doesn't stick around long. He draws issue five which is a standalone Black Spider tale which I recall being neither great nor bad, issue six has Dan Jurgens doing art duty and though my memory is hazy on that one, I do retain a sense of it being pretty ham fisted and not worth looking at again. Issues 7-9 ("The Misfits") is fantastic and has Tim Sale on art. One of those very stylish stories where both Grant and Sale are at the top of the game since they know they have something special going on. Issue 10 I have a certain fondness for since it reads like a Gothic Batman story from 20 years prior - an old man summons a group of people to his isolated castle ostensibly for dinner, but in truth, intends to confront them for the roles he feels that they played in the death of his child years earlier. Issue 11-12 involves Mortimer Kadaver - a fun character whom I wish Grant has used more - in a story which I think would have benefited from Breyfogle's artwork. Vince Giarrano handles art chores and its not bad, but again, not one I recall too well. "The Nobody" is a standalone issue which does feature Breyfogle on art. A dying homeless man reaches Wayne Enterprises where he tells our hero that he knows his secret. While he won't be able to do anything with that info very soon, unfortunately, he's already told someone who intends to auction Batman's identity off to the underworld that evening. Had the idea been fleshed out more, it could have been a classic. As it is, it's a decent filler. After that, there's a Joe Staton two-parter before the series just becomes "Part Four of KnightQuest/Part Two of KnightsSend/Part Seven of..." Breyfogle returns to do the opening pages of issue 50 and and all of 65-67 which is always fun. |
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), usage as bird-cage liner (it was made of newsprint), or being thrown out with the rest of someone's collection by a well-meaning but mis-guided mother.
