Amourous Education SPARKLING LOVE "Written in the Stars"

Normally, Our Amourous Education Stories Involve Students or Teachers...

...but in this case, it's a school office worker who hangs with students in her spare time!

Illustrated by Sid Lazarus and scripted by an unknown writer, this story from Avon's Sparkling Love #1 (1950) appeared elsewhere that same month!

The contents for the entire comic were also bound in Avon's newest romance pulp magazine...

...Sparkling Love Stories as "32 pages of romance stories illustrated in full color" to go with the prose love tales with spot illustrations in black and white.

(Luckily for them, pulp magazines and comic books were the same size!)

Next Week:

More High School/College Hi-Jinks!

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

And now a word from out sponsor..

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics
Paid Link

Amorous Education FIRST LOVE ILLUSTRATED "I Joined a Teen-Age Sex Club"

If that title doesn't get your attention, nothing will...

...and it wasn't even the cover-featured story in that issue of Harvey's First Love Illustrated!

Surprisingly,  this story from First Love Illustrated #13 (1951) wasn't one of the tales mentioned in Fredric Wertham's anti-comics screed Seduction of the Innocent (1954)!

Tales of scandalous "sex clubs" pop up every so often during periods of sexual repression such as the 1950s usually in local media looking for a sensationalistic story.

You'll note the tale is presented from scans of the original artwork, not the printed comic.

Unfortunately, every copy of the comic we could find is "slabbed" (encased in plastic) to increase it's resale value to the owner.

The fact it renders the comic unreadable is, sadly, secondary to most people.

(The concept of "slabbing" was developed for trading cards which don't have interiors.

The "collector mentality" of dealers adapted the idea to comics and magazines which do have readable interiors that, after being encased in plastic, are no longer accessible!

And removing the comic from the casing lowers the resale value!)

Illustrated by noted good-girl artist Bob Powell (who also did a number of heroine strips including Cave Girl), the writer of this torrid tale is unknown.

Next Week:

More High School/College Hi-Jinks!

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...

Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics
Paid Link

Lost Love OUR LOVE STORY "Model with a Broken Heart"

It's a 1970s story with a 1940s "feel"...

...because the scripter was a child of the Swingin' 60s-70s, and the illustrator was one of the greats of the Golden Age.

The story has a weird feel to it, like a 1940s-50s tales updated for the 60s-70s.

But I'm assured this never-reprinted tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #14 (1971) was, in fact, written and illustrated in 1970-71!

Writer Gary Friedrich began scripting Western, military, and superhero comics in the late 1960s, including Sgt Fury and His Howling Commandos, the cowboy Ghost Rider, and the Steve Ditko-illustrated Blue Beetle.

But he began his career doing romance comic stories at Charlton!

Later, he would co-create the first Black superheroine, ButterFly and the motorcycling Ghost Rider.

Tarpe Mills was one of few female writer/artists (let alone female writers or artists) in the Golden Age.

Besides working on a number of established series, she created one of the first superheroines; Miss Fury!

Tarpe retired from comics in the early 1950s, returning in the '70s to do this romance story under the pen-name "JT Mills" (short for her full name, June Tarpe Mills) and both a cover... 

...and a limited-edition tip-in plate...

for a Miss Fury reprint trade paperback.

Next Week...

Another Lost Love Story from the 1960s-70s!

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

And now a word from out sponsor..

Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Marvel Romance: the Trade Paperback!

Paid Link

In Space No One Can Hear You Smooch AMAZING ADVENTURES "Asteroid Witch"

Comic book romance stories are geared towards 'tween/teen/young adult females...

Art by Clinton Spooner

...which make you wonder what the 'tween/teen/young adult male attitude on romance is.

This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #1 (1950) offers that viewpoint.

And what have we learned today?

Women, alien or not, are scheming little trollops, plotting to control helpless men, usually by tricking them into marriage.
No wonder there's so much misogyny in America...

While the writer for this story is unknown (but believed to be editor Jerry [Superman] Siegel), the art is by Murphy Anderson, who did a lot of work for Ziff-Davis Comics before moving on to illustrate the Buck Rogers newspaper strip!

Next Week:
We're Not Yet Sure What We'll Present!
But We Guarantee...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out of You Miss It!
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor...
Support True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Weird Romance
Paid Link

Newsroom Nookie DARING CONFESSIONS "Scandal Sheet"

 Imagine, a tabloid that purchases stories involving famous/important people...

...then keeps them from being published and embarrassing the famous/important people!

Such "catch and kill" schemes couldn't actually happen, right?

This never-reprinted story from Youthful's Daring Confessions #4 (1951) can't seem to decide what its' plotting priorities are!

Is it a love story...or a tale of hard-hitting journalists working together...or both?

You decide!

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...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

Paid Link

LOVE SECRETS "I Hated Men"

Could there possibly be an innocent explanation for this scene?

Cover art by Matt Baker

If so, what could it be?

Ah, the old "She's my sister!" trope!

The unknown scripter of this never-reprinted story from Quality's Love Secrets #40 (1954) overplays the plot device...which could've been resolved a couple of pages earlier if the idiot guy had simply opened his phone call with "She's my sister and she's getting married and I'm her fiance's best man!" instead of a long, drawn-out explanation!
Though not identified by the Grand Comics Database, the art appears to be by Reed Crandall.

Next Week:

Another Tale of Mistrust Between the Sexes!

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...

Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics