M.D. #1

Credits:
Cover dated April/May 1955
Cover by Johnny Craig

"The Fight for Life" - Art by Graham Ingels
"Janie Some Day" - Art by George Evans
"To Fill the Bill" - Art by Joe Orlando
"The Antidote" - Art by Reed Crandall

The second issue I'll be covering of M.D. is the comic's first. Not much different here than the previous issue I covered (#5) aside from the fact that each story (aside from the first) has a prognosis listed above it. Much like the previous issue I covered, its a rather dull and lifeless issue. The writer for all four stories is unknown.

"The Fight for Life" - Rather than being a traditional fictional story, this story instead provides a brief history of illnesses and attempted cures throughout the ages, starting with cave men, and going through various eras of human history. It shows the various ways in which mankind dealt with illnesses, including some very backwards thinking. It also briefly features Hippocrates and the effect he had on the medical profession. Stories told in this fashion were quite a rarity for EC, particularly for comics not edited by Harvey Kurtzman. It was clearly meant as an introduction to the comic, and a similar approach was taken with Aces High.
"Janie Some Day" - The Janie of the title is an orphan girl with Congenital Osteomyelitis, which forces both of her legs to be in casts. Eventually one of the leg gets better, enabling the removing of the cast, but the other leg gets worse and worse until it has to be amputated. The doctor tells Janie of the new leg she will get to replace her amputated one, but she is horrified when she believes she will be given a wooden leg. The doctor shows her the life-like artificial leg that is ready for her, and she is soon able to walk and play with the other orphans.

"To Fill the Bill" - A man is behind on a number of bills, and whenever he is able to pay some of them always ignores the one from his doctor, despite recommendations from his wife to pay them. One day his son swallows a safety pin and stops breathing. Despite the fact that the man was behind on all his bills, the doctor arrives and is able to save the boy by doing a tracheotomy. The man tells the doctor he will pay all the outstanding bills right away. The protagonist's refusal to pay the doctor bills in this story came off as a bit ridiculous and made it rather obvious what the ending of the story would be.

"The Antidote" - A doctor is about to head to meet with a specialist about something when one of his patients comes, hysteric about his kid. Despite having something to attend to, the doctor goes with him to see the child, who has an appendicitis. The doctor goes ahead and operates on him at the father's pleading, despite his other obligations. Once he is finished, he meets with the specialist, who was examining the doctor's wife. A similar type of story was done in Impact, although with much more tragic results.