Tales THRICE Told: TEEN-AGE ROMANCE / OUR LOVE STORY "Summer Must End!" & MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "I Was a Beach Blanket Barbarian!"

For Some People, the End of Summer Can't Come Fast Enough...

Cover art by Jack Kirby and George Klein

...but this torrid tale by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta just screamed to be told as soon as possible (and not for the reason you think)!

PSST!

Wanna know a secret?

This story, which we're presenting from Atlas' Teen-Age Romance #84 (1961) later appeared in Marvel's Our Love Story #9 (1971) in an extremely-modified form!

The art in Our Love Story was retouched by art director John Romita Sr to "update" the hairstyles and some of the fashions, including the swimsuits...

"Why did they do that?" you may ask...

With sales falling on most non-superhero genres in the late 1960s (including Western and war as well as romance), 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.
But this wasn't the last time the story would be modified.
As you'll see, Marvel could modify more than just the art!
Five years after DC did the snarky Truer than True Romance trade paperback...

..which took old romance comics and rewrote them,.Marvel did a mini-series based on the same concept...except it was written entirely by males!

(The DC book was rewritten by a female writer.)

Here's what they did with "Summer Must End"...an interesting combination of both the Jack Kirby/Vince Colletta original and the John Romita Sr-modified/updated version..

Re-written by John Lustig, who had experience doing similar re-writes of Charlton's First Kiss romance comic series as Last Kiss.
You can check that out HERE!

Next Week...

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, But We DO Know...

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

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Marvel Romance Redux
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Swinging '70s Stories OUR LOVE STORY "Game of Triangles"

Though told from the viewpoint of the male protaganist...

...this story was, allegedly, written by one of the few female writers in Bronze Age comics.

Was it?

Read, and judge for yourself...

This never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #20 (1972) was scripted by Joy Hartle and illustrated by George Tuska and Paul Reinman.

Most people believe "Joy Hartle" was a pseudonym for Gary Freidrich.

"Joy" had only two stories to her credit, both romance tales that appeared almost simultaneously in late 1972-early 1973.

And, in fact, Gary's sister-in-law was named Joy Hartle!

But Gary was working steadily for Marvel at this point, scripting Captain America and Sgt Fury, as well as co-creating the motorcycle-riding Ghost Rider and a new version of the Frankenstein Monster (both with Mike Ploog)!

So why the pen-name?

The only thing I can think of is that these stories were done during the brief period in 1971-72 when Gary had left Marvel to work at the short-lived Skywald Publishing, and were "inventory" stories used to fill out what would've been all-reprint issues of the dying romance comics line.

BTW, the cover-featured tale has one of the worst romance comics covers I've ever seen...

Art by Alan Weiss & Frank Giacoia with retouching by Marie Severin and John Romita

Heck, the guy looks more like a stalker than a lover...

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Yet Exactly Which 1970s Story We'll Present!

But...

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

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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.

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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!

And now a word from out sponsor..

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Marvel Romance: the Trade Paperback!

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John Buscema Tales OUR LOVE STORY "Boy Who Can't be Mine!"

Though Marvel continued publishing romance comics until 1976...

...they stopped running new material in 1973.

This tale from Our Love Story #16 (1972) was John Buscema's final romance comic assignment.

Written by Stan Lee and inked by Joe Sinnott (who inked more issues of Fantastic Four than anybody else in history, including almost all of Buscema's stories), the story demonstrates Buscema's almost effortless mastery of graphic storytelling, going from plot point to plot point with a variety of angles and perspectives that a TV or movie cinematographer would be proud of!

Next Week...

Well, We Ran a Tale Each from the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s

What Will We Close Out the Month With?

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

And now a Word from Our Sponsor...

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Big John Buscema

Comics and Drawings

A combination of complete checklist of Buscema's comic and magazine work and a heavily-illustrated catalog of a 2009 Italian museum exhibition of his work!