Polite Dissent

For someone who complains so much about not getting a vacation, Dr. James Kildare manages to take one in both issue #8 and issue #9 of his comic. Both issues feature photo-covers and a 12? cover price. 32-pages of story are provided, but there are no Jungle Doctor back-up stories or text pieces. The inside front cover is taken up with advertisements, not the “Little Medics” vignettes seen in Dr. Kildare #7.

In Dr. Kildare #8 (October - December, 1964), James Kildare takes a week of vacation at his friend’s beach house. He gets in a little surfing, but then the weather turns poor, so he relaxes inside. He meets Stacy, a spoiled rich girl who nearly runs him over with her expensive boat. She repeatedly hits on him, but he rebuffs her, thinking that she is simply too irresponsible. Going into town, he meets two fishermen, Captain Bob and his son Joey. Kildare and Bob get along well, but Joe dislikes Kildare because he’s sweet on Stacy himself. “My boy Joe’s crazy about her, but she won’t give him a tumble,” Captain Bob says, hopefully meaning something different than I read into his comment.

After being turned down by Kildare yet again, Stacy goes off in a huff, ignoring his warning about a thick fog. Lost in the fog, she steers erratically and causes Captain Bob’s fishing boat to crash onto the dangerous shoals. Joe is trapped in the boat’s hold, his legs crushed by a fallen beam. Stacy jumps in her boat and goes to get Kildare. He comes out to the fishing boat to help Joe. He, Bob, and Stacy can’t move the beam off Joe’s legs, so Stacy goes to get help from the Coast Guard. Finally, just as the tide has risen so high that Joe’s life is in danger, the Coast Guard arrives and helps lift the heavy beam off his legs. James diagnoses Joe with two broken legs and sends him to the hospital. Stacy apologizes for her wild ways and helps Captain Bob buy a new boat.

Not a great story by any means. Kildare is in the story, but more as a bit player than a main character. He reacts, he doesn’t act. The only medicine is the diagnosis of two broken legs, and almost anyone could have done that. The art is fair. Kildare is drawn to resemble his television counterpart most of the time, but in several panels he bears an uncanny resemblance to Fred Gwynne. Once again his hair is a bright blond, despite a photo-cover showing “Dick” Chamberlain’s brown hair.

In Dr. Kildare #9 (April - June, 1965), James Kildare and two other residents head up to the mountains for a weekend of skiing. Once on the mountain, a blizzard sets in, closing the roads. A bus has gotten stuck down near the city, so James and the others ski off to help anyone who might be hurt. On their way, they are met by a group of rescue workers who tell them of two injured skiers trapped high on the mountain in an unheated cabin. Kildare tells his associates he’ll go with the rescue team to the cabin and they should continue on to help the bus.

Kildare does his best to keep pace ascending the mountain, but falls behind. One of the rescue crew stays to help him, but they get lost in the blizzard. Helping each other up a steep slope, Kildare slips, but his companion manages to grab him. In the process, he wrenches his shoulder, but Kildare diagnosis it as only a sprain and puts the arm in a sling. They hurry on to the cabin where they meet the other rescuers. One of the skiers is fine, but the other has a broken leg. Kildare splints the leg, and the team hauls the injured skier down the mountain on a sled.

When Kildare, the rescue crew and the skiers arrive back at the lodge, they discover his friends aren’t back from the bus yet. They hurry off to help them, and discovers the bus almost completely buried by an avalanche. He and the others manage to dig out the bus and rescue the people inside, but only just in time as another avalanche sweeps the bus away. Kildare and his friends return to the hospital the next morning, uninjured, but exhausted from their “vacation.”

Again, there was not much medicine in this story: a sprained shoulder and a broken leg. Kildare was a main character this time, not just a bit player. The art is similar to issue #8 in that most of the characters look like their TV counterparts, but every once in a while, Kildare sports Gwynne’s unmistakable chin.

These two issues were some nice light reading, but not the medical adventures I had hoped to find. Nonetheless, they make a good way to close out Flashback Week (and now I need a vacation!).

Fred Gwynne and Dr. James Kildare: Separated at birth?