Beach Read KISS OF DEATH "Chapter Four: Mystery of the Locket"

We Have Already Seen...

Anne Mason lying in a coffin after being attacked by strange beings...

...and now, the astounding conclusion to this tale from DC's Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #3 by Jack Oleck and Don Heck!

Ah, a happy ending...

But not for Gothic Romances in comic book form!

This title, DC Comics' Dark Mansions of Forbidden Love, only lasted four issues before becoming Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion, a standard horror comic that ran ten more issues.

Its sister title, Sinister House of Secret Love suffered a similar fate, turning into Secrets of Sinister House, also after four issues.

Marvel Comics' attempt at a similar title was not a comic, but a b/w magazine with prose stories and spot illustrations called Gothic Tales of Love.

It died after three issues.

Charlton Comics' Haunted Love was the second-longest running series with ten titanic issues of weird love. 
We've presented a couple of stories from it HERE and HERE.

But the longest-lasting gothic romance comic book was based on a daytime tv soap opera...Gold Key's Dark Shadows, which ran thirty-five issues and lasted four years longer than the TV show!
Then, in 1991, Innovation Comics did three mini-series (one cancelled after only a single issue) based on the short-lived primetime revival of the show, adding nine issues to the count.
Finally, in 2011, Dynamite Entertainment resurrected (as it were) the original TV show with a twenty-three issue run as well as a five-issue crossover mini-series with Vampirella!

Next Week: Well, We're Not Sure What We'll Present...Yet!

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

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

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Beach Read KISS OF DEATH Chapter Three: The Body in the Coffin

We Have Already Seen

Anne Mason attacked by a caped figure who might be a vampire, and now...

Is the caped figure a vampire?

Why did the wolf (or werewolf) attack Anne?

What other as-yet undiscovered secrets lurk in Castle Dravko?

..or is she...undead?

Be here tomorrow for the astounding conclusion...

Mystery of the Locket!

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

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Beach Read KISS OF DEATH Chapter Two: The Secret of Baron Dravko!

We have already seen...

Something stalks Anne Mason through the somber halls of Castle Dravko...

...but, what?

Werewolf?

There, wolf!

Be here tomorrow for...

The Body in the Coffin!

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy..

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

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Beach Read KISS OF DEATH Chapter One: It Walks by Night!

Vampires!

Werewolves!

A stormy night!

A spooky old castle!

A beautiful woman in a nightgown!

It's August!

Perfect time for a "Beach Read" Gothic romance to chill your bones and cool your sweaty brow!

Who (or what) is the "dark and ominous figure"?

Vampire?

Werewolf?

What is the secret of the Baron's son?

Be here tomorrow for...

The Secret of Baron Dravko!

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

And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy..

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

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Your Next Kool Gothic Beach Read is Coming...

Behind this kool Jeffrey Catherine Jones cover lurk...
Vampires!

Werewolves!

A stormy night!

A spooky old castle!

A beautiful woman in a nightgown!

This never-reprinted book-length tale from DC's Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #3 (1972) begins tomorrow, and continues for the rest of the week, chilling your blood as you read it under an umbrella on a blanket or extra-large towel on a hot beach!

(Don't forget an iced beverage!)

Note: if you think the cover above is eye-grabbing (which it is), here's the ink-and-wash original art...

...which was mezzotint-screened, then flat-colored, unfortunately losing a lot of detail in the process.

DC's production budget didn't allow for doing full-color photographic separations from color art, but that didn't stop innovative Production Manager Jack Adler from trying to get paperback cover-style imagery on the Gothic romance books as we showed HERE and HERE,

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...

Showcase Presents

Secrets of Sinister House

...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love, this book's sister gothic romance title, but in black and white!
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