Wednesday, February 29, 2012

DEAR LONELY HEARTS "So This is Love!"

This is not the typical way a 1950s romance comic story begins...
...but this tale from Dear Lonely Hearts V1N1 (1951) does have some predictable, even cliche, twists...
One date and he proposes?
And she accepts?
If she has a concussion, the writer doesn't mention it...
Speaking of which, we don't know the identities of either the writer or artist, which may be just as well since I suspect some of our readers would probably want to do them serious harm for their backward (even for 1951) portrayal of male/female relationships!

Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

SOUL LOVE "Fears of a Go-Go Girl!"

Jack Kirby (along with Joe Simon) created the romance comics genre in 1947...
Cover art by Jack Kirby for the unpublished Soul Love #1
In 1971, Kirby pitched the idea for a new line of b/w comic magazines for an older (15-30 year old) audience which would include two romance series; True Divorce Cases and Soul Love.
Complete first issues were written and drawn, but the publisher killed most of the the books before they went to press.
Only two titles ever saw print: Spirit World (psychic phenomena) and In the Days of the Mob (about 1920s-30s gangsters).
Here's one of the stories from Soul Love, scanned from the original art...
Written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Vince Colletta.
Since the magazine was b/w, the art would be photostatted, then gray wash tones would be added as shown in this printed page from The ButterFly, a strip about the first Black superheroine (predating Storm of the X-Men) that appeared in the 1971 b/w magazine Hell-Rider.
You can read about her HERE.
Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.
The first was the 1950s series Negro Romance, which we covered HERE.

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UrbanWear with that Black is Beautiful flair!
Stand tall and proud with a Lichtenstein-style comic book image of lovers in a romantic clinch!
A Pop Art classic with a Black twist!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

YOUNG LOVE "Be My Valentine"

We had intended to post this on Valentine's Day...
...since this tale from the Golden Age team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who pioneered the romance comics genre was all about a Valentine's Day card and it's effect on both sender and receiver.
But s#!t happens, and, unfortunately, it's a day late.
Enjoy our belated Valentine to you, our faithful readers...
While Young Love was the second romance comic published (Simon & Kirby's Young Romance in 1947 was the first), it was the last ongoing romance title published by a major publisher, ending it's run in 1977.
Next week:
A tale from a never-published 1970s comic, scanned from the original art!
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

3-D: LOVELORN "Moment to Remember"

You won't need the red/blue 3-D glasses to read this 3-D comic story...
...because it's not red/blue 3-D, but an idea to simulate 3-D called...
And now, on with the story...
It's a clever idea, but I can see how it would become irritating on an ongoing basis.
Art by Harry Lazarus, one of a trio of siblings (including Sid and Leon) who all ended up writing and/or illustrating comic books during the 1940s-1960s.
(They are not related to Mell Lazarus, writer/artist of the comic strips Miss Peach and Momma, who also worked in comic books in the 1950s.
Small world, ain't it?)
Next week:
It's Valentine's Day, so we're presenting a special tale by the guys who created the romance comic, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...
Support Small Business!