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<HEAD><TITLE>Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Myra North, Special Nurse </TITLE> <script language="JavaScript"></script> <META name = "author" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "description" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "subject" content = "Hypertext encyclopedia of comics and animation"> <META name = "keywords" content = "comic books animated cartoons animation comics comix syndicated comic strips"> <META name = "publisher" content = "Donald D. Markstein"> <META name = "format" content = "text/html"> <META name = "language" content = "EN"> </HEAD><BODY> <body onload="if (self!= top) top.location = self.location"></body> <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="000000" LINK="0000EE" VLINK="551A8B"> <TABLE><TR><TD WIDTH=310 VALIGN="CENTER"><IMG GALLERYIMG="NO" ALIGN="LEFT" HEIGHT=302 WIDTH=300 ALT="Myra tells a lesser medical professional how to do his job. Artist: Charles Coll." SRC="myranrth.jpg"> <TD VALIGN="CENTER"><H1>MYRA NORTH, SPECIAL NURSE</H1><FONT SIZE=4> <B>Medium:</B> Newspaper comics <BR><B>Distributed by:</B> Newspaper Enterprise Association <BR><B>First Appeared:</B> 1936 <BR><B>Creators:</B> Ray Thompson (writer) and Charles Coll (artist) <FONT SIZE=3> <! BEGIN DONATION CODE> <HR><FONT SIZE=2 COLOR="993366"><CENTER> If this site is enjoyable or useful to you, <BR>Please contribute to its necessary financial support. <BR><A HREF="http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/pay/T1237L0BCY25QA" TARGET="_blank">Amazon.com</A> or <A HREF="https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=don%40toonopedia.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_cod e=USD" TARGET="_blank">PayPal</A> </FONT></CENTER><HR> <! END DONATION CODE> <P><A NAME="cont"> From the title, a reader might expect <I>Myra North, Special Nurse,</I> to consist of soap opera-style adventures, not the hair-raising kind. But note the second part of the title — anyone who expected Myra to  <P ALIGN="RIGHT"><A HREF="#cont"><FONT SIZE=2><I>continued below</A></FONT> </TABLE> <CENTER><! BEGIN ADSENSE "LEADERBOARD" CODE> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> <! END ADSENSE CODE></CENTER> <P><TABLE><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP"> lead the life of a typical nurse simply didn't realize how special a one she was. The people Myra met in her day-to-day life included doctors, patients and hypochondriacs, of course — but they also included spies, lunatics and criminal masterminds. <P> Myra's adventures in the daily newspapers began Monday, February 10, 1936. The artist was Charles Coll, who worked in newspaper cartooning but wasn't known for any other continuing feature. The writer was Ray Thompson, who had ghosted <I><A HREF="stenog.htm">Somebody's Stenog</A></I> for A.E. Howard, and who would go on to create The Fleer Dubble-Bubble Kids (that gum producer's answer to Bazooka Joe). It was distributed by Newspaper Enterprise Association, syndicator of <I><A HREF="oop.htm">Alley Oop,</A> <A HREF="outrway.htm">Out Our Way</A></I> and more. <P> Myra sometimes went through the motions of a reasonably normal life, performing normal nursely duties and keeping company with her normal boyfriend, Jack Lane. But it was continually being interrupted by murderous patients, colleagues performing illicit experiments, stuff like that. She also went looking for trouble on occasion, traveling the world in pursuit of world conquerors and other super villains. Her true calling was no more medical than that of the slightly later <A HREF="drbobbs.htm">Dr. Bobbs,</A> also a medical person who had non-medical adventures. <P> At first, the strip looked reasonably well-received. A <A HREF="glossary.htm#sunday">Sunday version</A> was added December 6 of the same year, and a <A HREF="glossary.htm#blb">Big Little Book</A> came out in 1938. But even this modest success was short-lived. <P> The daily <I>Myra North</I> ended March 25, 1939, and the Sunday on August 31, 1941. Thompson and Coll were both with her from beginning to end. <P ALIGN = "RIGHT">— DDM <P><A HREF="index.htm">BACK</A> to <I>Don Markstein's Toonopedia</I> Home Page <BR><A HREF="today.htm">Today in Toons:</A> Every day's an anniversary! <P><! BEGIN ADSENSE BANNER CODE><CENTER> <script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script> </CENTER><! END ADSENSE CODE> <TD WIDTH=10><TD WIDTH=180 VALIGN="TOP"> <! BEGIN ADLINKS CODE><script type="text/javascript"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><! END ADLINKS CODE> <P><! 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