Note to collectors: the June 26, 2000 strip is the first appearance of Doctor Fenton.

Aah, Doctor Fenton, the embodiment of everything I loathe about the medical world. I’ve unfortunately had many experiences with hospitals in my adult life, and it’s never really been made easier by the physicians I’ve been in contact with. Always so knowledgeable and full of foresight; they always know what’s best, regardless at how much medication they’re stuffing you with, or how uncomfortable the tube down your throat is, no matter how many catheters your arm has been hacked up with, they are educated, thus smarter than you, thus knowing what’s better for you. You don’t know what’s best. How can you know what’s best without a PhD? What, your mother’s back is having spasms since the operation, so aspirin will take away the pain (what pain?)? Your girlfriend curls up into a ball, shivering and crying on the floor twice a week, so you figure its a seasonal thing, fixable by drinking more orange juice? You tell the bloody nurse you’re allergic to penicillin and then she comes two hours later with penicillin-based medication under your orders? Right, who am I to complain. What was I thinking? I’m just a blithering undergrad who wants to make this ride through the medical institution as simple and painless as possible.