NEGRO ROMANCE "Love's Decoy"

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

To celebrate, here's the last tale from Fawcett's incredibly hard-to-find Negro Romance #2 (1950)!

Fascinatingly, except for skin color, this could be a tale in ANY romance comic of the period, which makes sense, since writer Roy Ald was also the editor (and occasional writer) of the Fawcett romance comics line including Sweethearts, Love Memories, Romantic Western, Love Mystery, and True Confidences, so he knew his stuff.

Artist Alvin Hollingsworth was one of the few Black comic artists of the 1940s-1950s, illustrating every genre from Westerns to horror to sci-fi to romance.Like many Golden Age comics artists, he went on to do commercial art as well as becoming a noted fine art painter with numerous gallery exhibitions.

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what 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...

Visit our

Negro Romance
Comic Collectibles Store

featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

NEGRO ROMANCE "Possessed" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Gloria was an lonely, insecure woman.

After being laid off from her job, she wandered into a park and sat next to a most interesting man, to whom she poured out her troubles.

That man, Lloyd, introduced her to his mother, who offered Gloria a job in her beauty salon.

Over time, Lloyd and Gloria fell in love.

But Gloria was frightened that this situation, like every one before it, would end abruptly, leaving her with nothing.

To prevent that, Gloria manipulated everyone; Lloyd, Lloyd's mother, and her co-workers, to create an environment where she would be indispensable to all.

When Lloyd brought home a fellow (female) college student at Christmas, Gloria thought she was a rival for his love and let him know, in no uncertain terms...

Fascinatingly, except for skin color, this could be a tale in ANY romance comic of the period.

Last month, the PBS series History Detectives did a segment on the issue (#2) of Negro Romance this story was taken from.
The artist, Alvin Hollingsworth, was one of the few Black comic artists of the 1940s-1950s, illustrating every genre from Westerns to horror to sci-fi to romance.
Like many Golden Age comics artists, he went on to do commercial art as well as becoming a noted fine art painter with numerous gallery exhibitions.

Another Black artist, Matt Baker, also did numerous romance comics (as we've shown HERE) as well as the Phantom Lady series which became notorious when one of it's covers became the centerpiece of a crusade against comics by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham.

(Note: the scans for this story from Negro Romance are from the History Detectives website.
Though we did scan the actual comics covers [not 2nd generation reproductions] for use on merchandise [see below], the books were encased in lucite [slabbed], so we couldn't access the stories for scanning.)

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what 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...

Check out the

Negro Romance
Comic Collectible Store

featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

NEGRO ROMANCE "Possessed" Part 1

It's said that Love is blind.
In comics, at least, it's also color-blind.
When Black or other ethnic characters appeared in titles published in the Golden Age of Comics (1940s-50s), they were usually stereotypes common to movies and radio shows of the period.
There were a couple of notable exceptions.
One was All-Negro Comics, a comic created and produced by a Black publishing house, which, ended up being a one-shot title.  (There's a fascinating article about it HERE.)
The other was a romance comic...Negro Romance, published by Fawcett Comics (Captain Marvel, Hopalong Cassidy) and Charlton Comics.
We'll go into the history of the book later.
Right now, let's look at love...

 WTF?

"Interesting", indeed!

Is Gloria's world about to crumble around her?

If so, what is she going to do about it...and to whom?

And what about the history behind the all-but forgotten Negro Romance comic?

To find out, you'll have to be here...Tomorrow!

Same Blog Time!

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And now, a word from our sponsor...

Check out our

Negro Romance
Comic Collectible Store

featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues!