Showing posts with label Black romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black romance. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

FAST WILLIE JACKSON "Dee Dee: Tickets Now On Sale"

Some women have little self-esteem...
...throwing themselves at men who don't appreciate them at all!
Bet if they did a follow-up to this never-reprinted tale from Fitzgerald Publications' Fast Willie Jackson #5 (1977), it would show Dee Dee sitting miserably with Helen, Tina, and Frankie!
In real-life, lack of self-esteem affects many intelligent, attractive women of all ethnicities, trapping them in unhealthy relationships!
Illustrated by Gus Lemoine, the script was either by him or publisher/editor Bertam Fitzgerald.
Previously, Gus pencilled shorts and a couple of covers at Archie Comics from 1967 to the mid-1970s.
The Fast Willie books were his final credited work.
(There is a theory that Gus was really Henry Scarpelli, a versatile humor artist who did work for Archie as well as Archie-clone books for both Marvel and DC.
The period when "Gus" was active at Archie was before Scarpelli's credited work appeared there and disappeared after Scarpelli began receiving credit for his work on Archie titles.
So...it's like "Gee, Clark, we never see you when Superman's around! Why's that?"
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...
featuring the cover art from several HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

SOUL LOVE "Old Fires!"

This is the only complete story from Soul Love that was ever published...
...appearing full original art-sized in in Privateer Press' tabloid-sized Jack Kirby Masterworks (1979)
Written and penciled by Kirby, inked by Vince Colletta
You can read other Soul Love tales we've presented HERE and HERE.
Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.
The first was the 1950s series Negro Romance, which we covered HERE.
Next Week:
We don't know what we'll present..yet,
but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales
UrbanWear with a "Black is Beautiful" flair!
Stand tall and proud with a Lichtenstein-style comic book image of lovers in a romantic clinch!
A Pop Art classic with a Black twist!

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

OUR LOVE STORY "But He's the Boy I Love!"

Except for Fawcett's short-lived Negro Romance, there were no love comics stories that featured African-American protagonists...
...until this tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #5 (1970)!
Written by Stan Lee, penciled by Gene Colan, and inked by John Romita Sr, this tale does use a couple of heavy-handed cliches to try to give it "relevance".
But at least they tried...
For the record, Jack Kirby's Soul Love was just being conceived at this point.
The story of that never-produced title can be found HERE.

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...
UrbanWear with that Black is Beautiful flair!
Stand tall and proud with a Lichtenstein-style comic book image of lovers in a romantic clinch!
A Pop Art classic with a Black twist!

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

FAST WILLIE JACKSON "Frankie: Soap in My Eyes"

It is said that soap operas have universal appeal...
...and this tale seems to prove it!
Mind you, this was from the era when it wan't socially-acceptible for "real" men to watch soaps!
Illustrated by Gus Lemoine, the script was either by him or publisher/editor Bertam Fitzgerald.
Previously, Gus pencilled shorts and a couple of covers at Archie Comics from 1967 to the mid-1970s.
The Fast Willie books were his final credited work.
(There is a theory that Gus was really Henry Scarpelli, a versatile humor artist who did work for Archie as well as Archie-clone books for both Marvel and DC.
The period when "Gus" was active at Archie was before Scarpelli's credited work appeared there, so...it's like "Gee, Clark, we never see you when Superman's around! Why's that?"
Lois Lane couldn't prove it, either.)
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...
featuring the cover art from several HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

Friday, February 21, 2014

SOUL LOVE "Diary of the Disappointed Doll"

We presented one story from this never-published 1970s title last year...
...and here's another never-seen story,  also scanned and presented from the original art!
Written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Tony DeZuniga.
Since the magazine was b/w, the art would be photostatted, then gray wash tones would be added as shown in this printed page from The ButterFly, a strip about the first Black superheroine (predating Storm of the X-Men) that appeared in the 1971 b/w magazine Hell-Rider.
You can read about her HERE.
Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.
The first was the 1950s series Negro Romance, which we covered HERE.

UrbanWear with a "Black is Beautiful" flair!
Stand tall and proud with a Lichtenstein-style comic book image of lovers in a romantic clinch!
A Pop Art classic with a Black twist!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

FAST WILLIE JACKSON "Happy Birthday, Frankie"

Here's an example of love gone wrong...
...in this never-reprinted story from the very hard-to-find Fast Willie Jackson #1 (1976).
Illustrated by Gus Lemoine, the script was either by him or publisher/editor Bertam Fitzgerald.
Previously, Gus pencilled shorts and a couple of covers at Archie Comics from 1967 to the mid-1970s.
The Fast Willie books were his final credited work.
(There is a theory that Gus was really Henry Scarpelli, a versatile humor artist who did work for Archie as well as Archie-clone books for both Marvel and DC.
The period when "Gus" was active at Archie was before Scarpelli's credited work appeared there, so...it's like "Gee, Clark, we never see you when Superman's around! Why's that?"
Lois Lane couldn't prove it, either.)
Bertram Fitzgerald was the publisher/editor/writer of Fitzgerald Publications, doing a Black historical comic anthology, Golden Legacy, sold to schools and bookstores.
He conceived Fast Willie as a way to break into the teen comic market on the newsstands.
Two ironic notes:
1) Fitzgerald finally broke even on the series as of it's final issue, #7.
(It has been "in the red" up to that point.)
2) He failed to capitalize on the late 1970s creation of the Direct Market and comic book stores, which could've enabled him to continue publishing the title without the costs and hassle of returnable books.

Though the series has never been reprinted, it has not been forgotten....
...though not an "official" appearance, this brief interlude in Image's Savage Dragon #170 (2011) by Erik Larsen would seem to be a "Where Are They Now?" tip of the hat to the MoCity crew.
As it turns out, Willie is a distant uncle of the comic's title character...
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...
featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

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

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

NEGRO ROMANCE "Forever Yours"

It's said that Love is blind.
In comics, at least, it's also color-blind.
Looks like a "happily ever after" scenario?
But, you know there's going to be potholes in the road to happiness!
This tale from Fawcett's Negro Romance #2 (1950) doesn't feature either a miracle cure or a "whoops, wrong diagnosis" ending, as so many of these tales often do!
It was written by Roy Ald (who was also the book's Editor) and illustrated by Rudy Palais, an artist with over 300 stories and covers during his long career from 1941 to 1957.
Tomorrow, a Valentine's Day BONUS
Another torrid tale from Negro Romances!
And now, a word from our sponsor...