Showing posts with label Bronze Age. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bronze Age. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Swinging '70s Stories TENDER LOVE STORIES "My Kind of Music!"

Motorcycle, guitar, long hair, fringed jacket...
...yep, this Don Heck/Joe Sinnott cover superbly-portrays a 1970's version of a "bad boy"!
Long-time pros Jack Katz, Werner Roth, and John Tartaglone illustrated this never-reprinted tale from Skywald's Tender Love Stories #1 (1971).
Next Week:
Our Final Swinging 70s Story!
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
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Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Swinging '70s Stories OUR LOVE STORY "Game of Triangles"

Though told from the viewpoint of the male protaganist...
...this story was, allegedly, written by one of the few female writers in Bronze Age comics.
Was it?
Read, and judge for yourself...
This never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #20 (1972) was scripted by Joy Hartle and illustrated by George Tuska and Paul Reinman.
Most people believe "Joy Hartle" was a pseudonym for Gary Freidrich.
"Joy" had only two stories to her credit, both romance tales that appeared almost simultaneously in late 1972-early 1973.
And, in fact, Gary's sister-in-law was named Joy Hartle!
But Gary was working steadily for Marvel at this point, scripting Captain America and Sgt Fury, as well as co-creating the motorcycle-riding Ghost Rider and a new version of the Frankenstein Monster (both with Mike Ploog)!
So why the pen-name?
The only thing I can think of is that these stories were done during the brief period in 1971-72 when Gary had left Marvel to work at the short-lived Skywald Publishing, and were "inventory" stories used to fill out what would've been all-reprint issues of the dying romance comics line.
BTW, the cover-featured tale has one of the worst romance comics covers I've ever seen...
Art by Alan Weiss & Frank Giacoia with retouching by Marie Severin and John Romita
Heck, the guy looks more like a stalker than a lover...
Next Week:
We're Not Sure Yet Exactly Which 1970s Story We'll Present!
But...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And now a word from out sponsor..
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Marvel's picked some of the best love comics from the 60s and 70s!
"It Happened at Woodstock," "My Heart Broke in Hollywood," "Love on the Rebound!"
Collects Love Romance #89 and #101-104; My Love #2, #14, #16 and #18-20; Teen-Age Romance #77 and #84, Our Love Story #5; and Patsy Walker #119.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2025

TENDER LOVE STORIES "Spark of My Heart!"

What Does a Girl Whom Nobody Thinks of as a Girl Do...
...when the guy she's interested in doesn't even know she's alive?
That's what this never-reprinted tale about a guy, a girl, and gearshifts asks!
Written by May Sterling, penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, and inked by John Celardo, this tale from Skywald's Tender Love Stories #4 (1971) was the final original story from the short-lived company's longest-running title!
While Schaffenberger and Celardo were both long-time pros who began their careers back in the Golden Age of comics, this is May Sterling's only writing credit!
Schaffenberger, in the 1950s and 60s, was DC's "go to" artist for female characters with long stints on Lois LaneSupergirl, and Mary Marvel as well as occasional assignments on Wonder Woman and Mighty Isis!
Oddly, he had very few actual romance comic assignments over his long career...
Is "May Sterling" a pseudonym, or was she a comics neophyte who went on to other things after this one script?
Sadly, we'll never know...
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!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales
Visit Amazon and Order...
Agonizing Love

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

Do You Love O Henry's Yuletide Classic "Gift of the Magi" as Much as We Do?

...we've presented three of them, each with its' own particular charms!
and
O Henry's classic Christmas story of True Love has been adapted into every media format imaginable, sometimes as a period piece, sometimes updated to the present, and, in a couple of cases, projected into the future!
 Merry Christmas
and
Happy New Year!
We'll be back on January 8, 2025
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

WE Hated Men! SAVAGE TALES "Fury of the Femizons"

You'd think nothing says "I Hated Men!" like a woman running a sword through a man's heart...
...except in the case presented in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!
(Was it really over a half-century ago?
Lord, I feel so old...)

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page by editor Roy Thomas...

Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.
marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.
"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'
Men are beginning to believe it.
Women always knew it.
So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?
What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!
What would we have then?
A better world? Perhaps.
A gentler world? Could be.
different world? Believe it.
Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.
The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.
Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.
Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!
Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!
The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!
Next Week:
In June, We Return to Our Original Format of Posting Whatever Catches Our Fancy!
And We Can Guarantee...
...You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Do You Love O Henry's "Gift of the Magi" as Much as We Do?

...we've presented two of them, each with its' own particular charms!
and
O Henry's classic Christmas story of True Love has been adapted into every media format imaginable, sometimes as a period piece, sometimes updated to the present, and, in a couple of cases, projected into the future!
Tomorrow...
Another, rarely-seen graphic retelling of the classic Christmas tale!
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Support
True Love Comics Tales!

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Amorous Education TEEN CONFESSIONS "Fast Cars and Faster Women"

In the mid-1970s, the TV series Happy Days was a smash hit!
So it's not surprising that some comics tried to "go retro" with 1950s-style nostalgia!
In the case of Charlton, which had a huuuuge amount of actual 1950s material it could've reprinted, they decided to do some new "period piece" stories!
Note: the cover is by Frank Bolle, who was working in comics during the 1950s doing everything...including romance comics, as shown HERE and HERE! and was active in the field 
But the story from Charlton's Teen Confessions #93 (1976) is illustrated by Demetrio Sanchez Gomez, a much younger artist.
Did Gomez capture the "feel" of the 1950s?
Judge for yourself...
IMHO, unlike the two previous stories he illustrated (HERE and HERE) which were set in the "present" (mid-1970s) and truly embody the visual aesthetic of the period, this one doesn't really fulfill it's intent, despite his obvious extensive research into the cars, fashions, and even hairstyles, of the 1950s!
Next Week:
We're Not Sure Yet Exactly What We'll Present!
But...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from out sponsor..
Please Support True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Order...