Polite Dissent

A couple of firsts in this week’s Psychic Nosebleed Zen post. This is the first time I’ve ever posted a cover that shows a psychic nosebleed. It’s also the first time I’ve posted an image before the comic is actually available. This is the cover for the upcoming Booster Gold #1 comic set to go on sale in August. (It looks like it’s a good thing I posted it now, because Maxwell Lord’s face will likely be obscured by the logo in the final product.) It’s also interesting to note that the psychic nosebleed has now apparently become Max’s defining characteristic — or so one would gather from this cover. The cover is by Dan Jurgens. I’ve blown up the Maxwell Lord aspect so it’s easier to see (and in the process obscured images of Monarch and a blond Question) All previous Psychic Nosebleed Zen posts Tags: comics medicine nosebleed maxwell lord booster gold

This is the final regular issue of Hawk & Dove. It’s an above average issue, and manages to tie together most of the various plot lines of the series.

After being tricked by Barter and an unnamed co-conspirator, Hawk is suspected of causing a car crash and trying to kill Senator Tom O’Neill. Hawk is now in hiding and on the run from the police. He’s also mad at being played for a fool, and wants to take it out on Senator O’Neill — or whoever is in his body now.

Dawn is looking for Hawk as well. She is visited at home by Mrs. Hall, Hank’s mother, who admits that she has long known that Hank was Hawk, and it didn’t take much to deduce that Dawn is the new Dove. She implores Dawn to find Hank and clear everything up. In the middle of the conversation, Dawn’s mother stops by the room and casually mentions that Hawk has been spotted downtown. Dawn and Mrs. Hall head off in that direction.

It turns out that Hawk has been discovered by Azure, the Aztec goddess from issue #2. She has gained increased powers as part of the War of the Gods crossover and wants to take revenge on those responsible for defeating her last time. (She also turned the three Wildebeests hunting Hawk into stone, thus quickly ending the Titans Hunt crossover). As Azure and Hawk’s battle destroys a grocery store, Dove shows up to help capture the goddess. The Washington Special Crimes Unit shows up as well, and is able to trick Azure into losing her powers, just like before.

As the battle ends, Hawk heads for Senator O’Neill’s house to confront him and Dove follows along. Hawk busts through a window and is ready to pummel the Senator when Uncle Sam walks in through the door. Hawk and Uncle Sam have a tussle while the Senator escapes out the window, now exposed as Roscoe Dillon, the Top (remember him from Hawk and Dove Annual #1? He was one of the dead villains the team fought). Dove takes off after him and defeats him relatively quickly. She returns to the house to discover that Hawk has had a change of heart and has turned himself in to the police. Dove wants to turn herself in as an accomplice, but Hawk won’t let her.

The next time we see Hank, he is in a closed session before a judge (because of the “Federal Metagene Privacy Guidelines”). The judge releases Hank into his parent’s custody until his trial. As he leaves the courtroom, Ren and Dawn are waiting for him. Ren promises to stick by Hank forever and asks him to marry her. Seeing the two of them together makes Dawn feels guilty and she calls Sal. They have a long conversation that closes out the book with Dawn admitting to him — just as he suspected — that she is Dove. A happy ending…at least until Armageddon 2001.

The first half of the book has great art, penciled by series regular Greg Guler. The second half is penciled by Curt Swan. I like his Superman art and he is clearly very proficient, but his art here is a jarring change of pace from the usual series art. His character designs (particularly Dove and Sal) don’t fit, and the inking makes his art look muddy. It also doesn’t help that his pages begin with Uncle Sam’s entrance, one of the sillier parts of the book if not the series.

Overall, this is a good issue, but clearly it was rushed a little to meet the sudden end of the series. The sales had been declining for some time and cancellation was probably inevitable, but it was the revelations of Armageddon 2001 that added the time crunch. It shows in the art, and it shows in the writing. I would have liked to see how the Kesels had planned to end the Senator O’Neill storyline if given all the time they needed (I’m hoping the original plan did not include Uncle Sam). Most of the dangling plot threads were tied up — some a little too conveniently — but a few were left dangling (and the best of my knowledge are still dangling today):

• Titans Hunt crossover – Completed.
• War of the Gods crossover - Completed.
• Donna/Kyle – Eloped.
• Ren – Asked Hank to marry her.
• Rodger – Still in the hospital.
• The Top – Still in Senator O’Neill’s body. Last scene, he was back as the Top, post-Identity Crisis. I don’t think this was ever explained.
• Barter – Still free

This is not quite the end of the series (or my recap of Hawk and Dove). There is still Hawk & Dove Annual #2 which ties into the Armageddon 2001 crossover, as well as the two issues of Armageddon 2001 themselves.

