Amorous Education MEET MISS PEPPER "My Dearest..."

Not every  romance comic story set in school involved student/student or even student/teacher "interaction"...

...in a couple of series, it was teacher/teacher "relationships"!

Written and illustrated by Joe Kubert and Bob Bean (nobody's certain as to who did what on which page or even panel), this never-reprinted story from St john's Meet Miss Pepper (1954) was ripped-off...I mean derived...from the then-popular CBS radio and TV series Our Miss Brooks!

Note: In the 1950s, it wasn't unusual for a series to begin as a radio show, then carry over to the then-new medium of television, sometimes running in both formats simultaneously as this series did!
It was popular enough to warrant a b-movie with the tv show cast (done as the series ended it's run) which tied up the show's plotlines ending with Miss Brooks and Mr Boynton engaged!

There was a one-shot Our Miss Brooks comic from Dell (the biggest producer of radio/movie/tv tie-in comics), but, for whatever reason, it didn't lead to an ongoing series!

As you can see from this intro page to the Our Miss Brooks comic, Miss Pepper followed the format and characters of Miss Brooks almost to a "T", with one major exception...Miss Brooks chased after hunky teacher Mr Boynton, while Miss Pepper was chased by hunky teacher Mr Phizz!
The comic played the romance humorously, much like other teen humor books.

Meet Miss Pepper lasted only two, never-reprinted, issues, then Miss Pepper disappeared (except for occasional excerpts in history/reference books) forever from print.

Next Week:
We Continue with Stories Combining School and Sex!
And Yes, 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...

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
Volume 1: Super Crush
Paid Link

Amorous Education CO-ED ROMANCES "Education for Love"

Cupid returns to the classroom...

...as we spend the rest of September with hormonally-driven college and high school students!

Art by Al Camy.
The writer is unknown.
PL's Co-Ed Romances (and its' "sister book" Love Life) only had a single issue each in 1951.

PL Publishing is noted as the only comics company with more than a single title to last only 6 months before going belly-up!
They published eight books, ranging from romance to sci-fi to Western to crime to jungle heroine to horror!
None ran more than three issues.

Next Week:

We Continue with Stories Combining School and Sex!
And Yes, 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...

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
Volume 1: Super Crush
Paid Link

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

As Students Prepare to Return to Class

...we thought we'd provide some reference about campus life that couldn't be reprinted until more than a half-century after its' appearance in Harvey's First Love Illustrated #13 (1951)!

Though Harvey had heavily-modified other romance comics stories when they were reprinted after the Comics Code Authority began regulating content in 1954 (as we showed HERE and HERE), this one was apparently so controversial, that no amount of changes could make it acceptible to the Code administrators, so it remained hidden from the reading public until 2016, when, with the repressive Code finally defunct, it could be reprinted!
BTW, if it looks familiar to long-time readers, that's because we ran the b/w original art for the complete story a couple of years ago HERE!

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Re-Present!
But, We Guarantee That...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!
And Now a Word From Our Sponsor (who happens to be us!)
Support True Love Comics Tales
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Weird Love Volume 3
I Joined a Teen-Age Sex Club!
Paid Link

Romance on the Range LOVE DIARY "Big City Girl"

It's Culture Shock ...and More...When a Woman Raised in the Frenetic Urban Jungle...

...gets literally thrown, against her will, into the pastoral countryside!

Written by Dorothy Woolfolk and illustratd by Mort Leav, this never-reprinted story from Orbit's Love Diary #12 (1951) presented the point of view that dwellers of the crowded canyons of concrete were somehow "less" than the "salt of the earth" types who lived out among farm animals and miles of vegetation!

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...

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

Paid Link

Romance on the Range COWGIRL ROMANCES "Send Back My Love"

Return to the Old West, Where Men were Real  Men, Women were Real  Women...

...and, in those days before e-mail (or even a telephone), a letter to one's true love could take days...or weeks!

This was the final tale in Fiction House's CowGirl Romances #12 (1954), which was, sadly, the final issue of the series.
Unfortunately, the identities of the creatives involved have been lost to the mists of time!

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what story it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

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

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

And now a word from out sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

The Cowboy

A New Western Romance Graphic Novel

Paid Link

Tales Twice-Told TENDER LOVE STORIES / REALISTIC ROMANCES "I Deceived My Love"

When I first saw this tale in the back of Skywald's Tender Love Stories #3 (1971)...

...I knew it was "off", but I couldn't quite figure out how or why!

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 (updating clothing and hairstyles) 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.
Note that none of the captions or dialogue were rewritten/updated, so the reference to Hal's sister dying in "the first war" on page 3 didn't make sense to a Vietnam War-era reader in 1971!
(But it would to a post-WWII-era reader because it references World War I!)
Ironically, this tale required more redrawing than most!
Bill Everett not only had to do the usual "updating" on people, but on vehicles and technology as well!
Here's the original, Rafael Astarita-rendered story from Avon's Realistic Romances #4 (1952)...

Though published in 1952, the tale was written/illustrated several years earlier and tossed into this anthology with little concern for timeliness!
In fact, look at the inside cover/contents page...

This story is described in the lower right corner...with an illustration that has nothing to do with the tale!

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...
Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics
Paid Link