True Love Comics Tales: August 2017

Wednesday, August 30, 2017

TENDER LOVE STORIES "Spark of my Heart!"

We end the Summer vacation season as we began...

...with a never-reprinted tale about a guy, a girl, and gearshifts!

Written by May Sterling, penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, and inked by John Celardo, this tale from Skywald's Tender Love Stories #4 (1971) was the final original story from the short-lived company's longest-running title!

While Schaffenberger and Celardo were both long-time pros who began their careers back in the Golden Age of comics, this is May Sterling's only writing credit!

Schaffenberger, in the 1950s and 60s, was DC's "go to" artist for female characters with long stints on Lois Lane, Supergirl, and Mary Marvel as well as occasional assignments on Wonder Woman and Mighty Isis!

Oddly, he had very few romance comic assignments over his long career...

Is "May Sterling" a pseudonym, or was she a comics neophyte who went on to other things after this one script?

Sadly, we'll never know...

Next Week:

We don't know yet what we'll present, but we can guarantee...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...
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Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "I Was a Beach Blanket Barbarian" / TEEN-AGE ROMANCE "Summer Must End"

Five years after Truer than True Romance...

...Marvel did a mini-series based on the same concept...except it was written entirely by men!

Re-written by John Lustig, who had experience doing similar re-writes of Charlton's First Kiss series as Last Kiss.

The original version of this tale was the cover-featured story in Atlas' Teen-Age Romance #84 (1961)...

This was the original splash page...

...but the Marvel Romance Redux appearance wasn't the first reworking of this story!

When the tale was reprinted in Marvel's Our Love Story #9 (1971), it wasn't rewritten...it was redrawn!

"Why did they do that?" you may ask...

With sales falling on most non-superhero genres in the late 1960s (including Western and war as well as romance), this "updated reprinting" became a common practice on romance comics until the genre all-but died out in the late 1970s.

Publishers would do a new 6-12 page lead story and use retouched reprints to fill out the book.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

b) updating the art was cheaper than totally-redrawing the story.

c) the artists were better-utilized doing stuff that sold better (like superheroes).

d) the audience for romance comics, unlike superhero comics, totally-changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the "old" plots.
You can read both the earlier versions HERE.

Next Week...

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, But We DO Know...

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

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Marvel Romance Redux

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

TRUER THAN TRUE ROMANCE "Too Dumb for Love" / SECRET HEARTS "Summer Heart"

Long after romance titles disappeared from the comics racks...

...a snarky one-shot took classic DC Comics tales and re-wrote them!

Already-successful author Jeanne Martinet decided to rewrite a number of existing romance comics tales (all written by men) with a female-oriented (and humorous) slant.

Here's the original version from DC's Secret Hearts #45 (1958)...

Art for both versions by Bill Draut.

Several years later, Marvel did a whole mini-series along the same premise.

But that's a tale for another time...

Next Week:
We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, but We Guarantee That...

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

And now a word from our sponsor...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Truer Than True Romance

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

TIPPY TEEN "Wheel of Misfortune"

It's been a while since we ran some "teen humor", so let's look in on Tippy Teen...

...doing Archie-esque things with her Archie-esque cast in an Archie-esque tale from Tippy Teen #14 (1967).

Art by Doug Crane, who was the only artist to sign his art, probably because he was the only Tippy illustrator (besides artist/editor Samm Schwartz) who wasn't moonlighting from Archie Comics...at that point.

After Tower Comics went out of business, Doug worked on DC Comics' teen humor line including Swing with Scooter, Date with Debbie and Binky's Buddies.

From 1989-2005, he was a mainstay of Archie Comics' art staff, working on almost every title they published, even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

The writer is unknown.

Next Week...

We don't know yet what we'll present!
But, we can guarantee that...

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

(Yeah, we say that a lot...but it's true!)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Check out the