Tags: comics hawk dove barter top

A helpful PSA comes by way of Adventure Comics #254, which teaches us how not to get lost in the woods. Well OK, it teaches us how to find north using the North Star — which isn’t quite the same thing as not being lost because it’s certainly possible to know where north is, yet still be lost –but at least it’s a step in the right direction (and a great deal more useful than most PSAs).

The PSA also mentions the star Vega, which ties into my post last week on Countdown #48 (All this talk about Vega reminds me of an old Star Trek pop-up book I had growing up: Star Trek - The Prisoner of Vega. It was years ago, but from what I recall, the story followed the old sci-fi trope of a planet ruled by women who held men as slaves. And there were Klingons involved somehow too. A quick Google search informs me that this is a “hard to find” Star Trek book, though there seem to be an awful lot for sale for such a hard to find book).

Click on the image to the right for the full ad.

This PSA was written by prolific PSA scribe Jack Schiff with Lou Cameron doing the art. It comes courtesy of the ever helpful H over at the Comic Treadmill.

Tags: comics psa north star vega star trek

If you’re writing and drawing a comic about the Army (even one as cynical as Army @ Love), it would be a good idea to get your rank insignia correct. In other words, if she’s a major, why is she wearing the double bars of a captain?

Scene from Army @ Love #3, script and pencils by Rick Veitch

I’m surprised how often this error shows up. I know that I’ve discussed insignia problems at least three times before in a variety of different comics. How hard is it to spend thirty seconds Googling to find the correct rank? Or look in an encyclopedia, or just ask someone who was in the military. This kind of mistake is hard to excuse because it’s so easy to get it right*.

For future reference, heres’ a little help: Officer rank insignia, and Enlisted rank insignia, straight from the United States Department of Defense.

*I’ll give Veitch a pass this time, over the quality of his past work. Just don’t let it happen again!

Tags: comics military rank major captain rick veitch

Nova #2 “Alienation”
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, writers
Sean Chen, penciler

First, kudos to Abnett and Lanning for at least considering an Andromeda Strain scenario. With all the space travel in comic books, you think you’d see alien/human infections more often (the last one I remember is the alien STD in Empowered, and I can’t recall one before that for at least a few years). Of course, “Nova must stay in his bodysuit because he’s quarantined” is just a ploy to keep him in uniform so he can be recognized by Diamondhead and then targeted by the Thunderbolts, but at least they put some thought into it.

A few thoughts on this scene:

• “Skrull-Flu” strikes me as a strange name. “Flu” is a colloquial term for a certain type of respiratory disease (as in swine flu or bird flu)¹. Are there really that many humans familiar with Skrull diseases to start giving them slang names? Doctors and scientists tend to give diseases geographic names (Ebola, West Nile Virus), acronym names (see next point), or long descriptive names, not slang names.² Of course, it could be that the Worldmind is just dumbing things down for Richard³.
• Other than being the call letters of a Christian rock station in Oregon, I have no idea what K.I.D.H. stands for (though I have some ideas⁴)
• So for six weeks, he has to wear the bodysuit all the time? My God, he must stink.
• Finally, Nova is potentially contagious with three nasty diseases — at least one of which is respiratory — and he spends most of the issue walking around without his helmet on. Pretty much defeats the whole purpose of quarantine⁵.

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Notes:
¹Flu can also be used to refer (incorrectly) to gastrointestinal conditions (“stomach flu”). Then there are the various “flus” that aren’t precisely medical such as blue flu and boogie woogie flu.
²Bird Flu is a good example. It’s technically “avian influenza” but — thanks largely to the media — it has become more commonly known as bird flu. How many English speaking reporters are in outer space?
³Or most likely, I’m just way overanalyzing the name.
⁴As far as I can tell, KIDH must stand for one of the following:
Khundian Inflammatory Disease of the Heart
Kittens In Derby Hats
Kissing Invalidates Dental Hygeine
⁵Or to be more topical: “That’s about as effective as a CDC quarantine for TB.”

