Amourous Education SPARKLING LOVE "Written in the Stars"

Normally, Our Amourous Education Stories Involve Students or Teachers...

...but in this case, it's a school office worker who hangs with students in her spare time!

Illustrated by Sid Lazarus and scripted by an unknown writer, this story from Avon's Sparkling Love #1 (1950) appeared elsewhere that same month!

The contents for the entire comic were also bound in Avon's newest romance pulp magazine...

...Sparkling Love Stories as "32 pages of romance stories illustrated in full color" to go with the prose love tales with spot illustrations in black and white.

(Luckily for them, pulp magazines and comic books were the same size!)

Next Week:

More High School/College Hi-Jinks!

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

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Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics

Amorous Education FIRST LOVE ILLUSTRATED "I Joined a Teen-Age Sex Club"

If that title doesn't get your attention, nothing will...

...and it wasn't even the cover-featured story in that issue of Harvey's First Love Illustrated!

Surprisingly,  this story from First Love Illustrated #13 (1951) wasn't one of the tales mentioned in Fredric Wertham's anti-comics screed Seduction of the Innocent (1954)!

Tales of scandalous "sex clubs" pop up every so often during periods of sexual repression such as the 1950s usually in local media looking for a sensationalistic story.

You'll note the tale is presented from scans of the original artwork, not the printed comic.

Unfortunately, every copy of the comic we could find is "slabbed" (encased in plastic) to increase it's resale value to the owner.

The fact it renders the comic unreadable is, sadly, secondary to most people.

(The concept of "slabbing" was developed for trading cards which don't have interiors.

The "collector mentality" of dealers adapted the idea to comics and magazines which do have readable interiors that, after being encased in plastic, are no longer accessible!

And removing the comic from the casing lowers the resale value!)

Illustrated by noted good-girl artist Bob Powell (who also did a number of heroine strips including Cave Girl), the writer of this torrid tale is unknown.

Next Week:

More High School/College Hi-Jinks!

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

And now a word from out sponsor..

Please Support True Love Comics Tales!

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Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics

Halloween HeartBreak WORLD OF FANTASY "Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!"

Welcome to our final Countdown to Halloween 2024 tale...

...as we look at the never-reprinted tale behind this incredibly-misleading (but atmospheric), never-reprinted Bill Everett cover!

That means no one has seen this story from Atlas' World of Fantasy #4 (1956)...except you...for almost seven decades!

So she's not a witch...but an alien!

I have the feeling the cover was done before the Comics Code Authority began its' stranglehold on what was left of the comic book industry, but frugal editor Stan Lee didn't want it to go to waste, so he had an unknown writer along with artist John Forte take the basic plot and drop the supernatural element, replacing it with sci-fi!
It's still a nice tale of "love conquers all", eh?

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!

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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love
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Halloween HeartBreak THIS MAGAZINE IS HAUNTED! "Bridegroom, Come Back!"

" 'Til Death Do Us Part..." Takes on a Whole New Meaning...

...during the Halloween season, when the barriers between this life and the next one blur!

Steve (SpiderMan/Doctor Strange) Ditko did very few romance-themed stories during his half-century in comics.

So whenever one pops up, we take note of it, such as this tale from Charlton's This Magazine is Haunted #18 (1954).
As for who wrote it, the author is likely Charlton's go-to scripter Joe Gill, but we can't confirm it.

Next Week:

Our Final Countdown to Halloween 2024 Contribution

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

And Now...a Word from Our Sponsor...

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Steve Ditko Archives Vol 1

Strange Suspense

(Which reprints this story)

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Halloween HeartBreak WEB OF EVIL "Face from Hell"

This is one time you really can't judge a book by it's cover!

...and only True Love will provide the ability to those whose eyes will not see to discern the Truth!

Illustrated by Golden Age/Silver Age workhorse Charles Nicholas and scripted by an unknown writer, this sordid story from Quality's Web of Evil #11 (1954) could've benefited with an extra page to really show the demise of the demon!
After all, it was published in a horror comic, not a romance comic!

Next week:

We Don't Know Which Terrifying Tale We'll Run...Yet!

But We Do Know...

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

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love
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Super-Love SHOWCASE "Lois Lane in 'Mrs Superman!' "

For the rest of the summer, we're going to do one of our favorite topics...

...Super-Love, beginning with the greatest love story in comics history...Lois Lane and Superman/Clark Kent!

This particular tale is from DC's Showcase #9 (1957), the first of two tryout issues before "Superman's Girl Friend" Lois received her solo title the next year.
Note: "Superman's Pal" Jimmy Olsen already received his own book several years earlier...without any test issues!
Just sayin'...

Written by Otto (Supergirl) Binder and illustrated by Al Plastino, one of the two primary Superman artists of the era (the other was Wayne Boring), this cover-featured story was typical of the type of tales that would be featured in the intrepid female reporter's own book through the end of the Silver Age.
But you really gotta ask; what audience was this book aimed at?
DC had a thriving romance comics line aimed at pre-teen/teen girls, but this doesn't seem like the sort of book they'd want to read!
And it certainly wasn't the sort of thing the young male audience would pick up.
Yet it sold well enough to continue from 1958 until 1974, when it was combined with Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl into a $1 100-page Superman Family anthology which ran each of them in new stories along with reprints of all three characters' earlier tales.

Next Week:
Another tale of Super-Love!

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

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Lois Lane

A Celebration of 75 Years

WARTIME ROMANCES "Lovelife of an Army Nurse"

It is said that "All is fair in love and war"...

...as this nurse learns the hard way in a story from St John's Wartime Romances #1 (1951)!

Penciled by legendary "good girl" artist Mat Baker and inked by Ray Osirin, this tale of combat and cattiness was typical of the more adult approach that St John's creatives took in their various romance titles.

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!

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour