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!

And now a word from out sponsor..

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Marvel Romance: the Trade Paperback!

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WE Hated Men! SAVAGE TALES "Fury of the Femizons"

You'd think nothing says "I Hated Men!" like a woman running a sword through a man's heart...

...except in the case presented in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!

(Was it really over a half-century ago?

Lord, I feel so old...)

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page by editor Roy Thomas...

Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.

marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.

"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'

Men are beginning to believe it.

Women always knew it.

So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?

What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!

What would we have then?

A better world? Perhaps.

A gentler world? Could be.

A different world? Believe it.

Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.

The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.

Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.

Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!

Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!

The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!

Next Week:
In June, We Return to Our Original Format of Posting Whatever Catches Our Fancy!
And We Can Guarantee...
...You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

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...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

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!

John Buscema Tales OUR LOVE STORY "Only One Can Win!"

Though Don Heck is better-remembered by today's fans as a penciler...

...he actually was a rather elegant (though slow) inker, as his rendering of John Buscema's pencils on this Stan Lee-scripted torrid tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #3 (1969) amply-demonstrates!

Because, like John Buscema, he was such a fast penciler, both Marvel and DC used Heck in that capacity, only rarely letting him ink even his own work!
To be fair, Buscema was a faster inker...and John eventually talked Marvel's editors into letting him ocasionally ink his own rough layouts (not full pencils).

Next Week, John Buscema's final romance comic tale, from 1972!

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

And now a Word from Our Sponsor...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

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!

Laugh at Love! MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "Mice and Money" / LOVE ROMANCES "By Love Betrayed!"

Here's a Silver Age romance story illustrated by Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta...

...which noted award-winning novelist/screenwriter/comic book author Joe R Lansdale rewrote!

I doubt plotter Stan Lee and scripter Larry Leiber or artists Kirby and Colletta ever thought this story would end up reading like that!

In fact, editor Lee was so pleased with the results that he made it the cover story for Atlas' Love Romances #102 (1962)...even though no cover art existed!

(The main figure is from the story's splash panel and the others are re-worked art from other stories!)

Next Week:

Our Annual "Beach Read" Gothic Romance...but with a Humorous Twist!

And We Guarantee That...

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

And now a word from our sponsor...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Marvel Romance Redux