Tags: comics medicine nova skrull kidh

This near perfect example of technobabble comes from Iron Man #14, in the scene where Iron Man is explaining to Spider-Man how he managed to override his spider-sense. Iron Man’s pronouncement sure sounds scientific until you break down what he’s actually saying and realize it makes no sense whatsoever.

“isolated its frequency” That almost makes sense — spider-sense may have a frequency — but then he goes and contradicts it with the rest of the sentence. Since when does smell have a frequency?

“neural net” Iron Man can build all the neural networks he wants — and they might even replicate Spider-Man’s spider-sense — but unless he manages to build one inside Spider-Man, it’s not going to work the way he wants it to.

“pheromone-based defenses” So Spider-Man essentially smells danger? He can smell a bullet being shot at him? Or a laser moving the speed of light? Maybe Iron Man’s just saying that Spider-Man smells horrible and no one wants to get near him.

Scene from Iron Man #14. Script by Daniel Knauf and Charles Knauf, pencils by Patrick Zircher

Tags: comics medicine technobabble iron man spider-man

It is impossible for me to express how much this panel makes me laugh..

From Tales of the Unexpected #7, by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang

Tags: comics infectious lass

Dr. Dan Dazzler, everyone’s favorite intern (spelled “interne” here) is back*, and today’s adventure, courtesy of Ben Casey #5 (Dell Comics April 1963), takes Dan to the circus…

Click on any of the images for the full story

Discussion questions:
1. If Dr. Dazzler has been to the circus many times before as the doctor on call, why is he still an intern? Does the circus come to town that often, or has he been an intern for a long time?
2. Does Dan really think he can suck all that poison out through that tiny straw? Personally, I would tie the tourniquet and then just take her to the hospital ASAP.
3. Wouldn’t this story be so much better if it featured the Flying Graysons instead of the Zooming Zamprellis, and Dr. Dazzler just happened to be there the night Dick Grayson’s parents were killed? He could have tried to save them, but to no avail. That would be great!
4. Does John Philip Sousa know that the ringmaster stole his outfit?

*Dr. Dan Dazzler was the four-page back-up comic that ran in Dell’s Ben Casey comic book. Further adventures and information on Dr. Dazzler can be found here.

Tags: comics dell ben casey dazzler circus snake

This straight-forward Spider-Man PSA comes from the The Amazing Spider-Man: Riot at Robotworld comic. It’s a simple message: “Anybody — including you — can be an engineer. Here are the classes you’ll need and here are some addresses you can write for more information.” Click on the image to the right for the full ad. I particularly like the part where Ana says “You’ll need to take lots of English so you can learn to communicate clearly,” because that doesn’t sound like any of the engineers I know. They’re all very enthusiastic about explaining their ideas, just not particularly clear or concise. Tags: comics psa spider-man engineer

(As comicdom’s top NASCAR fan — or NASCAR’s top comics fan — I felt it was my duty to review the recent comic NASCAR Heroes #1, the first in a new ongoing series published by Starbridge Media)

This is not the worst comic I’ve ever read — it’s not even in the bottom ten — but make no mistake: this is a bad comic. To be more succinct, this is the Herbie Fully Loaded of comics. Actually, that’s not fair to Herbie because it was more authentically NASCAR as it at least featured cameos by actual NASCAR drivers.

Dashiell James is a lowly janitor working for Diesel Industries, the top racing team in NASCAR, which just happens to field the top driver: the arrogant and rude Jack Diesel. Dash’s best friends are the pit crew for Team Flatstock, the worst team in NASCAR. They’re so bad that they’ve never even managed to qualify a single race car, let alone win a race. Instead of actual personalities, each member of the pit crew has a personality quirk, such as Ed who always says everything twice. Says everything twice. The lone female character is Astor, the owner of Team Everlast. She doesn’t seem to need a personality quirk because she has breasts.

Late at night, Jack Diesel is conducting some secret experiments in his trailer, and when he is interrupted there is a mysterious explosion. He, as well as Dash and Team Flatstock are all doused in some mysterious radiation. Being a comic book, this radiation doesn’t give everyone cancer, but instead endows everyone with super powers — powers the Flatstockteam uses to finally field a winning race car. Dash becomes the team’s mysterious masked driver and he and a similarly super powered Jack Diesel compete the tooth and nail to win the race. I’ll let you guess how the race end.

The story is so far removed from anything resembling the reality of NASCAR that I doubt any casual race fan who picked up the book will consider coming back for the second issue. I’m not talking about the super powers aspect, I’m talking about the blatant disregard for the rules and realities of the sport the comic is supposed to be about. Speaking of super powers, the super-hero aspects read like some of the worst excesses of the Silver Age, but with none of their charm. In short, this comic manages to combine NASCAR and comic books in such a way that it alienates fans of both.

On the plus side, the paper quality is nice and there aren’t many ads.

Tags: comics nascar nascar heroes

If you haven’t already heard, Lea Hernandez has posted the entirety of Cathedral Child, the first volume of her Texas Steampunk Trilogy online (and don’t worry, the story is complete in and of itself). Head over here and check it out (click on the page shown to advance to the next page) — you won’t be disappointed. It’s a great story with wonderful art (and very nice reproduction values as well). The image to the right is the cover from my well-worn dead-tree copy of Cathedral Child, published at the time by Cyberosia. Tags: comics lea hernandez cathedral child

In our post-MMR world, it’s unlikely you’ll ever hear a Gotham City thug say this again:

Yet another reason to be thankful for vaccinations.

Scene from Detective Comics #47 (January 1941). A vaccine against the measles first became available in 1963.
Script by Bill Finger with art by Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson, and George Roussos. Sure is a lot of yellow isn’t there?

Tags: comics batman measles vaccination

Scene from Lone Ranger #0 (FCBD Edition), script by Brett Matthews, art by Sergio Cariello

What’s wrong with this picture (besides the obvious answer of “showing disrespect to the American flag”)?

Previous picture quizzes

Tags: comics lone ranger picture quiz

This scene is just a small taste of what is occurring (mostly off screen) in the recent Drafted preview issue. Everyone in the city of Jerusalem — and later St. Louis (which strikes a little too close to home) — suddenly suffers what is described as “non-physical head trauma” with symptoms including a buzzing in their heads followed by “hemorrhaging of the ears, nose, and in some cases, the eyes.” The exact cause of the symptoms isn’t named, but highly suggested by the final panel.

All previous Psychic Nosebleed Zen posts

This episode of psychic nosebleed zen was suggested by Marc M.
Tags: comics medicine nosebleed drafted

With this, Hank Pym (among all his other problems) joins the list of super-heroes who have multiple personalities, including the Hulk, Thorn, and Crazy Jane.

There’s a few problems though:
1) Schizophrenia and Multiple Personality Disorder (now called Dissociative Identity Disorder) are two entirely different diagnoses. To oversimplify, individuals with schizophrenia have difficulty with reality: they frequently have delusions, experience hallucinations, and have disordered thinking. They only have a single personality, though. This is very different from Dissociative Personality Disorder, which has none of the abnormal thinking and delusions associated with schizophrenia. However, a person with Dissociative Personality Disorder has at least two distinct and separate personalities.
The diagnostic criteria for Schizophrenia
The diagnostic criteria for Dissociative Identity Disorder

2) One current theory is that multiple personalities develop from mentally traumatic experiences. The traumatized person protects themselves by creating an entirely new personality to escape into. The Hulk (at least as written by Peter David) is a close fit to this theory: he saw his father murder his mother, and developed separate personalities to help him cope with what he witnessed. Similarly, Rose saw her parents murdered and this ultimately gave way to her developing two personalities: the quiet and compliant Rose, and the violent and aggressive Thorn.
What about Hank Pym? What trauma did he experience? He had a lab accident. (Technically, it was a lab accident wherein he inhaled some experimental gases which led to his developing the Yellow Jacket persona. This actually rules out Dissociative Identity Disorder, as it cannot be caused by “the direct physiological effects of a substance.” What Hank Pym actually has is a mental disorder brought about by drugs — just what the public wants in an Avenger.)

