DARLING ROMANCE "I Stole My Sister's Man"

Did a woman write this tale...

...a story about a sleazy, sordid, and slutty sibling trying to steal her sister's guy!

(and it's from Archie Comics, no less!)?
Read it, and tell us what you think!

The success of Simon & Kirby's Young Romance unleashed a horde of romance comic imitators  including this decidedly non-Archie title from Archie Comics.

These pre-Comics Code series featured stories that rivaled the true confessions-style magazines for naughtiness and radio soap operas for ridiculous plot twists, as this tale from Darling Romance #1 (1949) demonstrates.

The unknown writer (who must've believed they were being paid by the word) went under the pen-name "Mary Woods"!
But does it "read" like a man or woman wrote it?
What's your opinion???
OTOH, the art of Bill Fix (who did only romance stories during his short career in comics) is very distinctive...and he conveniently signed it!

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Amourous Education GINGER "Smellbound"

We presented two later versions of this tale HERE and HERE...

...Now here's the story that started it all!

(Note: all three tales are by the same writer!)

The biggest difference is that the teacher isn't a science instructor, but a history teacher, but many of the elements (including the perfume store, and of course, the punchline) are the same!

Freelance writers like Mendelsohn were dependent on producing volumes of work to pay the bills, since comics (and pulp magazines) weren't high-paying gigs back then.
It was strictly "work for hire", a one-time payment only!
They didn't get reprint fees, nor payment (not even a credit/acknowledgement) if their stories were re-used on radio/tv/movie versions of the characters, which they ofter were!
So it's not that unusual for writers to reuse storylines for stories for different publishers!
(We presented a kool example of this during our last year's annual Halloween blogathon starting with THIS TALE, and continuing through the links...)
Illustrated by George Frese, Mendelson's story from Archie's Ginger #1 (1951) was a continuation of the character's strip which premiered in Zip Comics in 1943, continued in the back of Suzie Comics, and finally got it's own title in 1951!

Ironically, the mid-1950s "Seduction of the Innocent" scandal involving horror and crime comics that caused numerous publishers to close and the surviving companies to reduce their output, doomed the wholesome character's book to end at #10 in 1954 when Archie cut back their line!
She disappeared until the early 2000s, when Archie began reprinting her stories in their numerous digest-sized titles, introducing her to a new audience who weren't even alive when she first appeared!

Happy April Fool's Day!

Be Back Next Wednesday for More Amorous Education!

DARLING LOVE "Second Hand Love"

This is not an early April Fools joke!
Did you know Archie Comics once published romance comics?

No, not like this!

Like this...

and this!

Like almost all comics publishers at the end of World War II, Archie (then MLJ Magazines) experienced a major drop in sales as action-oriented comics (and super-heroes in particular) fell out of favor with readers.

Luckily, one of their other characters, Archie (along with his supporting cast), proved extremely-popular, and quickly replaced the super-heroes in various titles like Pep Comics and Top-Notch Laugh Comics (which became Laugh Comics) as well as new solo titles for Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and others.

In fact, the company was renamed Archie Comics in 1946!

But that didn't mean the company had abandoned non-Archie concepts!

Due to sales generated in 1949 by then-new romance titles like Young Love, Archie jumped into the brand-new (to comics) teen and young adult women with two titles, Darling Love and Darling Romance published under the Darling Magazines imprint!

Though most of the tales were of the usual breathless "true love" type, a few were stories surprisingly-mature (more in the vein of soap operas), such as this never-reprinted one from Darling Love #8 (1951)...

Illustrated by Harry Lucey (who was also one of the primary Archie artists at the time), the subjects include "older man/younger woman", "widower with child remarrying", and "inadvertent motherhood" 

The two comics were bi-monthly on alternating months and lasted only two years (1949-1951) before being forced out by a glut of romance comics flooding the newsstands as every other publisher entered the compeetition.

Neither series has ever been reprinted!

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PEP COMICS "Archie in 'Christmas Cheers' "

It's comics' all-American boy...as most of you don't know him...

...a buck-toothed, layabout, closer to Reggie (who doesn't appear in this tale), than the wholesome teen of today!
(BTW, for an explanation of War Bonds, and why Archie's dad invested part of his son's $50 check, go HERE!)

Written by Harry Sahle and Ed Goggin, penciled by Sahle and inked by "Ginger" (Virginia Drury), this story from MLJ's Pep Comics #46 (1944) is notable for the debut of two characters; Pop Tate, owner of "Pop's Chocklit Shop" (Called "Tate's" in this tale), and Gabby, a short-lived character who screwed-up other people's lives by continually blabbing things others were not meant to know!

As you can see, the original Bob Montana character designs (which Sahle and Drury matched almost exactly) had not yet been updated to the streamlined Dan DeCarlo versions, which serve as the templates of the characters to this day!

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Archie and Friends All-Stars Christmas Stocking

Countdown to Halloween 2016: ARCHIE COMICS "Halloween Hi-Jinx"

We end our contribution to the Countdown to Halloween 2016 blogathon as we began...

with a pop culture icon celebrating the holiday!

As you can see from the cover (which is actually from the issue before the one the story appears in (which had a Christmas cover) and contents page by Harry Sahle, the Dan DeCarlo-created "look" that defines the characters to this day hadn't yet been implemented!

Note the caption about an Archie radio show.

Despite lack of success in movies and live-action TV, Archie and his friends had a long-running (1943-1952) radio show on NBC Blue (which became ABC) and the Mutual Network. 

It started as a daily 15-minute broadcast but converted to a weekly half-hour.

(As a seasonal treat, HERE'S a Halloween-themed episode from 1948!)

Back to the matter at hand...This tale from MLJ's Archie Comics #6 (1944) was written and penciled by Harry Sahle and inked by Janice Valleau.
Sahle might have also written it, but we can't confirm that.

Next week:

The Return of Reach for Happiness...

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

(Things are really getting juicy...)

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PEP COMICS "Enter: Veronica!"

Though Betty Cooper had a four-issue head start on Veronica Lodge...

Note: Hedy Lamarr was THE blonde movie bombshell of the era.

...when Ronnie hit town in MLJ's Pep Comics #26, the battle was on!

Note: A "sub-deb" (sub-debutante) was a rich or well-bred young woman who had not yet come out into high society.

Note: Comedian Jack Benny was famous for being incredibly cheap.

The gang seems to have aged several years to 16-17 from their 12-14 year old versions only four issues earlier.

If so, did Betty have Archie all to herself for a couple of years instead of a couple of issues?

Either way, the romantic triangle between Archie, Betty, and Veronica would become perhaps the longest ongoing three-way in popular culture.

Even though the Life with Archie comic offered simultaneous alternate future universe plotlines featuring Archie married to both Betty and Ronnie, the current story featuring his demise seems to take place in a merged reality where we don't know who his final words are spoken to...

Who do you think it is?

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

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

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