Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Conclusion - 'Till Death Do You Part""

We Have Already Seen...

...Ellen Drew was always Ellen Drew, not "Mary Cartwright"!

The drugged (and widowed) newlywed was being used by fraudsters hoping to convince a dying old man that she was his (deceased) daughter, whom he'd promised a fabulously-valuable gift upon her marriage!
But, when they looked behind a painting he pointed to, hoping to find his safe, they found...a blank wall!

Wow!

Her real hubby's not even cold in his grave and she's already casting longing glances at another guy?

And I thought serial lover Bonnie Taylor: Airline Stewardess was, as we said back in the day, "loose"!

Writers Sy Reit & Jack Oleck must've had a pretty...interesting view of women!
Trivia: the editor of the book was Dorothy Woolfolk, who started in comics during the Golden Age (1943) and continued to the Bronze Age (1974)!
Besides DC's romance titles, she was also the editor of all three of the publisher's "heroine" books (Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Lois Lane) for several months in 1972!
So, I'm astonished she'd let that last panel though in this never-reprinted story from DC's Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #2 (1971).
Here's the original art for the cover...

...a pen and ink (plus gray wash) rendering by Neal Adams, which was photographed through a mezzotint screen, and then had "flat" color added to produced the cover seen above!

Now that's a "Secret of the Painting", eh?

We hope you've enjoyed our annual "beach read" presentation, and will continue to join us each Wednesday for another rarely-seen True Love Comics Tale!

Next Week...
We're Not Yet Certain What We'll Present!
But We Can Guarantee that...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...

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Showcase Presents

Secrets of Sinister House

...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love, this book's sister gothic romance title, but in black and white!

Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Chapter Three - The Secret of the Painting"

When Last We Left Ellen Drew...I Mean Mary Cartwright...I Mean...

...newlyweds David and Ellen Drew, trying to evade a mysterious car pursuing them through the fog-bound English moors, crash, killing David and rendering Ellen unconscious!

Brought to a nearby house, the delirious Ellen is told by everyone, including a doctor and a woman claiming to be her sister that she's actually Mary Cartwright, engaged to the handsome Edwin Masters...and that she's been suffering delusions that she's already married to someone else!
With constant drugging, she begins to believe it, but a midnight visit by a shadowy figure who address her as "Mrs Drew" compels her to look around the old house, finding another person...an elderly man who calls her "my daughter, Mary"!
Now on her guard (but still being drugged), the next night, our heroine hears a rhythmic noise (like a loud heartbeat), which she traces to the basement to find...

So what's the "Secret of the Painting"...which Edwin has just put his foot through?

And will Ellen live long enough to discover it?

The answers to these and many other questions will be found here, tomorrow!

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...

Showcase Presents

Secrets of Sinister House

...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love, this book's sister gothic romance title, but in black and white!

Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Chapter Two - Who Am I?"

We Have Already Seen...

...newlyweds David and Ellen Drew, trying to evade a mysterious car pursuing them through the fog-bound English moors, crash, killing David and rendering Ellen unconscious!

Brought to a nearby home, the delirious Ellen believes she hears her spouse's voice and follows it outside the building, sees a shadowy figure, then collapses...

Be Here Tomorrow to Learn...

The Secret of the Painting!

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...

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

Beach Read HONEYMOON OF HORROR "Chapter One - Death in the Night"

Stretch out on your beach blanket (under your umbrella) and enjoy a time-lost gothic romance...
...told in graphic novel form!

Confused?

Writers Sy Reit & Jack Oleck, along with artist Tony DeZuniga, had exactly that in mind when they created this never-reprinted story from DC's Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #2 (1971)

Be here tomorrow, when we present...

"Chapter Two - Who Am I?"

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...

Showcase Presents

Secrets of Sinister House

...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love, this book's sister gothic romance title, but in black and white!

Beach Read TO WED THE DEVIL Epilogue

And now, after all this supernatural mishigas...

...the lovely ingenue, Sarah Shulman and the studly hero, Jerome Moore will be joined in wedded bliss!

I guess writer Len Wein and artist Tony DeZuniga felt the only way to get all that exposition in only three pages was to do them as an illustrated text piece!

BTW: look closely at the cover.

The border illustrations are art from the Epilogue re-used, but as color line art!

Speaking of the cover...note the insert painting is extremely "muddy"

Considering it's an original done specifically for the comic by noted paperback (particularly gothic romance) cover artist Jerome Podwil, it's a shame the technology of the time, despite innovative production manager Jack Adler's best effort, couldn't do better!
I presume the cost of doing a full-color separation put it out of the question, so he tried his best with a black and white half-tone with flat color added.

Here's the actual painting (scanned from the original)!

It's the only time Podwill, with numerous pulp and paperback art credits, did any work in comic books!

Perhaps he was disappointed with how it turned out?

One other note:

This is the only time I've ever seen a Jewish heroine in a gothic romance story.

Nothing is made of that aspect throughout the tale (nor should it have).

And the Epilogue's rendering of the traditional Jewish wedding ceremony is underplayed, though it's curious that the location for the cermony is referred to as a chapel, rather than a temple.

The only time I've ever seen a Jewish religious building referred to as a "chapel" was as part of a funeral home!

Next Week:

We Return to Our Usual Weekly Wednesday Post!

But Remember...

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...

Showcase Presents

Secrets of Sinister House

...which reprints the four issues of Sinister House of Secret Love (including this one), but in black and white!

Beach Read TO WED THE DEVIL Chapter 5 "Marriage of Fear"

We Have Already Seen...

...comely ingenue Sarah Shulman has apparently been seduced by the elegant, handsome, and sinister Baron Dumont, whom she is to wed so his wealth can prevent her banker father from being imprisoned for embezzlement!
More accepting of her fate, the innocent girl returns to her room... 

You may wonder, how did Sarah's uncle and his friend save her and Justin?

Well, they're not exactly amateurs at this sort of thing!

The demon-fighting duo previously-appeared a couple of months earlier in DC's House of Secrets #89 (1971).

Considering how, without knowing who they were, their appearance at the climax of this tale is somewhat "out of left field", a footnote earlier in the tale would've been welcome!
It's probable that editor Joe Orlando felt audiences for straight supernatural comics and gothic romance comics wouldn't overlap, but still, a little "cross pollination" of audiences wouldn't have been out of place...

BTW, you can read that awesome adventure HERE!

But you really must return...

Tomorrow

...for our story's Happy Ending!

You'll Cry if You Miss It!

(and You'll Cry if You Attend the Wedding!

I Always Do!)

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love