Young Love 39 cover

When DC took over Young Love and Young Romance in 1963, the continuing cover story lines for both books featured women from female gendered professions: nurses and airline stewardesses. Both were drawn by John Romita, Sr. Regular features of this sort were not common in romance comics, because the focus of romance stories is usually on the culmination of the search for that perfect true love. Once that's over the comic is done with that story and moves on to another. So to have the same protagonist appear each month in a romance comic was somewhat of a novelty but one not unique to DC. In fact, Charlton had already been publishing several ongoing nurse romance series, which might have been the impetus for this one by DC. The cover of this first one is easy to interpret. Mary is in love with the doctor, but the doctor is the subject of the romantic attentions of his female patient, while the professional setting makes things more complicated. But there's also a 1960s media stereotype of nurses here - that of the doctor's handmaiden. The nurse provides the bulk of the care while the doctor waltzes in now and again and soaks up all the credit.