Super-Love MAN OF STEEL, WOMAN OF KLEENEX

You know you've wondered about it...

Normally, we'd post the rest of this fascinating (and scientifically-accurate) four-page article right here, but this version from Penthouse Comix #5 (1995), while illustrated by 1960s-80s primary Superman artist Curt Swan, has nudity, so you'll have to go to our "brother" RetroBlog...

Not Safe for Work Comics

to read the rest!

It's worth the effort, but don't go there if you're on your office or school computer!

Wait until you get home!

If you're already home...go for it!

Super-Love SHOWCASE "Lois Lane in 'Mrs Superman!' "

For the rest of the summer, we're going to do one of our favorite topics...

...Super-Love, beginning with the greatest love story in comics history...Lois Lane and Superman/Clark Kent!

This particular tale is from DC's Showcase #9 (1957), the first of two tryout issues before "Superman's Girl Friend" Lois received her solo title the next year.
Note: "Superman's Pal" Jimmy Olsen already received his own book several years earlier...without any test issues!
Just sayin'...

Written by Otto (Supergirl) Binder and illustrated by Al Plastino, one of the two primary Superman artists of the era (the other was Wayne Boring), this cover-featured story was typical of the type of tales that would be featured in the intrepid female reporter's own book through the end of the Silver Age.
But you really gotta ask; what audience was this book aimed at?
DC had a thriving romance comics line aimed at pre-teen/teen girls, but this doesn't seem like the sort of book they'd want to read!
And it certainly wasn't the sort of thing the young male audience would pick up.
Yet it sold well enough to continue from 1958 until 1974, when it was combined with Jimmy Olsen and Supergirl into a $1 100-page Superman Family anthology which ran each of them in new stories along with reprints of all three characters' earlier tales.

Next Week:
Another tale of Super-Love!

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 Order...

Lois Lane

A Celebration of 75 Years

Wedding Bliss & Super-Love ACTION COMICS "Superman Takes a Wife" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

...before the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985, there were two Supermen on parallel worlds, one who began his career just before World War II on "Earth-Two", and one who began his career in the late 1950s on "Earth-One"!

This is the tale of the Earth-Two version, who has just married Lois Lane...

The Mr and Mrs Superman strip, detailing the couple's adventures, ran for several years until Crisis on Infinite Earths merged all the parallel worlds in the DC Universe into one, rebooting the comic publisher's continuity and eliminating various duplicates of characters...except the Earth-Two Superman and Lois, who survived in a "pocket universe"!

But that's a story for another time (and blog)...

And now, we're going "fanboy/fangirl" with a few Easter Eggs...

The Earth-Two Superman's "different" chest insignia was actually used in the 1940s on a promotional painting done to publicize the Adventures of Superman radio show...

...rendered by pulp cover artist H J Ward, whose previous superhero credits included promotional art for the Lone Ranger and Green Hornet radio shows!

Villain Colonel (Edmond H) Future was a tribute to Golden/Silver Age pulp and comic book writer Edmond Hamilton, who, besides introducing a number of characters into the DC Universe, created the pulp sci-fi hero Captain Future...

...whose premiere issue's cover was one of the featured items in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment on The Big Bang Theory!

The robots Superman stopped in Part One of our story were based on the ones seen in the 1940s Fleischer Brothers' Superman cartoon "Mechanical Monsters"...which also showed the very first time Superman changed into costume in a phone booth!

Wow, it felt good getting that out of my system!

Next Week...

More SUPER Love!

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

Wedding Bliss & Super-Love ACTION COMICS "Superman Takes a Wife" Part 1

You may think you know the tale of Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois Lane, but..

...if you're under 50, it's doubtful you know the story of this Clark (Superman) Kent and Lois Lane...

You know how they say "The honeymoon's over"?

Well, it gets a whole new meaning...

TOMORROW

Don't Miss It, Because

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Do!

There are several Easter Eggs in this part of the story, but we're not going "fanboy/fangirl" on you and explain them until tomorrow...with one exception...

For those of you born after 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, here's a crib sheet explaining a bit more about the Clark and Lois whose tale you've been reading...

(Click on the page to enlarge)

BTW, when this tale was published, the Golden Age original Superman had been appearing for a couple of years in DC's All-Star Comics as an active member of the Justice Society in stories set in the present day (1978)!
And, this Clark was now the editor of the Daily Star...

(Technically, that's not a separate Easter Egg, so there...)

Wedding Bliss & Super-Love ACTION COMICS "Superman Takes a Wife"

For decades it was a cliche that Lois Lane tried to rope reluctant bachelor Superman into wedlock...

...usually through deceit and trickery, as you see from the cover above!

She finally succeeded in 1996!

Yes, I'm sure you know about when Lois Lane and Clark Kent wed!
(After all, it was "The Event of the Century!")
The mainstream press covered it extensively, and DC held events at comic shops and conventions celebrating it with multiple tie-ins!

Also note, she married Clark Kent...not Superman!
(and yes, there is a difference!)
But, most people forgot that Lois had already married Clark...and Superman...and it was officially-part of DC Multiverse continuity from when it happened in 1978 until the Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985!

That's the story we're going to tell tomorrow and Friday!

Not a Dream!

Not a Hoax!

Not an Imaginary Story!

Be Here Tomorrow!

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

Love in the Time of Covid-19 SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND LOIS LANE "Snoopiest Girl in History!"

As the second wave of the CoronaVirus pandemic rampages across America (and the globe)...

...we return to disease-related romance stories, with this one featuring fiction's most famous girlfriend!

Lois Lane is responsible for CoronaVirus???

That's the only conclusion you can reach from this never-reprinted tale from DC's Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #56 (1965)!

What did writer Edmond Hamilton and illustrator Kurt Schaffenberger know 55 years ago that we are only now discovering???

Note: While comics have long been pre-teen/teen male-oriented, romance comics (and Lois Lane fits into that category) have been pre-teen/teen/young adult female-oriented!

So why make the heroine in a female-oriented book such a manipulative bitch?

I don't know, but it was successful enough to keep the book running from 1958 to 1974, with the strip continuing for another few years in Superman Family, which combined Lois, Jimmy Olsen, Supergirl, and a new series Mr & Mrs Superman, which featured the married 1940s Clark and Lois of Earth-Two!

Next Week:

Another tale combining Disease and Desire!

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...

Lois Lane

A Celebration of 75 Years