Laugh at Love! MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "Girl with Bogart's Brain!" / MY LOVE "As Time Goes By!"

Several years after DC did Truer than True Romance...

...Marvel did a similar project...but with a couple of differences...

Rewritten by John Lustig, already known for a similar series of re-written comics called Last Kiss, this Gene Colan penciled, Dick Giordano inked tale originally appeared in Marvel's My Love V2N16 (1972), originally scripted by Gary Freidrich during a period when Bogie-mania was sweeping the country due to interest in the actor as a result of Woody Allen's then-current movie Play It Again, Sam, where the ghost of Humphrey Bogart appears to Allen's nebbishy neurotic character to offer advice about romance.

With the Bogie revival in full swing in art/revival theatres (there were no DVD/BluRays, streaming services or even VHS tapes or Turner Classic Movies in 1971), someone at Marvel decided it would make a kool romance tale...

BTW, we mentioned there were a couple of differences between Marvel Romance Redux and Truer Than True Romance...
1) This project was limited to stories just reprinted that same year in the trade paperback Marvel Romance (2006)...

...perhaps because the raw source material (photostats and film negatives) was readily-available.

And it explains the title; Marvel Romance Redux!
2) The rewrites were all done by male writers who likely weren't actual fans of the original stories (though they were fans of the artists' work...in other genres)!

Next Week:

Another Serious Romance Story Rewritten for Laughs and We Guarantee That...

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

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Marvel Romance Redux

She's NOT Barbie! She's BUNNY!

 Harvey's female teen character, Bunny, was a doll...literally!

1n 1966, a toy company wanted to launch a line of Barbie-type dolls, with the added kick of a comic book tie-in to boost public awareness!
Much like the way the 1980s GI Joe comic series was co-conceived by Hasbro and Marvel, Harvey's writers and artists worked with the toy company's staff on character development and storylines for the comic and toys.
Like most Harvey characters, Bunny had an ongoing obsession--in this case with teen fads and trends...clothing, dances, hairstyles, etc!
Presumably, this was to encourage doll buyers to pick up the newest clothing and accessories the manufacturer could produce after seeing them in the comic!
The proposed Bunny line also had what would have been the first African-American fashion doll character, her best friend Marcy, beating out Barbie's "Colored" Francie by a year!
Marcy was a major part of the comic series, including performing in an all-Black band called SOULar System which had it's own backup strip!
However, before a single doll could roll out of the factory, the toy company collapsed!
The Harvey family, deciding not to let the already-written and drawn pages go to waste, decided to publish the comic anyway.
It sold well enough to keep going for twenty 68-page issues from 1966 to 1971 and produce a one-shot spin-off, Harvey Pop Hits: Rock Happening, featuring the various musical groups introduced in the series!

Here's Bunny's never-reprinted "origin" tale from Harvey's Bunny #1 (1966).

Written by Warren Harvey (yes, one of the Harvey family who owned Harvey Comics), illustrated by Hy Eisman.

We previously ran a later Bunny story HERE, which, with its' thinly-masked drug references, was obviously not one of the original batch of pages done to tie-in with the proposed doll!

Next Month

We're going to spend August Having

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

But not quite the way you think!

Be Here Next Week to Find Out!

And, Remember, You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

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Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics

1940s-1970s

An Illustrated History

BARBIE & KEN "Wedding"

For girls of the late 1950s thru early 1970s, Barbie and Ken dolls were fashion icons...

...so it was inevitable that there would be a comic book about their adventures.

 But, as it turns out, Barbie and Ken were secretly married the entire time!

It's true!

Here's the story from Dell Comics' Barbie & Ken #1 (1962)...

Surprised?

To be fair, the never-reprinted tale, illustrated by Norman Nodel, details the little girls in the Barbie Fan Club telling their own alleged experiences with Barbie and Ken...which are no doubt fantasies since they cover Barbie being a nurse, a ballerina, and a stewardess, as well as getting married!
Except...who is the kid going off with Patty?
As you might have guessed, Mattel had play sets (clothing and props) showing Barbie doing all those things!
BTW, note that Nodel deliberately kept both Barbie and Ken "on model", looking very much like the actual dolls...except they could bend their arms and legs (which the dolls couldn't do until the late 1960s)!

Next Week:

Another Never-Reprinted Story About Barbie!

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

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Barbie and Ruth

The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her

Anything BUT Archie (sort of) A DATE WITH JUDY "Beach Fun with Cousin Roger" / SWING WITH SCOOTER "Cousin Roger's Hang-Up!"

This is the tale of a story that started out as "Anything BUT Archie"...

...but turned into...well..Archie when it was (sorta) reprinted!

Confused?

Don't worry, it'll all be made clear...

A Date with Judy began as a long-running (1941-1950) radio series with a female protagonist which became a TV series from 1951 to 1953.
During that period, it spun-off both a b-movie in 1948 and a DC teen humor comic book beginning in 1947 that this story was taken from.
This particular tale, illustrated by Bob Oksner, was from the final issue (#79) in 1960.
(Yes, the comic outlasted its' source by over half a decade!)
In 1969, DC's teen humor line was struggling, and, instead of doing new material for an oversized summer special, they took old, licensed material that would otherwise never be reprinted because they no longer owned the rights, and redrew the characters' heads, making them into the current crop of DC-owned characters!
So the earlier story starring Judy with her cousin and her boyfriend Oogie became a Scooter story with his girlfriend Cookie and her cousin, also named Roger!

You'll note neither Roger nor the cop were re-drawn by Henry Scarpelli for this re-worked story from DC's Swing with Scooter #20 (1969).

Next Week:

A New Month Brings a New Theme!
What is It?
You'll Have to Be Here to Find Out!

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

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Please Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics

1940s-1970s

An Illustrated History