LOVE 1971 "Reckless Losers"

55 years ago...

...romance comics were on their last legs.

But DC Comics' wasn't going down without a fight, starting with the torrid tale under this psychedelic Charlie Armentano cover!

Written/pencilled by Ric Estrada and inked by Tony DeZuniga, this cover-featured, never-reprinted story from DC's Super DC Giant #21 was the only new tale in the 64-page book.

The rest were reprints with hairstyles and clothing "updated" to the then-current styles!

Note: artist Charlie Armentano did only two comic pages that were ever published; this cover and the back cover of DC 100-Page Super-Spectacular #5 Love Stories (1971)!

The art was apparently submitted with coloring done on the original art itself, unheard-of at the time...

Armentano is still active in graphic arts!
Visit his website!

Next Week...

We Don't Know What We're Presenting...Yet!

But 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 Buy...

Love Stories 1971 100-Page Super-Spectacular
Replica Edition
...which features Charlie Armentaro's only other comic book art on the back cover!
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Divorce American Style GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Child of Divorce"

We End the Month with a Case of a Product of a Broken Marriage... 

Cover art by Art Saaf & Vince Colletta
...and how it may affect the now-grown daughter's future!

Art for this never-reprinted story from DC's Girls' Love Stories #163 (1971) is by Tony DeZuniga.

The writer is unknown.

Next Week , We're Returning to a Previously-Done Theme with All-New Entries!

Which One?

You'll Have to Be Here To See!

But We 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...

Heart Throbs
Best of DC Romance Comics

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...

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 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