TEEN-AGE LOVE "A Very Merry Christmas"

We promised you a Christmas romance story...

...and, hoo boy, did we deliver!

It's a Hallmark Channel Yuletide TV-movie in comic-book form!

It's also one of the rare Charlton covers that isn't just re-used art from the story inside, but new art by Dick Giordano!

Enjoy...

Talk about your two-for-one deals!

A Christmas story and a New Years Eve tale in one!

Though this never-reprinted story from Charlton's Teen-Age Love #44 (1965) is attributed to penciler Bill Montes and inker Jon D'Agostino, it looks like several other pencilers and inkers redrew individual panels, including Steve Ditko and Sal Trapani!

We're taking next week off, but we'll be back in January with much more graphic love!
MERRY CHRISTMAS
and a
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HI-SCHOOL ROMANCE "Too Young" 2.0

Yesterday, we presented the first version of this tale with a Christmas Eve ending...

...but when it was reprinted several years later, it was spotlighted not only with a cover by Al Avison...

...but a new contents page illustration by Doug (Jonny Quest) Wildey!

Now, note the alterations to both story and art...courtesy of the newly-formed Comics Code Authority! (You did note their stamp on the cover?)

Start with covering Wendy's cleavage...

More cleavage-covering and a rewrite of "suggestive" word balloons in panels 5 and 7.

Caption rewrite in panel 1.

"Suggestive" word balloon in panel 4 rewritten.

No changes on this page!

Guess the censor took a cigarette/coffee break!

It's fascinating to see what the Code considered licentious back when this story was reprinted in Harvey's Hi-School Romance #61 (1957)

Next week:

We DO Know What We'll Present!
An ACTUAL Christmas Romance Tale!
And, We Guarantee That...

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

And now a word from out sponsor..
Support True Love Comics Tales

Please Visit Amazon and Order...

Romance Without Tears
featuring comics stories written by Dana Dutch! 

HI-SCHOOL ROMANCE "Too Young"

We know, this doesn't look like a Christmas story...

...but we assure you, it does end up as one!

Underage girl weds older guy.
She has angst about not being able to do the stuff teen-agers do any more!

They break up!

Then she learns she's pregnant!

And they reunite on Christmas Eve!

It's a poignant tale with a happy ending that could occur!

So why, when this story from Harvey's Hi-School Romances #29 (1954) was reprinted a couple of years later, did they alter it?

Find out...

TOMORROW!

LOVELORN "My Heart Went Astray!"

It's amazing how few Christmas-themed American romance comic stories there are...

...so we're going with this tale of greed and vanity set during a winter vacation!
(Hey, I'm working on finding more Yuletide romances!)

So, everything works out hunky-dory...except for poor Fallon!

Poor guy just can't catch a break...

This never-reprinted tale of love (of money) appeared in ACG's LoveLorn #4 (1950) and is typical of the era with its' "woman who must be shown the error of her ways before she can find true love" plotline.

Though both the writer and artist are unknown, it's fair to guess that Editor Richard E Hughes plotted and/or scripted the tale.

Next week:

We DO Know What We'll Present!
A Christmas-Themed Romance Tale!
And, We Guarantee That...

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

And now a word from out sponsor..
Support True Love Comics Tales

Please Visit Amazon and Order...

Romance Without Tears
featuring comics stories written by Dana Dutch! 

COOKIE "Do Your Christmas Shopping Early"

How do you make some extra cash for Christmas?

If you're a teenager named "Cookie", it's usually the hard way...

I've found almost NO Christmas-specific romance comic stories!
Heck, I had to go through a stack of British comics to find last-year's tale (click HERE)

So I went with this teen humor strip from Cookie #10 (1947), written and illustrated by Dan Gordon, who was a writer-animator-director for the Fleischer Studios (Superman, Popeye), then went into comics, finally returning to animation at Hanna-Barbera where he co-created (among others) The Flintstones!
Note: Archie Comics has a huge number of Christmas-themed stories featuring Archie and Betty & Veronica!
I'm looking to find a couple of the earliest ones that would still be Public Domain to use here!
Wish me luck!

Next Week:

We don't know what we'll publish...yet!

But, 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...

Archie and Friends All-Stars Christmas Stocking

Amorous Education SEDUCTION "Second Stringer"

What could be more autumnal than college football?

Perhaps a romance between a girl and two guys...a college football star and a college bookstore employee?

Scripted by Steve Jones and illustrated by Sandy Carruthers, this never-reprinted tale from Malibu's one-shot anthology Seduction (1991) takes a classic romance comics trope and updates it for a more modern sensibility!

You may note the art isn't as "polished" as most of the work we've presented.

From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, there was a boom in b/w comics, and publishers were desperate for material, so some artists who were not-quite-ready-for-primetime got a once in a lifetime break.

One of them was Sandy Carruthers, who co-created a comic series that would produce a far more famous movie/tv franchise...Men in Black!

And now a word from our sponsor...

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True Love Comics Tales!

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Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics