Gloria was an lonely, insecure woman.
After being laid off from her job, she wandered into a park and sat next to a most interesting man, to whom she poured out her troubles.
That man, Lloyd, introduced her to his mother, who offered Gloria a job in her beauty salon.
Over time, Lloyd and Gloria fell in love.
But Gloria was frightened that this situation, like every one before it, would end abruptly, leaving her with nothing.
To prevent that, Gloria manipulated everyone; Lloyd, Lloyd's mother, and her co-workers, to create an environment where she would be indispensable to all.
When Lloyd brought home a fellow (female) college student at Christmas, Gloria thought she was a rival for his love and let him know, in no uncertain terms...
Fascinatingly, except for skin color, this could be a tale in ANY romance comic of the period.
Last month, the PBS series
History Detectives did a
segment on the issue (#2) of
Negro Romance this story was taken from.
The artist,
Alvin Hollingsworth, was one of the few Black comic artists of the 1940s-1950s, illustrating every genre from Westerns to horror to sci-fi to romance.
Like many Golden Age comics artists, he went on to do commercial art as well as becoming a noted fine art painter with numerous gallery exhibitions.
Another Black artist,
Matt Baker, also did numerous romance comics (as we've shown
HERE) as well as the
Phantom Lady series which became notorious when
one of it's covers became the centerpiece of a crusade against comics by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham.
(Note: the scans for this story from Negro Romance are from the History Detectives website.
Though we did scan the actual comics covers [not 2nd generation reproductions] for use on merchandise [see below], the books were encased in lucite [slabbed], so we couldn't access the stories for scanning.)
Next week:
We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And now a word from out sponsor...