An earlier post on Harvey Dent,Two-Face, and multiple personalities

Tags: comics medicine schizophrenia dissociative identity disorder avengers hank pym

In 1990, the adult son of one of the Warner Brothers executives who worked with DC Comics was senselessly murdered. In response, DC published Batman: Seduction of the Gun, a comic with a strong anti-gun tone, and with the added bonus of the proceeds going to a charitable educational foundation.

In Gotham City, a drug-for-guns deal is going down. The police and Batman bust up the deal, but the main criminals — members of the NZN gang — escape. To capture the gang, Batman masquerades as a gun dealer while Robin enrolls in an inner-city high to protect the dealer’s daughter from gang reprisal. The Batman aspect of the story is a fairly typical Batman adventure with subterfuge, fights, and narrow escapes from death. The Robin part I found a little over the top, with Robin attending a school where over 95% of the students are armed, and gun fights in the hallways between classes are daily experiences. Admittedly, I didn’t attend an inner city high school, but this strikes me as more than a little unbelievable. Both stories converge in the end, but things don’t work out as well as Batman — and Robin — had hoped.

Overall, it’s a well done story and a PSA comic that actually appears to be in continuity. For the most part, it doesn’t hit the reader over the head with its message, though there is a page or two of talking heads looking directly at the reader and lecturing. We also learn way too much about the wounds that killed Thomas and Martha Wayne (“The bullet…struck the left lung and then the heart through the right ventricle, ruptured the superior vena cava and the aorta. The bullets struck back left ribs and flattened out, breaking the ribs…I remember a lot of blood. The hearts continued pumping for a bit.”). The story by John Ostrander contains the intense action-filled plot with a touch of pathos he seems to favor (and it works for him, his scripts hit a lot more than they miss). The Vince Giarrano art is a satisfying cross between Graham Nolan and Neal Adams. There are places where the art is particularly explicit and disturbing — bullet wounds, for instance — but I suspect that was the intended effect.

Online, I’ve seen this comic described as “pro-gun-control”, but I don’t think that’s really the case. I can certainly see where people might get that impression, particularly as the proceeds from the book went to an educational gun-control foundation, but in the last panels of the comic, Bruce Wayne tells Tim Drake that gun control is not the best option (“No law passed can change the human heart or open up a mind that is closed. We must give up the guns in our hearts and minds first.”). The story certainly takes a strong stand against the proliferation of handguns, but gun control is not specifically mentioned. To me, the comic seems more anti-guns-in-school, anti-gang, and anti-Saturday-Night-special than explicitly anti-gun or pro-gun-control, though I may be splitting hairs.

Tags: comics psa batman john ostrander

Apothecarius Argentum is a manga recently published by CMX. It concerns Primula, the princess of the medieval Kingdom of Beazol, and Argent, the local apothecary (a cross between a pharmacist, physician, and healer). Argent is a Basilisk — individuals who were purposefully fed potent poisons as children. They subsequently develop immunity to toxins and their touch is poisonous. Argent was originally a slave who was bought by the king to be his daughter’s food taster. Later, when he accidentally touched the princess while saving her life, he was sentenced to death but Primula let him escape. He has now returned to the kingdom years later as an apothecary.

The book is a good read. It contains four independent chapters which involve (as one might expect) poisonings, fights, and palace intrigue. Argent is an interesting character, and the princess and her father have potential, but still need more development. The art is competent, but not outstanding — it seems sketchy at times, particularly when the princess is the subject. The medical aspect is quite good as the writer worked as a pharmacist before becoming a mangaka. He provides some interesting endnotes. My main complaints are relatively minor. I wish the Kindgom of Beazol were better developed as it plays an important part of the narrative, yet seems no different than any other generic genre quasi-medieval kingdom. The book seems a little thin to me as well, at least compared to other manga. I’m not sure if it has fewer pages or thinner paper (or it might just be my imagination).

There are some minor spoilers below, so I suggest you read the manga before perusing my medical annotations…

Chapter 1
1. The symptoms of mercury poisoning vary depending on what form the mercury is in: elemental, organic, or inorganic. Symptoms can also vary based on the length of time of administration — was it a large dose at once, or many smaller doses over a long period of time? — as well as the route of administration (inhaled or ingested).

