Tales Twice Told GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "This is Our Moment"

Yesterday, We Presented a Story from the '60s...

...that featured modified clothing and hairstyles as usual when it was reprinted a half-decade later!

But, it also had a radical modification not present in most of those reprints...

Pages 3 thru 6 of the original story are dropped, and we now continue with what was originally page 7...

Why did Editor Dorothy Woolfolk drop four pages from this story when it was "updated" for DC's Girls' Love Stories #162 (1971)

It wasn't for space reasons, as there were lots of other reprintable stories that would've fitted into the allocated pages without extensive re-editing!
We'll never know the answer...

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present Next Week!
But We Can Guarantee...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!
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Tales Twice Told SECRET HEARTS "What About Some Love for Me?"

How many of us have been treated like doormats by our "friends"...

...even to the point where we'd actually help them steal the one we love?

I'll bet a lot of readers can identify with Katie...

We don't know how Jane reacted to this turn of events...nor do we care!

This cover-featured tale from DC's Secret Hearts #109 (1966) was penciled by John Romita, inked by Bernard Sachs with several panels redrawn by Mike Sekowsky.

(Romita had just gone over to Marvel to take over as the artist on Daredevil, and shortly thereafter, Spider-Man!)
Like many other stories of the era, it was reprinted with updated fashions and hairstyles!
But, unlike most of those stories, when it was reprinted, it was also heavily-reedited and rewritten, with almost half the pages cut!

See that  version...tomorrow!
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!
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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?)
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Tales Twice Told MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "President Stripper" / MY LOVE "I Do My Thing...No Matter Who It Hurts!"

We Dug Far and Wide to Find an Appropriate Romance Comic Story for the 4th of July...

...and what we came up with was...this!

Written (technically re-written) by Jeff Parker, this story appeared in Marvel Romance Redux: But I Thought He Loved Me (2006), which utilized art by penciler John Buscema and inker John Romita Sr for a cover-featured story that originally appeared in Marvel's My Love #2 (1969)...

Note that while the art is clearly Buscema and Romita Sr, it's unknown who wrote the tale!

Most believe it was original Editor Stan Lee.

Happy 4th of July
&
250th Anniversary of America

Tales Twice-Told TENDER LOVE STORIES / REALISTIC ROMANCES "I Deceived My Love"

When I first saw this tale in the back of Skywald's Tender Love Stories #3 (1971)...

...I knew it was "off", but I couldn't quite figure out how or why!

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 (updating clothing and hairstyles) 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.
Note that none of the captions or dialogue were rewritten/updated, so the reference to Hal's sister dying in "the first war" on page 3 didn't make sense to a Vietnam War-era reader in 1971!
(But it would to a post-WWII-era reader because it references World War I!)
Ironically, this tale required more redrawing than most!
Bill Everett not only had to do the usual "updating" on people, but on vehicles and technology as well!
Here's the original, Rafael Astarita-rendered story from Avon's Realistic Romances #4 (1952)...

Though published in 1952, the tale was written/illustrated several years earlier and tossed into this anthology with little concern for timeliness!
In fact, look at the inside cover/contents page...

This story is described in the lower right corner...with an illustration that has nothing to do with the tale!

Next Week:

We don't know yet what we'll present, but we can guarantee...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Agonizing Love

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