Tales Twice Told GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "This is Our Moment"

Yesterday, We Presented a Story from the '60s...

...that featured modified clothing and hairstyles as usual when it was reprinted a half-decade later!

But, it also had a radical modification not present in most of those reprints...

Pages 3 thru 6 of the original story are dropped, and we now continue with what was originally page 7...

Why did Editor Dorothy Woolfolk drop four pages from this story when it was "updated" for DC's Girls' Love Stories #162 (1971)

It wasn't for space reasons, as there were lots of other reprintable stories that would've fitted into the allocated pages without extensive re-editing!
We'll never know the answer...

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present Next Week!
But We Can Guarantee...
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...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
Paid Link

Tales Twice Told SECRET HEARTS "What About Some Love for Me?"

How many of us have been treated like doormats by our "friends"...

...even to the point where we'd actually help them steal the one we love?

I'll bet a lot of readers can identify with Katie...

We don't know how Jane reacted to this turn of events...nor do we care!

This cover-featured tale from DC's Secret Hearts #109 (1966) was penciled by John Romita, inked by Bernard Sachs with several panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky.

(Romita had just gone over to Marvel to take over as the artist on Daredevil, and shortly thereafter, Spider-Man!)
Like many other stories of the era, it was reprinted with updated fashions and hairstyles!
But, unlike most of those stories, when it was reprinted, it was also heavily-reedited and rewritten, with almost half the pages cut!

See that  version...tomorrow!
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...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
Paid Link

Tales Twice Told HEART THROBS "I Know My Love!"

The story we presented yesterday, "Summer Love", had previously-appeared under this cover...

..in DC's Heart Throbs #63 (1960).

When it was reprinted in 1970, the title was changed.

(DC tended to do this more than Marvel.

It drives comics historians nuts trying to match up different printings of stories!)

John Romita Sr was doing a lot of romance comics work for DC during this period, before leaving to go to Marvel in early 1965.

You'll note that, besides the usual "updating" of hair and clothing in yesterday's story, the art in the reprint version is "extended" on each page because the original pages had a printed header across the top of the art area.

The reprints eliminated the headers, and the art was extended either along the top or bottom of the page, depending on which way would be easier and/or faster to do.

As we showed HERE, this "updated reprinting" became a common practice on romance comics until the genre all-but died out in the late 1970s.

Publishers would do a new 6-12 page lead story and use retouched reprints to fill out the book.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

b) updating the art was cheaper than totally-redrawing the story. 

c) the artists were better-utilized doing stuff that sold better (like superheroes).
d) the audience for romance comics, unlike superhero comics, totally-changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the "old" plots.

Next week:

We Re-Present Our Annual Summertime "Beach Read" Book-Length Gothic Romance Novel...

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

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And Now a Woed From Out Sponsor (Us)...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
Paid Link

It's the Season for Lovin' GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Summer Love"

Here's some light beach reading now that Summer's under way...

...in fact, it's so light, there's no dialogue or captions!

Not a single, solitary word, except the title...

We re-present this silent story for your perusal from DC's Girls' Love Stories #155 (1970).
The writer is unknown, but the art is by penciler John Romita Sr and inker Bernard Sachs!
You may wonder how and why the artist who was then drawing Spider-Man for Marvel would do a romance comic story for rival DC?

If you come back
Tomorrow
I'll explain!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
Paid Link

One Book Stand MY LOVE / OUR LOVE STORY "Look of Love!"

On One of the Social Media Sites Where We Post Links to This Blog...

...fellow comics pro Steve Hogan aka Acid Keg Comics posted the original art of this romance comics cover attributed to John Romita Sr, which Romita himself notes "Done in the French Romance style"

I wondered why it would be referred to that way, so I dug up the story the cover promotes...

The illustrator, Enrique Montserratt, was actually a Spanish artist whose work appeared, thanks to multi-lingual syndication services, in most European countries...including France and England!
No doubt Romita (or someone else at Marvel) saw his French or British work and offered him an assignment of a Stan Lee script.
Sadly, whether it was due to distance, language difficulties, time constraints, or who-knows-what, this tale from Marvel's My Love #12 (1971) was Montserratt's only work for Marvel (or any American publisher!)

Getting back to the cover, here's the printed version...

Note the second circular caption on the right ("I Need Him--") and the surprinted text "Don't Dare Miss--" have apparently fallen-off the original art! 

When the tale and cover were reprinted a couple of years later in Marvel's Our Love Story #26 (1973), they were reprinted without the usual "updating" of hair and fashions!
In fact, the interior art wasn't even re-colored...which was even rarer!

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Yet Exactly Which Story We'll Present!

But, We Guarantee...

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

And now a word from out sponsor..

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Marvel Romance: the Trade Paperback!

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.

Paid Link

Tales Twice Told MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "President Stripper" / MY LOVE "I Do My Thing...No Matter Who It Hurts!"

We Dug Far and Wide to Find an Appropriate Romance Comic Story for the 4th of July...

...and what we came up with was...this!

Written (technically re-written) by Jeff Parker, this story appeared in Marvel Romance Redux: But I Thought He Loved Me (2006), which utilized art by penciler John Buscema and inker John Romita Sr for a cover-featured story that originally appeared in Marvel's My Love #2 (1969)...

Note that while the art is clearly Buscema and Romita Sr, it's unknown who wrote the tale!

Most believe it was original Editor Stan Lee.

Happy 4th of July
&
250th Anniversary of America