The villain tells the princess that he has been slowly and methodically poisoning her food, so she has chronic ingested mercury poisoning. Her symptoms match those of inorganic mercury (mercuric salt) poisoning. The princess’s complaints include nausea, vomiting, pale mucous membranes (the gums and inside of the cheeks), and edema in the arms and legs. Inorganic mercury poisoning causes ashen gray mucous membranes due to the deposition of mercuric salts. Gastrointestinal symptoms are common including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, and even bleeding. Inorganic mercury poisoning can also cause a strange condition known as acrodynia. Patients with this have red palms and soles, as well as edema of the arms and legs. More severe cases can lead to hair loss, a peeling rash, and cardiac and neurological problems. Acrodynia is thought to be due to a mercury allergy. Based on the princess’s symptoms, Argent was correct, and she has a (conveniently) minor case of chronic inorganic mercury poisoning with symptoms that include early acrodynia.

Treatment of symptomatic mercury toxicity requires chelation. A special medication is given which binds to the mercury and allows the body to excrete it. The most common modern chelating agent is given by intramuscular injection, but there are oral chelating agents available as well.

2. Later in the chapter, Argent is poisoned with an arrow dipped in curare. The villain gloats over his downed body:

Curare is a highly potent poison derived from the vines of a tropical plant used by foreign savages. When struck by a poisoned arrow, it causes gradual muscular paralysis. You will soon die of respiratory failure!

The bad guy has it right. Curare was used as a dart poison by certain South American tribes. It is a potent muscle paralyzer — high doses cause asphyxiation because the victim’s respiratory muscles stop working. Modern medicine still uses curare and some of its derivatives as paralyzing agents before surgery or intubation.

3. Cowslip(Primula veris) is a common flowering plant in Asia and Europe. It has many reputed uses as medicinal herb, including use as a sedative, like Argent mentions.

Chapter 2
1. While preparing for a speech, the princess steps on a deliberately placed rusty nail. She soon develops a fever and becomes sick. Given the speed with which the infection hit, the nail was likely treated with some form of infectious agent. In the United States, whenever we hear “rusty nail,” we think of tetanus, but her symptoms and quick recovery do not match that disease. It makes me wonder if the “rusty nail equals tetanus” implication exists in Japan as well, or if its use was just coincidence (or a red herring).

2. Argent is right that sulfur gas can cause optical problems (blurry vision) and respiratory irritation. It doesn’t cause the respiratory arrest and death he threatens though. In the end, he admits that he is lying about the medication he gave, so he could easily be exaggerating about the effects of sulfur as well (or he might be confusing it with sulfur mustard, i.e. mustard gas, a chemical warfare agent first used in World War I.)

Tags: comics medicine apothecarius argentus manga mercury curare cowslip tetanus sulfur mustard gas

Continuing a medical look at the manga Apothecarius Argentum, this time looking at the last two chapters. The review of the first two chapters can be found here.

Chapter 3
1. Argent and the king of Beazol travel to a nearby dukedom to treat the Duke’s sick son. Argent diagnoses him with asthma. Given the fact that the son has daily symptoms and has been that way for years, he most likely has severe persistent asthma, the most severe form of asthma. His predominant symptom seems to be cough, so he could have cough variant asthma, a rare form of asthma that presents predominantly with a chronic cough.

Severe persistent asthma is a challenging condition to treat, even with today’s modern medicine. In the middle ages, it would be even harder to treat, and most patients with severe asthma died early. Argent has elected to treat the child with Ephedra sinica, also known as Ma Huang. This plant produces ephedrine (a close chemical cousin of pseudoephedrine, i.e. Sudafed), a potent stimulant that has been a traditional asthma treatment for centuries. I expect it would help his condition, but not to the miraculous extent seen in the book. Argent also points out that too much ephedrine can be fatal, which is true and one reason that nutritional and dietary supplements containing ephedrine are now banned in the United States.

2. Argent is explaining why his medication tastes bad:

Bitterness stimulates the body’s organs to excrete many different enzymes that helps with digestion.

I suspect Argent means secrete rather than excrete since excrete only applies to waste products, but I’m willing to chalk this up to a translation issue.

Chapter 4
1. In the final chapter of the fourth volume, Argent, now the Court Apothecary of Beazol, comes into conflict with the kingdom’s Apothecary Guild. The guild master’s name is Zantak. This is too similar to Zantac (a prescription heartburn medication, generic name ranitidine) to be a coincidence.

