SECRET HEARTS "So Little Time!" / FALLING IN LOVE "Perfect Gift"

Here's a bittersweet Yuletide tale about potential love that was published twice...

...first, half a century ago, in DC's Secret Hearts #87 (1963)...

...then, with the usual "updating" of fashions, hairstyles, and automobiles (and a title change) in DC's Falling in Love #128 (1972)!

Not every Christmas romance story ends like a Hallmark Channel Holiday Movie, even in the 1960s-70s!

Illustrated by veteran artist John Rosenberger, the name of the scripter of this melancholy tale is lost to the snows of time.
If you find this tale too depressing, click HERE for a much happier one we ran a couple of hears ago!

MERRY
CHRISTMAS!!!

GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Revenge!" & YOUNG ROMANCE "Take Me Back!"

We wind up February with this story...

...which, like the previous entries, didn't originally feature Black protagonists, as you'll see!

In our entry about Fawcett's 1950s title Negro Romance (HERE), we mentioned that the actual stories were rather generic, with the characters being illustrated as Black rather than White being the only difference.

This John Rosenberger-penciled and Win Mortimer-inked tale from DC's Girls' Love Stories #170 (1972) proves that point, since it's actually a visually-modified version of this story...

...from DC's Young Romance #151 (1967-68)!

BTW, the original tale was the cover feature!

While the fashions, hairstyles, and the leads' facial features were modified, the script stayed almost exactly the same!

Even the characters' names (Terry and Rich) were unchanged!
(Credit where credit is due: amazing romance comics historian Jacque Nodell pointed out the link between these two stories HERE!)

But the saga doesn't end there!

The story was re-presented one more time, in DC's Young Love #111 (1974)...

...this time with the usual "updating" of hairstyles and fashions...but very little modification of the original script and Terry and Rich stayed Caucasian!

Next Week:

We don't yet know what we'll present!

(But if you read last week's post, you'll see what we might run!)

No matter what, 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 Order...

Sequential Crush presents

How to Go Steady

Timeless Dating Advice, Wisdom, and Lessons from Vintage Romance Comics

by

Jacque Nodell

GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "We Can Never Marry!" & "A Marriage Without Love!"

A bride getting cold feet at her wedding is as universal a concept as can be imagined...
...transcending ethnicity, religion, or societal upbringing!

A happy ending for this tale from DC's Girls' Love Stories #172 (1972).

But, if you're a regular reader of this blog, it might seem a bit...familiar!

That's because we already ran it last year...sort of...as part of our "Wedding Bliss" series!

This version appeared six years earlier, also in DC's Girls' Love Stories, but in #121 (1966).
(Altered reprints didn't usually appear in the same series the original version was published in!)
Curiously, the Grand Comics DataBase doesn't make mention of the reuse of the story in either of its' Girls' Love Stories listings for #121 or #172!
And, they can't make up their minds as to who illustrated it.
I lean towards a combination of John Rosenberger and Win Mortimer.

Next week:

Another Example of the Fascinating Attempt by DC to be More Inclusive...

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

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Visit our

Negro Romance

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featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues on kool kollectibles!