Showing posts with label anthology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anthology. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

A Month of Matt Baker TEEN-AGE ROMANCES "They Called Me a Wayward Girl"

Sometimes a "Bad Girl" is Just a Mis-directed "Good Girl"...

...who just needs a chance!







Scripted by Dana Dutch and illustrated by Matt Baker, fresh off his tenure at Fox Comics where he illustrated scantly-clad heroines like Phantom Lady and Rulah, the two teamed-up in this premiere issue of St John's Teen-Age Romances (1949), beginning a run that matched Simon & Kirby's genre ground-breaking romance books for Prize Comics in storytelling and sales!

Next Week:
We Don't Yet Know Which Matt Baker Story We'll Present, But We Guarantee that...
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...

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

A Month of Matt Baker COWGIRL ROMANCES "Stars Fell on Arizona" / MOVIE COMICS "Mitzi in Hollywood Meets Sonny Sagebrush"

but this story from Fiction House's CowGirl Romances #10 (1952) doesn't do that!


OK, pretty straightforward tale of a starry-eyed girl living near a movie location, getting to appear in the movie, meeting her screen idol, and not finding true love, right?
But, that's not how it started out!
This is actually a re-use of lovely Matt Baker art for an earlier ongoing series, Mitzi in Hollywood, about a struggling actress looking for her big break in Hollywood!
This particular episode from Fiction House's Movie Comics #4 (1947) was about working as an extra on a Western movie set...and the original script was quite different...
Sadly, this was the final issue of Movie Comics, so no more Mitzi adventures ever appeared...except as heavily-modified reprints like our lead story!
Though Matt Baker is best-known as a cheesecake/glamour girl artist, he was, in fact, quite proficient in other genres, such as Westerns (as shown above), sci-fi, war, adventure, and even horror!
And yes, he did a lot of romance stories and covers, as you'll see all this month!

Next Week:
We Don't Yet Know Which Matt Baker Story We'll Present, But 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...

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

DARLING ROMANCE "I Stole My Sister's Man"

Did a woman write this tale...
...a story about a sleazy, sordid, and slutty sibling trying to steal her sister's guy!
(and it's from Archie Comics, no less!)?
Read it, and tell us what you think!
The success of Simon & Kirby's Young Romance unleashed a horde of romance comic imitators  including this decidedly non-Archie title from Archie Comics.
These pre-Comics Code series featured stories that rivaled the true confessions-style magazines for naughtiness and radio soap operas for ridiculous plot twists, as this tale from Darling Romance #1 (1949) demonstrates.
The unknown writer (who must've believed they were being paid by the word) went under the pen-name "Mary Woods"!
But does it "read" like a man or woman wrote it?
What's your opinion???
OTOH, the art of Bill Fix (who did only romance stories during his short career in comics) is very distinctive...and he conveniently signed it!
Next Week:
We Have No Idea What We're Going to Run...Yet!
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...

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

TEEN CONFESSIONS "Wild Side"

Though the Book has "Teen" in the Title...

...these people are obviously not teenagers!
Young adults, yes!
But not teenagers!
One other note: the same art was used for both the cover and the splash page.
If the art director had left the "Wild Side" lettering in place on the lower right of the splash page (the way it is on the cover), there would've been room for the caption to go across the top of the page without it crashing into the bearded artist's model's head, throwing off the composition of the art!










Argentinian artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez began his American comics career at Charlton in 1967, doing a lot of romance comics work!
This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Teen Confessions #61 (1970) is from the end of his romance genre work as Charlton's editors finally gave him a chance to branch out into the horror genre, which brought him to DC Comics' attention.
Unfortunately, DC had cancelled their remaining romance titles a couple of months before they hired him!
But Garcia-Lopez barely-noticed as he was swamped with work as they used him in many different genres from horror to sci-fi to superheroes!


In the early 1980s, Jose also became their primary licensed-property artist, with work on everything from lunchboxes to t-shirts to toy packaging to food items!
His work, with updated costume modifications, is used to this day!
Next Week:
We're Not Sure Yet Exactly 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...
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Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Amorous Education CAMPUS ROMANCES "What College Failed to Teach Me"

The Older Man/Younger Woman Trope Gets an Added Boost...
...with a never-reprinted story that involves (potentially) incest!
Can you tell this is a pre-Comics Code Authority story?
Illustrated by Ed Waldman and scripted by an unknown writer, this tale from Avon's Campus Romances #2 (1949) is meant for an older audience (late teen/early adult) audience than romance comics from the mid-1950s onward!
Next Week:
We're Not Sure Yet Exactly What We'll Present!
But...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from out sponsor..
Please Support True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Order...