Valentine's Week Special YOUNG LOVE "Be My Valentine"

It's Almost Valentine's Day...

...and this never-reprinted tale from Prize's Young Love V4N1-#31 (1952), written and illustrated by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who pioneered the romance comics genre, is all about a Valentine's Day card and it's effect on both sender and receiver!

While Young Love was the second romance comic published (Simon & Kirby's earlier comic, Young Romance in 1947 was the first), it was the last ongoing romance comic book published by a major publisher, ending it's run in 1977!
(Though Prize's comic book line had gone out of business in 1963, DC bought out the publisher's inventory, including unused material, and kept both Young Love & Young Romance going until the '70s!)
BTW, you may have noticed the handsome guy in the cover photo looked sort of familiar!
He's Robert Redford, and the photo was taken during his "photographer's male model" period in the early 1950s!

Next Week: We Return to the Swinging '60s for Another Torrid Tale of Mod Love !
You''ll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
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Psychedelic '60s Stories MOD LOVE "She's the Hippest Girl in the World"

Here's a psychedelic piece from the Swinging '60s, when Free Love was all the rage, baby!

Best read by the light of a lava lamp while buring some incense!

Western's Mod Love (1967) was a magazine-sized 50¢ multi-color publication with all material written by Michael Lutin and illustrated by already-famous graphic artist Michael Quarez who went total "pop art", with one important difference!
Unlike most "pop art" visualizers (including myself) who used exaggerated dot screens to mimic Roy Lichtenstein's pseudo-pop art work...

...Quarez used only solid colors in his work, creating incredibly-vivid visuals, such as this two-page spread about hot, hot, hot fashion boutique Tiger Morse's Teenie Weenie!

We ran the stories over a decade ago with scans we found on the Internet, but since acquiring a copy of this very-hard-to-find publication, we've remastered them from scratch and will present them on three of the four Wednesdays in February!

But, Next Week...

...aka Valentine's Day Week, we're paying tribute to the creators of the romance comics genre, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with a special never-reprinted, cover-featured, Valentine's Day tale from Young Love !
(And yes, that's a very young Robert Redford, during his male model period, on the cover!)

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

Hot Snow HEART THROBS "Winter Meeting" & GIRLS" LOVE STORIES "That Special Moment"

 Here's a (Literally) Kool, Twice-Told Tale of the Flames of Love...

...kindled in the snow!

Appearing in DC's Heart Throbs #69 (1960-61), which came out in late autumn-early winter, the Tony Abruzzo & Bernard Sachs-illustrated story perfectly-captured the mood of the season!
When it was reprinted a decade later in DC's Girls' Love Stories #163 (1971), also in late autumn-early winter, it was "updated" with then-current hairstyles and fashions!
In addition, because the "Heart Throbs" header on each page was removed, the art was extended, resulting in some interesting layout reworking, like on the splash page!
But, unlike most "updated" reprints, some of this one's captions and dialogue balloons have been rewritten...

It's unknown why some of the dialogue and captions were re-written.
Next Week , We're Going Mod for February!
And, as Always, We Guarantee...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales!
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Love in the Office YOUNG ROMANCE "I Love You, Frank Gerard"

 You think "mansplaining" is a new phenomenon?

Hardly.

It was happening at least as far back as 1948, when this tale appeared!

This never-reprinted story of business, love, and the business of love is from Prize's Young Romance #4 (1948).

Layouts by Jack Kirby, pencils by Jerry Robinson & Mort Meskin, inks by Joe Simon.

The writer is unknown, but believed to be Simon and/or Kirby.

Next Week:
We're Not Yet Sure What We'll Present!
But We Guarantee...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Young Romance

Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics

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WOMEN IN LOVE "I Was a Greenwich Village Character"

For over a century, NYC's Greenwich Village has been considered a creative utopia...

...and the unknown writer of this tale seems very familiar with the workings of both the commercial art and fine art communities that mingled in The Village!

This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' 100-page one-shot Women in Love (1952) is incredibly-overwritten, as if it was a prose story that just happened to have illustrations!

Artist Gerald McCann had the unenviable task of trying to actually illustrate panels that are overflowing with captions and text!

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Exactly What We'll Present!
But...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from out sponsor..

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics
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