Tales Twice Told HEART THROBS "I Know My Love!"

The story we presented yesterday, "Summer Love", had previously-appeared under this cover...

..in DC's Heart Throbs #63 (1960).

When it was reprinted in 1970, the title was changed.

(DC tended to do this more than Marvel.

It drives comics historians nuts trying to match up different printings of stories!)

John Romita Sr was doing a lot of romance comics work for DC during this period, before leaving to go to Marvel in early 1965.

You'll note that, besides the usual "updating" of hair and clothing in yesterday's story, the art in the reprint version is "extended" on each page because the original pages had a printed header across the top of the art area.

The reprints eliminated the headers, and the art was extended either along the top or bottom of the page, depending on which way would be easier and/or faster to do.

As we showed HERE, 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.

Next week:

We Re-Present Our Annual Summertime "Beach Read" Book-Length Gothic Romance Novel...

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

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)
And Now a Woed From Out Sponsor (Us)...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
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It's the Season for Lovin' GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Summer Love"

Here's some light beach reading now that Summer's under way...

...in fact, it's so light, there's no dialogue or captions!

Not a single, solitary word, except the title...

We re-present this silent story for your perusal from DC's Girls' Love Stories #155 (1970).
The writer is unknown, but the art is by penciler John Romita Sr and inker Bernard Sachs!
You may wonder how and why the artist who was then drawing Spider-Man for Marvel would do a romance comic story for rival DC?

If you come back
Tomorrow
I'll explain!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
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Tales Twice-Told TIPPY TEEN / VICKI "3rd Finger, Right Hand"

She's supposedly two different girls, almost a decade apart...

...even though both of them have the same boyfriend!

When this story from Tower's Tippy Teen #3 (1966) was reprinted in Atlas/Seaboard's Vicki #1 (1975), more than just the fashions and hairstyles were altered*.

Tippi became "Vicki", though her boyfriend remained "Tommy Trippit" in both versions!
Trivia: this was one of the most-reprinted Tippi Teen stories of all!
Besides the reprint in Vicki, it had previously-been reprinted (without hair/fashion alterations) in the final issue of Tippy Teen in 1969!

Why did Seaboard change the character's name from Tippy to Vicki?

Nobody's certain.

But, since Vicki was cancelled after only four issues, the question is now moot.

*With sales falling on most non-superhero genres in the late 1960s (including Western and war as well as romance and teen humor [except for the Archie titles]), "updated reprinting" became a common practice on teen humor and romance comics until the genres all-but died out in the late 1970s.

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 teen humor and romance comics, unlike superhero comics, totally-changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the "old" plots.

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 our sponsor..

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics

1940s-1970s

An Illustrated History

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Psychedelic '60s Stories MOD LOVE "Shadow from His Past"

 Concluding Our Segue Back to the Swinging '60s...

...we present the last story from the comic magazine (not comic book) Mod Love!

It's the cover-featured narrative of a musician, the girl who loves him and a...

Published in 1967. all three of the comic stories in Western Publishing's Mod Love were written by Michael Lutin, and illustrated by already-established European fine artist Michael Quarez!

The only other comic-style work in the mag was a two-page spotlite feature about the trendy NYC fashion boutique called Tiger Morse's Teenie Weenie...

Next Week: We Return to an Anything Goes Format for March!

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

Psychedelic '60s Stories MOD LOVE "As Long as I Win"

We Continue Our Segue to the Swinging '60s...

...with another time-lost, never-reprinted story from the one-shot comic magazine (not comic book), Mod Love!







The mag, published in 1967. was written by Michael Lutin, and illustrated by already-established fine artist Michael Quarez!
Next Week: the Final  Story from Mod Love !
You''ll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

Psychedelic '60s Stories MOD LOVE "She's the Hippest Girl in the World"

Here's a psychedelic piece from the Swinging '60s, when Free Love was all the rage, baby!

Best read by the light of a lava lamp while buring some incense!

Western's Mod Love (1967) was a magazine-sized 50¢ multi-color publication with all material written by Michael Lutin and illustrated by already-famous graphic artist Michael Quarez who went total "pop art", with one important difference!
Unlike most "pop art" visualizers (including myself) who used exaggerated dot screens to mimic Roy Lichtenstein's pseudo-pop art work...

...Quarez used only solid colors in his work, creating incredibly-vivid visuals, such as this two-page spread about hot, hot, hot fashion boutique Tiger Morse's Teenie Weenie!

We ran the stories over a decade ago with scans we found on the Internet, but since acquiring a copy of this very-hard-to-find publication, we've remastered them from scratch and will present them on three of the four Wednesdays in February!

But, Next Week...

...aka Valentine's Day Week, we're paying tribute to the creators of the romance comics genre, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with a special never-reprinted, cover-featured, Valentine's Day tale from Young Love !
(And yes, that's a very young Robert Redford, during his male model period, on the cover!)

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