2. Argent uses a solution of Foxglove to treat a patient with heart problems. Foxglove is the source of the drug digitalis, a potent cardiac medication. Digitalis is still used today, but not to the extent that it once was because safer drugs have been developed. The use of Foxglove for heart patients has a history going back centuries, but it has always needed to be used with caution because there’s not much difference between a healthy dose and a fatal one. High doses can lead to cardiac arrest (remember the scene in Casino Royale where James Bond is poisoned and almost dies? That was digitalis).

3. Another plant Argent is growing in his garden is Jimson Weed (Datura stramonium), also known as Thornapple, Jamestown weed, Devil’s Trumpet, Mad Hatter, Crazy Tea, and Loco Weed. It has potent anticholinergic properties. Traditionally, Datura was used to treat asthma; in addition, it was used as an antispasmotic, narcotic, and mydriatic (to dilate the pupils). According to my copy of Every Man his Own Doctor (a colonial medical guide first published in 1734), “James-town weed” was used for piles (hemorrhoids) and other swellings. Even worse than Foxglove, there is a very thin line between a proper dose and a toxic one, and fatal overdoses are common.

Tags: comics medicine apothecarius argentus manga asthma ephedra ephedra ephedrine foxglove digitals jimson weed datura

This one really makes my head hurt.

• Everything has a unique frequency? I think I skipped that chapter in physics class, but then I only had one year of physics so I must have missed that 300-level “Advanced Frequency” class.
• Everything is filled with infinite space? This seems as true as Zeno’s arrow paradox. Especially when the illustration of an atom behind Fury clearly shows finite space.
• Solar energy (a vague term) becomes atomic energy — sub atomically?
• And doesn’t Nick Fury look like a muppet here?

Scene from Incredible Hulk #89. Script by Daniel Way, pencils by Keu Cha

Tags: comics technobabble hulk nick fury

What’s wrong with this picture?

An easy one this time (not that any of them are really too 0challenging, except maybe the surgical ones). If you absolutely need a hint, you could probably find one here. (And I’m not counting intentional grammar errors.)

This scene is taken from one of the last pages of Batman: Seduction of the Gun, script by John Ostrander with art by Vince Giarrano.

Previous picture quizzes

Tags: comics batman picture quiz

Today’s example of a psychic nosebleed comes from Mitchell Hundred, star of the comic Ex Machina. In this case, it occurs back when he was still acting as the super-hero the Great Machine and before he became mayor of New York. He’s “maxed out” his powers by controlling an entire jumbo jet.

This scene, from the recent Ex Machine #29 (words by Vaughan, pencils by Harris), was suggested by the Invincible Super Chris.

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For a big screen psychic nosebleed, check out Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

All previous Psychic Nosebleed Zen posts

Tags: comics medicine nosebleed ex machina fantastic four

Chlorpromazine (brand name Thorazine) is a strong antipsychotic medication. Like most drugs in its class, chlorpromazine is also a potent tranquilizer. The usual dose is 100 to 200 milligrams, three of four times per day. The maximum recommended dose — and only for severe cases — is 400 milligrams per dose. A 500 milligram dose is over the top, but something I could see a villain using.

From left to right:
1. PAXIL 25 mg
Paxil (generic name Paroxetine) is an antidepressant/anti-anxiety medication. 25 milligrams is a reasonable dose (a usual dose of Paxil is 10 to 40 milligrams, once a day), except for the fact that Paxil does not come in a 25 milligram size. (Paxil CR does, but that’s a different formulation of Paroxetine).

2. HALDOL 25 mg
Haldol (generic name Haloperidol) is an antipsychotic in many ways similar to Chlorpromazine. 25 milligrams is quite a hefty dose, though not unheard of. However, like Paxil, Haldol does not come in 25 milligram pills.

3. XANAX 100mg
Xanax (generic name Alprazolam) is a short acting anti-anxiety medication from the benzodiazepine class (the same class of drugs as Valium). It is a commonly abused medication. The largest size Xanax comes in is 2 milligrams. A 100 milligram pill of Xanax would likely be a fatal dose.

