BARBIE "See You Later, Christmas Gator" Part 2: Special Delivery & Part 3: The Present

When Last We Left the World's Most Famous Fashion Doll...and Santa Claus...

 ...on Christmas Eve, Santa Claus runs into trouble when he's forced down over Florida by a tropical storm!

Luckily, Barbie is nearby...

Normally, we'd run Part 3 next week, but the chapters are so short, we're going to present it now...

Written by Angelo DeCesare, penciled by Mario Capaldi, and inked by John Lucas, this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Barbie #50 (1995) was typical of the kool flights of fancy the series specialized in.

Barbie, and its' sister title Barbie Fashion, were two secret success stories for Marvel in the 1990s.

Because they weren't superhero titles, the hardcore (mostly male) fans never even noticed them, but the two books ran an impressive 63 and 53 issues respectively at a time when many titles lasted 12 issues...or less!

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Which Yultide Tale We'll Present!

But We Do Guarantee...

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

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

BARBIE "See You Later, Christmas Gator" Part 1: the Journey Begins

Ah, a world where Santa Claus is real...

...that's my kind of place!

Written by Angelo DeCesare, penciled by Mario Capaldi, and inked by John Lucas, this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Barbie #50 (1995) was typical of the kool flights of fancy the series specialized in.

Barbie, and its' sister title Barbie Fashion, were two secret success stories for Marvel in the 1990s.

Because they weren't superhero titles, hardcore, mostly male, fans never even noticed them, but the two books ran an impressive 63 and 53 issues respectively at a time when many titles lasted 12 issues or less!

Next Week:

The Poignant Conclusion to this Yuletide Tale!

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

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Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories

Lost Love MY LOVE "It Happened at Woodstock!"

Who Would've Believed that the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival...

...would result in never-reprinted, cover-featured romance comics stories, from both Marvel and DC???

First up, Marvel's entry, from My Love #14 (1971), which was actually the later entry~

Written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Gray Morrow, it's the steamiest Comics Code-approved story I've ever read!

Next Week:

DC's Never-Reprinted Woodstock Story!

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

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Lost Love OUR LOVE STORY "Model with a Broken Heart"

It's a 1970s story with a 1940s "feel"...

...because the scripter was a child of the Swingin' 60s-70s, and the illustrator was one of the greats of the Golden Age.

The story has a weird feel to it, like a 1940s-50s tales updated for the 60s-70s.

But I'm assured this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #14 (1971) was, in fact, written and illustrated in 1970-71!

Writer Gary Friedrich began scripting Western, military, and superhero comics in the late 1960s, including Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos, the cowboy Ghost Rider, and the Steve Ditko-illustrated Blue Beetle.

But he began his career doing romance comic stories at Charlton!

Later, he would co-create the first Black superheroine, ButterFly and the motorcycling Ghost Rider.

Tarpe Mills was one of few female writer/artists (let alone female writers or artists) in the Golden Age.

Besides working on a number of established series, she created one of the first superheroines; Miss Fury!

Tarpe retired from comics in the early 1950s, returning in the '70s to do this romance story under the pen-name "JT Mills" (short for her full name, June Tarpe Mills) and both a cover... 

...and a limited-edition tip-in plate...

for a Miss Fury reprint trade paperback.

Next Week...

Another Lost Love Story from the 1960s-70s!

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

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Lost Love MY LOVE "I Was a Girl Who Would Stop at Nothing!"

Our Theme for September is "Lost Love"...

...but it's not about characters who lose their paramours (because that happens all the time), but never-reprinted stories from the Bronze Age such as this cover-featured one from Marvel's My Love #17 (1972) with a kool cover by then up-and-comer Alan Weiss!

Scripted by Stan Lee, penciled by George Tuska and likely-inked (opinions vary) by John Verpoorten.

Speaking of Stan Lee...

Does the unnamed decidedly-young male ingenue of the tale look...familiar?
Stan was, in fact, 50, the year this story was published!
Are we looking at the comic book equivalent of a mid-life crisis?

On a more serious note, in 1968 Marvel revived their long-cancelled romance comics, when they changed distributors and expanded their line from only eight titles a month to over two dozen!
(Before the 1957 implosion, Atlas had numerous romance books, including Western and military love titles, some of which we've run on this blog!)
Almost all Marvel's current creatives (except, ironically, Jack Kirby, who co-created romance comics with Joe Simon) contributed to My Love and Our Love Story, but that wasn't enough to keep them going!
By 1972 they were running new material only in the front of the books with reprints filling the rest.
Interestingly, they were already reprinting earlier (1968-69) stories from Our Love Story and My Love, usually in the other title (My Love stories in Our Love Story, Our Love Story tales in My Love) because using older, 1950s Atlas tales usually required redrawing hairstyles and clothing to bring them "up to date" as we showed HERE).
As a result, almost every story done for the Silver/Bronze Age books has been reprinted at least once...except for four of them, which no one who didn't buy the original books has seen since that era!

But you'll see them here in September!

And You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss Them!

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Super-Love DAREDEVIL AND THE BLACK WIDOW "Mark of Hawkeye!" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...
Actually, we never quite get to the level of jealousy shown on this John Romita Sr-illustrated cover in this story, but it does get heated!

Clint (Hawkeye) Barton, frustrated at being spurned by Wanda (Scarlet Witch) Maximoff, travels from Avengers Mansion in NYC to the mansion in San Francisco rented by Natasha (Black Widow) Romanova to try to win his first love back.
But, her current paramour, Matt (Daredevil) Murdock (who is also living in the stately manor) had something to say about the matter and the two superheroes duke it out to a somewhat-silly stalemate...

Note: The incident T'Challa refers to (which occurred half-a-year earlier in Daredevil and the Black Widow #92) is shown HERE.

The Black Widow and Daredevil help The Avengers defeat Magneto, rescue Captain America, Iron Man, Scarlet Witch and The (original) X-Men, then return to San Francisco, but break up several months later.
Daredevil returns to NYC, Black Widow remains in California, where she forms and leads The Champions.
Trivia: Natasha officially becomes a reserve Avenger, but Matt declines the offer.
In the future, she will become a full member, and lead the team for a period.
Hawkeye ends up becoming a lynchpin to what becomes the first Marvel multi-issue crossover "event"...The Avengers/Defenders War! which runs through both the Avengers and Defenders books for the entire summer!

(We really love going full-on comics nerd once in a while.

Thanks for indulging us!)

Next Week

Super-Love Returns to the DC Universe with a Role-Reversal as Two Heroines Fight Over a Hero!
Hint: It'll be a Wonder if You Don't go Batty Trying to Figure Out Who!

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

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Marvel-Verse
Black Widow
(Which Reprints this Story)

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