Valentine's Week Special YOUNG LOVE "Be My Valentine"

It's Almost Valentine's Day...

...and this never-reprinted tale from Prize's Young Love V4N1-#31 (1952), written and illustrated by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who pioneered the romance comics genre, is all about a Valentine's Day card and it's effect on both sender and receiver!

While Young Love was the second romance comic published (Simon & Kirby's earlier comic, Young Romance in 1947 was the first), it was the last ongoing romance comic book published by a major publisher, ending it's run in 1977!
(Though Prize's comic book line had gone out of business in 1963, DC bought out the publisher's inventory, including unused material, and kept both Young Love & Young Romance going until the '70s!)
BTW, you may have noticed the handsome guy in the cover photo looked sort of familiar!
He's Robert Redford, and the photo was taken during his "photographer's male model" period in the early 1950s!

Next Week: We Return to the Swinging '60s for Another Torrid Tale of Mod Love !
You''ll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
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Young Romance

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Laugh at Love on Valentine's Day MARGIE COMICS "Elusive Valentine!"

Here's a never-reprinted Valentine's Day treat...

...from almost 80 years ago years ago, featuring a teen humor character from the company that later became Marvel Comics!

Until the mid 1970s when Archie Comics became the sole "teen humor" publisher, every company had several titles with wacky teenage protagonists.
Margie, created/written/illustrated by Morris Weiss was typical of the genre...

• Irresponsible, impulsive teen (of either gender)!
• Usually-clueless object of affection!
• Constantly-irritated parents!
• An annoying younger sibling (usually of the opposite gender to the protagonist)!
• Various eccentric friends!

Initially a backup strip that floated to whatever humor comic needed a 5-6 page filler, she finally got her own title by taking over Timely's Comedy Comics in 1946 as of #35 and holding on to it until #50 in 1950, when the book became Reno Browne: Hollywood's Greatest Cowgirl.
Margie went back to being a floating backup strip for another year before disappearing completely, never to be seen again!
This particular tale (one of the few comic tales I could find with "Valentine's Day" in the title that didn't deal with the famous gang-war massacre!) is from Timely's Margie Comics #37 (1946).

Happy Valentine's Day!

HEART THROBS "Give Him Back" & YOUNG ROMANCE "Love is a Lie!"

Our (post) Valentine's Day piece has a classic romance story theme...

..and a unique setting!

What more could you want?

Cowboy/Western romances were. briefly, a hot comic sub-genre in 1949/1950, with everyone doing one (or more) titles (Hey, I think I've just discovered March's theme!), but they were all but extinct by the 1970s, with this being the very last tale (chronologically) I've been able to find!

Penciled by Tony Abruzzo and inked by Arthur Peddy, this never-reprinted story from DC's Heart Throbs #141 (1972) is the only Black Western romance comic story I've ever seen.
Would it surprise you to see it is, in fact, another reworked reprint?
Here's the original version from DC's Young Romances #134 (1965)...

One technical note: Besides reworking hair and clothing, the reprint art retouchers also had to modify the height of the panels when they removed the "Young Romance" header at the top of each page, resulting in several oddly-composed panels!

Next week:

Another Example of the Fascinating Attempt by DC to be More Inclusive...

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

JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Man Who Changed!"

Here's a decidedly-different (and very sweet) take on Valentine's Day...

...with an ending you won't see coming!

Illustrated by Penciler Jay Scott Pike and inker Christopher Rule, this story from Atlas' Journey into Mystery #27 (1955) isn't a typical romance.

But sometimes we need to be reminded that "love" takes many forms from passionately-romantic to simply caring about someone else...and that everybody deserves to be loved!

Since we're posting today, there won't be a post on Wednesday, February 16th, but we will be back on February 23rd!

💕Happy Valentine's Day!💘

YOUNG ROMANCE "Without a Doubt"

A never-reprinted one-pager from DC's Young Romance #203 (1975)...

...writer and artist unknown.

The kool thing is that it presents a universal concept in visual form that just happens to feature Black characters.

In fact, odds are the artist(s) made the choice for reasons only he/she/they will ever know...💖

Happy Valentine's Day!

SOUL LOVE "Teacher"

From one of the two creatives who invented romance comics...

...comes this, sadly, never-published tale which would've appeared in a magazine entitled Soul Love, if DC had the guts to publish it!

(Note: this post uses scans of photocopies of the original art, so the images are not as crisp as we usually run.

But we felt the historical significance of the story warranted running what was available!)

Written and penciled by Kirby, inked by Vince Colletta
You can read other Soul Love tales we've presented HERE , HERE, and HERE.
Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.

The first was the 1950s series Negro Romance, which we covered HERE.

Next Week:

We don't know what we'll present..yet,
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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Dingbat Love
(covering Jack Kirby's unique and unpublished projects, including Soul Love and True-Life Divorce!)
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DEBBI'S DATES "Buddy in 'Ah--Sweet Valentine's Day!' "

Until the 1970s, there were numerous competitors with Archie Comics for the teen humor comics market...

...and here's a Valentine's Day story from one of the last titles to appear!

Written by Steve Skeates, and illustrated by Henry Scarpelli with assists by Win Mortimer and Bob Oksner, this never-reprinted tale from DC's Debbi's Dates #1 (1969) is, oddly one of the few romantic (albeit humorous) comics tales I could find with "Valentine" in the title!

Most of them involve the famous St Valentine's Day Massacre!

Both Debbi's Dates and the "sister" title Date with Debbi disappeared from the newsstands by late 1972, along with almost all DC's romance titles!

Next Week:

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, 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 Order...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
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