Images, from top to bottom, are from Harley Quinn #26 and Harley Quinn #29. Both comics had A.J. Lieberman as the writer, and Mike Huddleston as the penciler.

Tags: comics medicine harley quinn thorazine paxil haldol xanax a j lieberman

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In the late 1980s, a common series of television PSA ads featured Vince and Larry, the Crash Test Dummies. They proved to be popular characters and eventually spawned several series of toys as well a television series and even a video game. They actually had their own comic book series for a while (Wikipedia says it was published by Archie Harvey, while the GCD names Archie as the publisher*).

At the height of their television ad fame, they also appeared in a series of comic book PSA, two of which are featured here. Say “Hello” to Vince and Larry, but remember…leave the crashing to them.

Click on either image for the full ad.

(Of course, there is also the overwrought Canadian rock band The Crash Test Dummies, who — other than the name — share nothing with Vince and Larry. I will give them credit for being the only band ever to use the name “Solomon Grundy” in a commercially-released song, even if they did get the reference wrong.)

*UPDATE: ComicBase/Atomic Avenue agree with Wikipedia and list Harvey as the publisher. Atomic Avenue also provides some cover scans, and they do clearly show the Harvey jack-in-the-box.

Tags: comics psa crash test dummies

Scene from Justice League of America #10
Brad Meltzer, script; Ed Benes, penciler

Superman: Jeckie, You’ve got a femto-second to put that –

This has got to stand as the stupidest line in this comic, and probably one of the stupidest lines Superman has ever spoken (and Meltzer has ever written). What Superman is asking is literally impossible, even for a comic book.

A femto-second is a ridiculously short amount of time: 10^-15 second (0.000000000000001 second), or one-quadrillionth of a second.

Practically, what does that mean? Speaking as fast as you can, it takes about 1 second to say Superman’s line — that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000 femto-seconds just to speak the words. Hell, for the sound of Superman’s voice just to travel the roughly 1 meter to Jeckie’s ears, it will take 0.0029 seconds — which is nearly 3 trillion femto-seconds. And even if Jeckie decides to do what Superman says, it will be several million femto-seconds for the nerve impulse to race down to her fingers, and even more millions of femto-seconds for the image of this action to register on Superman’s retinas. He’s setting her up to fail (and then never carries through on his implied threat — so why even make it? He’s Superman, he shouldn’t have to resort to hollow threats.)

It’s no secret that I find poorly written technobabble annoying, but demonstrably bad math is even worse.

Tags: comics justice league superman math brad meltzer

The Sandman breaks into a private hospital looking for Dr. Marquand, who has developed a revolutionary new technique known as Total Body Transfusion designed to help accident victims. The Sandman is hoping the treatment will cure his crystalline condition (after a battle with the Hulk, his body was transformed to glass. The Wizard was able to cure him, temporarily, but now he is slowly turning into glass again)

Through a remarkable coincidence, Betty Ross happens to be admitted to the same hospital — and she also has the same blood type as the Sandman. She is forcibly recruited into donating her blood and hooked up to the transfusion machine next to him. A “total body transfusion” takes place, which apparently replaces his blood with hers, and hers with his. The Sandman is cured! Unfortunately, Betty isn’t so lucky…

The Incredible Hulk #138 is brought to you by Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe.

In real life, there are situations where an exchange transfusion is used: a patient’s tainted blood is slowly drawn off and replaced with fresh blood. A common use of exchange transfusion is in infants with severe hyperbilirubinemia (high bilirubin levels). It is not uncommon to replace an infant’s entire blood supply with an exchange transfusion.

I can’t think of a good medical reason why this bad blood would then be transfused into another person. It doesn’t make any sense (except for a comic book plot device). Just give the Sandman an exchange transfusion with banked blood and be done with it; leave Betty alone. Or if her blood must be used for the transfusion, then give her banked blood and not the Sandman’s tainted blood.

I like the way Betty’s clothes turn to glass, too.

Don’t worry too much about Betty, she gets better in just 3 issues (The Incredible Hulk #141), the same comic (and same plot contrivance) which introduces everyone’s favorite green-haired psychiatrist, Doc Samson.

♥  Transfusion Confusion — other notable comic book blood transfusions.

Tags: comics medicine hulk sandman transfusion doc samson