One Book Stand MY LOVE / OUR LOVE STORY "Look of Love!"

On One of the Social Media Sites Where We Post Links to This Blog...

...fellow comics pro Steve Hogan aka Acid Keg Comics posted the original art of this romance comics cover attributed to John Romita Sr, which Romita himself notes "Done in the French Romance style"

I wondered why it would be referred to that way, so I dug up the story the cover promotes...

The illustrator, Enrique Montserratt, was actually a Spanish artist whose work appeared, thanks to multi-lingual syndication services, in most European countries...including France and England!
No doubt Romita (or someone else at Marvel) saw his French or British work and offered him an assignment of a Stan Lee script.
Sadly, whether it was due to distance, language difficulties, time constraints, or who-knows-what, this tale from Marvel's My Love #12 (1971) was Montserratt's only work for Marvel (or any American publisher!)

Getting back to the cover, here's the printed version...

Note the second circular caption on the right ("I Need Him--") and the surprinted text "Don't Dare Miss--" have apparently fallen-off the original art! 

When the tale and cover were reprinted a couple of years later in Marvel's Our Love Story #26 (1973), they were reprinted without the usual "updating" of hair and fashions!
In fact, the interior art wasn't even re-colored...which was even rarer!

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Yet Exactly Which Story We'll Present!

But, We Guarantee...

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

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Marvel Romance: the Trade Paperback!

Marvel's picked some of the best love comics from the 60s and 70s!

"It Happened at Woodstock," "My Heart Broke in Hollywood," "Love on the Rebound!"

Collects Love Romance #89 and #101-104; My Love #2, #14, #16 and #18-20; Teen-Age Romance #77 and #84, Our Love Story #5; and Patsy Walker #119.

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Romance on the Range LOVE DIARY "Big City Girl"

It's Culture Shock ...and More...When a Woman Raised in the Frenetic Urban Jungle...

...gets literally thrown, against her will, into the pastoral countryside!

Written by Dorothy Woolfolk and illustratd by Mort Leav, this never-reprinted story from Orbit's Love Diary #12 (1951) presented the point of view that dwellers of the crowded canyons of concrete were somehow "less" than the "salt of the earth" types who lived out among farm animals and miles of vegetation!

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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Love IS a BattleField SECRET STORY ROMANCES "Mary Parker's Man!"

When Your Former Military Commander Becomes Your Boss in Civilian Life...

...things may not go smoothly, on the job or personally!

So, Mary Parker's childhood love turns out to be a sleazy schmuck!

And, as the final panel points out, she's finally found a real man, not a juvenile loser!

Illustrated (and possibly written) by Bill Everett, this never-reprinted story from Atlas' Secret Story Romances #1 (1953) goes in a totally-different direction from what you saw at the beginning of the tale, when Danny was portrayed as far more sympathetic!

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...
Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics
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Love IS a BattleField DARLING LOVE "I Want My Soldier Boy"

Today's story is About War...

...in several different ways!
Yet this ad, which utilized the tale's splash page, doesn't give away any of them!
Let's read on...

We've presented stories about Korean and German war brides who faced difficulties adjusting to their new lives in America after marrying servicemen, but never a case involving the husband's parents being prejudiced against the new wife!
It's not as if she's a "foreigner/alien" (non-English-speaking ethnic as many war brides were), but British, the nationality most white Americans at that point were descended from!
In fact WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) were the dominant ethnicity in business and politics from America's founding until the 1960s!

Notes:

Darling Love and it's sister, Darling Romance each ran a full-page ad promoting a story in the other's book!
AFAIK, publisher Darling Magazines was the only company to do this.
We took the ad from Darling Romance #5 (which used the tale's splash) and combined it with the rest of the story from Darling Love #5 (1950).
BTW, Darling Magazines was an imprint of MLJ Publishing, aka Archie Comics, which had been doing genre-specific imprints since the 1940s.
In the 1960s, they imitated Marvel with a Mighty Comics line featuring their various superhero character revivals, and in the 70s-80s, they had Red Circle, which published horror and super-hero material!

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!

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics
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COOKIE "Turkey Meets Jerky"

I couldn't find a single romance comic with a Thanksgiving theme...

...but, thankfully (pun intended), teen humor comics have a number of them!

Note, there is a romantic sub-plot involving Cookie's girlfriend AngelPuss!

Curiously, this tale, written and illustrated by Dan Gordon, is from the same issue our previous Cookie holiday tale appeared in, ACG's Cookie #10 (1947)!

Dan Gordon was a writer-animator-director for the Fleischer Studios (Superman, Popeye), then went into comics, finally returning to animation at Hanna-Barbera where he co-created (among others) The Flintstones!

Next Week:

We don't know what we'll publish...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...

Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Stories