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

Amorous Education PERFECT LOVE "Lesson in Love"

Did private schools really have such restrictive rules for the faculty as shown here?

Or is this never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Perfect Love #8 (1952) just badly-scripted?

Wow! Are they strict or what?

We know it's illustrated by penciler Jim Mooney and inker Bernard Sachs...but we don't know who the writer was since the records for Ziff-Davis' long-defunct comics division no longer exist!

Next Week...

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present!

But, We Can Guarantee That...

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

(Yeah, we know you've heard that before, but it's true!)

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

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Agonizing Love
The Golden Age of Romance Comics

WARTIME ROMANCES "Some Sergeants are Sweethearts"

This never-reprinted tale from 1953 may not look like a tale about romance...

...but trust us...it is!

So what did you expect?

This story's from 1953, not 2022!

Note that this is the sort of story that could only work as a prose or graphic narrative, since if it were a movie or tv presentation, the sergeant's voice would give away the twist ending!
Except for inker Bernard Sachs, the other creative credits for this tale from St John's WarTime Romances #15 are unknown.

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...

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(and remember, Valentine's Day is coming!)

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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 also 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, the art in the reprint version shown yesterday 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 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...

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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...

This silent story was re-presented from DC's Girls' Love Story #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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Love in the Time of Covid-19 ROMANTIC MARRIAGE "There's Room for Three"

 Not every triangle between two women and a man involves romance...

...as this never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Romantic Marriage #9 (1952) proves...

What did you think was going to develop here?

It's the 1950s, you dirty-minded readers!

Though the scripter is unknown, the art is by penciler Alice Kirkpatrick and inker Bernard Sachs.

Alice Kirkpatrick was one of the unsung heroines of Golden Age comics.

She started illustrating pulp magazines in 1937, but when the field slowly died after World War II, she switched to comic books, co-creating Sally O'Neill : Policewoman for Quality's National Comics and taking over Betty Bates: Lady at Law (a hands-on, kick-ass District Attorney) in Quality's Hit Comics!

But, within a year, her bread-and-butter became romance comics, with over 150 stories to her credit!

She left the business after the "Seduction of the Innocent" purge in the mid-1950s almost wiped out comics, and her post-comics life is a mystery.

BTW, you may notice a slightly-different look to the blog, especially in the way the text is breaking. This is due to Blogger changing their interface, and eliminating single-space breaks between sentences.

We're working to adjust the html to compensate.

Next Week...

Another Tale of Disease, Debilitating Conditions and Desire!

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

And now a word from our sponsor...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

(Which reprints another of Alice's romance comics tales)