Camera-ready comic art drawing for Dr. Kildare

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Dr. Kildare comic strip shows Blanco visiting the hospital operating room where his curiosity about a surgery in process prompts the title character to ask if Blanco would ever consider becoming a doctor.

Kenneth Bruce Bald (1920- ) started his career as an artist at Jack Binder’s New York studios drawing features for Fawcett comic books. After his service in World War II, Bald continued working on comic books and eventually transitioned to comic strips, beginning with Judd Saxon in 1957 and Dr. Kildare in 1962, which he drew until his retirement in 1984. In addition, throughout the early 1970s, Bald drew a comic strip version of the popular television show Dark Shadows, for which he used his pseudonym “K. Bruce.”

Dr. Kildare (1962-1983) was a comic strip based on the popular film, radio, television, and comic book character James Kildare. The title character first appeared in the 1937 film Internes Can’t Take Money, starring Joel McCrea. Early storylines featured Dr. Kildare as a medical intern being mentored by an older physician named Dr. Leonard Gillespie. In 1961 the film was adapted into a television series, which was in turn adapted into a newspaper strip.

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