It's the Season for Lovin' ADVENTURES IN ROMANCE "September Squall"

Now that it's September...

...let's tell a seasonally-appropriate, never-reprinted, cover-featured story that really fits the concept of a "beach read'!

The painted cover art (by the story's artist, Warren King) was based on the final panel.
While other comics publishers used painted covers on their romance comics, most of those were re-used pulp or paperback paintings which were unrelated to the interior stories!
You've likely noted a couple of two-page spreads at the beginning of the story and at the conclusion.
St John's Adventures in Romance #1 (1949), experimented with doing double-page spreads in each story to establish a distinctive "look".
Sadly, the series only lasted two issues.  ;-(
Artist Warren King spent several years in comic books doing everything from superheroes to horror to romance, before moving into newspaper cartooning, becoming the in-house editorial cartoonist at the NY Daily News and winning the National Cartoonists Society Best Editorial Cartoonist Award in 1968.
He passed away in 1978.

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

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

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

And now a word from out sponsor..
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Romance Without Tears
featuring comics stories written by Dana Dutch! 
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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!
And now a word from our sponsor...
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Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
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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!
And now a word from our sponsor...

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Best of DC Romance Comics
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Business Before Love? TENDER LOVE STORIES "I Wanted the World" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Cover Art by Don Heck and Frank Giacoia
Scheming, manipulative Crystal Larson has been bed-hopping (in a PG-13 manner) to move herself up the social and financial ladder...

This never-reprinted tale from Skywald's Tender Love Stories #2 (1971) shows that what's good for the goose is equally-good for the gander!

Next Week:
We're Not Sure What We'll Present, But We Guarantee That...
Youll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
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Business Before Love? TENDER LOVE STORIES "I Wanted the World" Part 1

When most women describe themselves as "hard-working"...

...I don't think this is quite what they mean!

But then, Crystal Larson isn't planning to go though the whole "nose to the grindstone" routine...

Looks like Crystal's planning to move up in the corporate structure...as we shall see...

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

Written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Jack Katz (with some redrawing by Skywald's art director Ross Andru along with inking by Mike Esposito and Frank Giacoia), this never-reprinted tale from Skywald's Tender Love Stories #2 (1971) shows a more 1940s-50s mindset than a tale written at the dawn of the Womens' Lib movement should!

BTW, our sincere thanks to the amazing Kracalactaka for the scans from this incredibly-hard to find comic!

And now a word from our sponsor...

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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

The Golden Age of Romance Comics
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