Tales Twice Told HEART THROBS "I Know My Love!"

The story we presented yesterday, "Summer Love", had previously-appeared under this cover...

..in DC's Heart Throbs #63 (1960).

When it was reprinted in 1970, the title was changed.

(DC tended to do this more than Marvel.

It drives comics historians nuts trying to match up different printings of stories!)

John Romita Sr was doing a lot of romance comics work for DC during this period, before leaving to go to Marvel in early 1965.

You'll note that, besides the usual "updating" of hair and clothing in yesterday's story, the art in the reprint version is "extended" on each page because the original pages had a printed header across the top of the art area.

The reprints eliminated the headers, and the art was extended either along the top or bottom of the page, depending on which way would be easier and/or faster to do.

As we showed HERE, 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 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.

Next week:

We Re-Present Our Annual Summertime "Beach Read" Book-Length Gothic Romance Novel...

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

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

Best of DC Romance Comics
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It's the Season for Lovin' GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Summer Love"

Here's some light beach reading now that Summer's under way...

...in fact, it's so light, there's no dialogue or captions!

Not a single, solitary word, except the title...

We re-present this silent story for your perusal from DC's Girls' Love Stories #155 (1970).
The writer is unknown, but the art is by penciler John Romita Sr and inker Bernard Sachs!
You may wonder how and why the artist who was then drawing Spider-Man for Marvel would do a romance comic story for rival DC?

If you come back
Tomorrow
I'll explain!

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Hot Snow HEART THROBS "Winter Meeting" & GIRLS" LOVE STORIES "That Special Moment"

 Here's a (Literally) Kool, Twice-Told Tale of the Flames of Love...

...kindled in the snow!

Appearing in DC's Heart Throbs #69 (1960-61), which came out in late autumn-early winter, the Tony Abruzzo & Bernard Sachs-illustrated story perfectly-captured the mood of the season!
When it was reprinted a decade later in DC's Girls' Love Stories #163 (1971), also in late autumn-early winter, it was "updated" with then-current hairstyles and fashions!
In addition, because the "Heart Throbs" header on each page was removed, the art was extended, resulting in some interesting layout reworking, like on the splash page!
But, unlike most "updated" reprints, some of this one's captions and dialogue balloons have been rewritten...

It's unknown why some of the dialogue and captions were re-written.
Next Week , We're Going Mod for February!
And, as Always, We Guarantee...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

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Visit Amazon and Order...

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Laugh at Love! TRUER THAN TRUE ROMANCE "I Hate My Hair!" / FALLING IN LOVE "Stolen Dreams!"

Over the past two weeks, we presented stories created in the early 1970s...the end of romance comics!

For the remaining two entries, we're running stories created during the 1950s-60s, the Silver Age of Comics!

Ironically, writer Jeanne Martinet would be considered "politically-incorrect" today for her characterization of androgenous appearance and the resulting gender confusion!

Hardly the sort of thing penciler Tony Abruzzo, inker Bernard Sachs, and an unknown writer had in mind when they created the story for DC's Falling In Love #4 (1956).

Interestingly, when this story was reprinted over a decade later in DC's Falling in Love #99 (1968), only the women's hairstyles were "updated", with the protaganist's hair modified to the then-trendy "page boy" style!

Neither the mens' hair nor anybody's fashions were updated!

(They usually gave the men sideburns and/or longer hair to make them look "mod"!)

But they felt they had to change her hair!

Go figure...

Next Week:

The Final Serious Romance Story Rewritten for Laughs and We Guarantee That...

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

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Truer Than True Romance