Halloween HeartBreak WORLD OF FANTASY "Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!"

Welcome to our final Countdown to Halloween 2024 tale...

...as we look at the never-reprinted tale behind this incredibly-misleading (but atmospheric), never-reprinted Bill Everett cover!

That means no one has seen this story from Atlas' World of Fantasy #4 (1956)...except you...for almost seven decades!

So she's not a witch...but an alien!

I have the feeling the cover was done before the Comics Code Authority began its' stranglehold on what was left of the comic book industry, but frugal editor Stan Lee didn't want it to go to waste, so he had an unknown writer along with artist John Forte take the basic plot and drop the supernatural element, replacing it with sci-fi!
It's still a nice tale of "love conquers all", eh?

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

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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love
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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: you can see the new tale this reworked story backs-up HERE!)
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!
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Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

TENDER LOVE STORIES & YOUNG ROMANCE "Fashion Plate"

When is a contemporary love story not a contemporary love story?

When it was "contemporary" a decade earlier!

You'd think a tale heavily-oriented about current fashion would have been written and drawn, well, currently!

But this story published in Skywald's Tender Love Stories #4 (1971) wasn't scripted and illustrated in 1971!

It was created almost a decade earlier...in 1963!

Published in Prize's Young Romance #124 (1963), the original version illustrated by Bob Powell presents the male ingenue first as a leather-clad biker, then as a preppie, and finally as an average Joe.

The reworked version, inked by Bill Everett, presents the guy first as a leisure-suited layabout, then a double-breasted suit-clad dandy, and finally, again, as an average Joe.

You'll also note in both cases, Bob starts out with extreme hairstyles, then gets trimmed as the tale goes on!

Of course, looking back on these tales decades later, both stories seem like "period pieces"!

And, yes, we did wear clothes like you see here in both those time periods!

They were considered "cutting edge" then.

"Why did they do it?" you may ask...

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 8-20 page lead story and use retouched reprints to fill out the book.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

b) "updating" existing art was cheaper than totally-redrawing the story. 

c) artists were better-utilized doing stuff that sold better (like superheroes).

d) the audience for romance comics, unlike superhero comics, changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the old plots!

Next Week...

We Don't Know What We're Presenting...Yet!

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

And now a word from our sponsor!

Please Support True Love Comics Tales by Visiting Amazon and Ordering...

Marvel Romance

ACTUAL ROMANCES "I Refused to Share My Husband's Love!"

Incest (potential or otherwise) is a near-taboo subject on soap operas today...

...but the then-brand new genre of romance comics took several cracks at it back in the 1940s.

Note: this never-reprinted tale from Timely Comics' Actual Romances #1 (1949) makes the brother and sister step-siblings, just to be safe.

Though the Grand Comics Database lists Mike Sekowsky as the artist, it looks a lot like a combination of Werner Roth and Bill Everett, both of whom were working for Timely.

The writer is 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?)

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