Amorous Education WARTIME ROMANCE "I Tried to Burn the Candle at Both Ends!"

Though it appeared in Wartime Romances...

...this story has nothing to do with anything even vaguely-military related!

Written by Dana Dutch and illustrated by Matt Baker, this story from St John's Wartime Romances #1 (1951), like all the tales in the issue, was a reprint (but all were retitled from their original publication)!
In fact, this one was originally called "I Should Have Played Hard-to-Get!" when it ran in St John's Blue Ribbon Comics: Teen-Age Diary Secrets #4 (1949)...where it was the cover feature!

With the Korean War under way, the editors thought a romance title based on how war affects male-female relationships might be a hot seller!

But they could only find two military-themed stories in their inventory, so they lead with those tales and used other, non military-related tales to fill out the issue!
With #2, they started running new material commissioned specifically for the book, which ran 18 issues through 1953, outlasting the war!

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Matt Baker
Art of Glamour

Amorous Education TEEN-AGE DIARY SECRETS "I Was Tired of BEING GOOD..."

 How can you resist a tale with a titillating title like that?

Plus the art is by legendary good girl artist Matt Baker!!!

The writer of this never-reprinted tale from St John's Teen-Age Diary Stories #4 (1949) is unknown, though it's suspected to be Dana Dutch.

BTW, this particular issue was actually a magazine, featuring both fiction and non-fiction text features (with b/w illustrations) and a color comics section with three stories, including this one.

For whatever reason, the later issues of the title were standard comic-book size and format.

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Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

ADVENTURES IN ROMANCE "Heels Over Head In Love"

With Labor Day coming up, it's time to ease into Autumn...

...with a story from the short-lived (and never reprinted) St John's Adventures in Romance #1 (1949)!

Written by the prolific Dana Dutch, about whom very little is known, except his extensive list of  comic scripts.
Interestingly, out of 206 identified scripts, over 200 were romance stories, with a smattering of superhero and high adventure!

Illustrated by the versatile Frank Bolle, who's still active in the field today!

Here's his website!

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Romance Without Tears
featuring comics stories written by Dana Dutch! 

WARTIME ROMANCES "Make-Believe Marriage"

The 1950s.

When employers could legally-discriminate against you if you weren't married!

Here's a litany of lies and love (and a couple of wildly-improbable coincidences) illustrated by the legendary Matt Baker in St John's WarTime Romances #1, 1951.

Scripted by either Dana Dutch or editor Ruth Roche, this densely-plotted tale rivals the Simon-Kirby Young Romance and Young Love for appeal to both teen and young adult readers!

(In fact, the two demographics were pretty-evenly represented in 1940s-50s romance comics' readership!)

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Yet Exactly What We'll Present!
But...

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Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics

Celebrate Shakespeare's 400th Anniversary with His GREATEST Tale in Comic Form: Romeo & Juliet!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Yeah, his anniversary was on the 23rd, but we publish on Wednesday!

ROMEO & JULIET Conclusion

When Last We Left Fiction's Greatest Lovers...

You really expected me to paraphrase Shakespeare?

Geez, I'm not that egotistical!

Verily, let us returneth to the tale...

This it not the Classics Illustrated version, but part of the Famous Authors Illustrated series that competed with CI for the "comic book adaptation of classics" market for several years.

This particular edition, from Famous Authors Illustrated #10 (1950), was adapted by St John romance comics scribe Dana Dutch and illustrated by longtime CI contributor H C Kiefer!

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Romeo & Juliet

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