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

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...

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Conclusion - 'Till Death Do You Part""

We Have Already Seen...

...Ellen Drew was always Ellen Drew, not "Mary Cartwright"!

The drugged (and widowed) newlywed was being used by fraudsters hoping to convince a dying old man that she was his (deceased) daughter, whom he'd promised a fabulously-valuable gift upon her marriage!
But, when they looked behind a painting he pointed to, hoping to find his safe, they found...a blank wall!
Wow!
Her real hubby's not even cold in his grave and she's already casting longing glances at another guy?
And I thought serial lover Bonnie Taylor: Airline Stewardess was, as we said back in the day, "loose"!
Writers Sy Reit & Jack Oleck must've had a pretty...interesting view of women!
Trivia: the editor of the book was Dorothy Woolfolk, who started in comics during the Golden Age (1943) and continued to the Bronze Age (1974)!
Besides DC's romance titles, she was also the editor of all three of the publisher's "heroine" books (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Lois Lane) for several months in 1972!
So, I'm astonished she'd let that last panel though in this never-reprinted story from DC's Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #2 (1971).
Here's the original art for the cover...
...a pen and ink (plus gray wash) rendering by Neal Adams, which was photographed through a mezzotint screen, and then had "flat" color added to produced the cover seen above!
Now that's a "Secret of the Painting", eh?
We hope you've enjoyed our annual "beach read" presentation, and will continue to join us each Wednesday for another rarely-seen True Love Comics Tale!

Next Week...
We're Not Yet Certain What We'll Present!
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
Visit Amazon and Buy...
...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love, this book's sister gothic romance title, but in black and white!

Wednesday, August 17, 2022

Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Chapter Three - The Secret of the Painting"

When Last We Left Ellen Drew...I Mean Mary Cartwright...I Mean...

...newlyweds David and Ellen Drew, trying to evade a mysterious car pursuing them through the fog-bound English moors, crash, killing David and rendering Ellen unconscious!
Brought to a nearby house, the delirious Ellen is told by everyone, including a doctor and a woman claiming to be her sister that she's actually Mary Cartwright, engaged to the handsome Edwin Masters...and that she's been suffering delusions that she's already married to someone else!
With constant drugging, she begins to believe it, but a midnight visit by a shadowy figure who address her as "Mrs Drew" compels her to look around the old house, finding another person...an elderly man who calls her "my daughter, Mary"!
Now on her guard (but still being drugged), the next night, our heroine hears a rhythmic noise (like a loud heartbeat), which she traces to the basement to find...
So what's the "Secret of the Painting"...which Edwin has just put his foot through?
And will Ellen live long enough to discover it?
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 Buy...
...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love, this book's sister gothic romance title, but in black and white!

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Chapter Two - Who Am I?"

We Have Already Seen...

...newlyweds David and Ellen Drew, trying to evade a mysterious car pursuing them through the fog-bound English moors, crash, killing David and rendering Ellen unconscious!
Brought to a nearby home, the delirious Ellen believes she hears her spouse's voice and follows it outside the building, sees a shadowy figure, then collapses...
Be Here Tomorrow to Learn...
The Secret of the Painting!
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...