Showing posts with label magazines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magazines. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

WE Hated Men! SAVAGE TALES "Fury of the Femizons"

You'd think nothing says "I Hated Men!" like a woman running a sword through a man's heart...
...except in the case presented in this Women's Lib-era story from the b/w magazine Savage Tales #1 (1971)!
(Was it really over a half-century ago?
Lord, I feel so old...)

Written by Stan Lee and illustrated by John Romita, Sr,  this tale had an unusual genesis, as detailed on the editorial page by editor Roy Thomas...

Women's liberation.
It's all around us, be we male or female.
marches, intellectual treatises, picketing, bra-burning, some four-letter forensics, and more burnings–not always of bras.
"Women are the equals of men every day, in every way!'
Men are beginning to believe it.
Women always knew it.
So what happens if maybe we come the full circle in, say the next hundred years or so?
What if women turn the rascals out–and we do mean out!
What would we have then?
A better world? Perhaps.
A gentler world? Could be.
different world? Believe it.
Stan Lee got to wondering-and, by and by, he set imaginative artist Johnny Romita to wondering along with him.
The result is, perhaps, something just a wee bit new under the sun.
Not quite sword-and-sorcery–certainly not science-fiction–and not exactly a political polemic.
Robin Morgan clobbers Buck Rogers in the 25th century!
Kate Millett zaps both Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless–then takes over Mongo for good measure!
The hand that rocks the cradle really rules the world!
Next Week:
In June, We Return to Our Original Format of Posting Whatever Catches Our Fancy!
And We Can Guarantee...
...You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

BARBIE Foreign Magazines and Current Comics

Though Barbie's publishing history in America is somewhat irregular...

...in Europe there has almost always been some periodical starring the fashion doll who was, in fact, based on a European fashion doll!
The magazines tend to feature materials about the dolls and related products along with teen lifestyle articles and fumetti starring the dolls themselves...
I don't remember American Barbies having spacesuits (or ray guns) like these, so they may have been European market exclusives, or custom-produced for the fumetti!
Note that while these pages are in sequence, they're not consecutive.
BTW, that last word means "end" in Swedish, not what it means in English!
(Get your minds out of the gutter!)
Meanwhile, in America, Barbie's been in a publishing revival since around 2015, with an interesting twist...
The character, as portrayed in current comics, is younger than the 18-25 year old adult previously-shown...
...and her adventures are far more fantastical!
And speaking of "fantastical"...
See Barbie when it opens in theatres this weekend!

Next Week:
The Story of a Rival 1960s Fashion Doll Who Had Her Own Long-Running Comic Book Series!
(and yes, there's a surprise twist to the tale!)
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 Buy...

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

TEEN LOVE STORIES "I'll Be Yours, My Love"

A 1960s romance comic story, but not from a romance comic...

 ...but from a teen romance magazine, published in 1967!

Jim Warren, who built up a publishing business in the early 1960s with titles like Famous Monsters of FilmlandScreen ThrillsHelp!, and Monster World, got into comics publishing with a diverse line of b/w magazines (to avoid the restrictions of the Comics Code that controlled editorial content of color comics) including CreepyEerieBlazing Combat, and Teen Love Stories.
To maximize the potential audience for the romance title, it was designed to appear similar to teen mags of the era like Tiger Beat and 16, which it was racked with...
...and, besides comic strips, it included text features, quizzes...
...and even anti-smoking ads!
(illustrated by the legendary Frank Frazetta, no less!)

Of all the Warren Publishing comic magazines, Teen Love Stories was the shortest-lived at only three issues, all of which are very hard-to-find!

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Amorous Education & Wedding Bliss CONFESSIONS ILLUSTRATED "High School Bride"

In a total contrast to last week's frivolous flight of fancy...
...here's a totally-serious tale...but with an upbeat ending!
I had said that the only genre the EC Comics crew couldn't handle well was romance.
OK, I was wrong.
This story, and the entire EC Comics Confessions Illustrated series, prove me incorrect.
In their final attempt, after Saddle Romances; A Moon, a Girl, Romance; and Modern Love, they finally got it right!
This particular tale, written by Daniel (Flowers for Algernon) Keyes and illustrated by Jack Kamen, was never published during the series' original run.
It was intended for #3...but the series ended with #2.
It was finally published in a now OOP boxed hardcover edition in 2006 presenting all the EC "Picto-Fiction" titles along with their previously-unpublished final issues!
But it was just reprinted last month as a standalone edition, as you see below.
Next Week
We're Not Yet Sure 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...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales
Visit Amazon and Buy...
EC Archives
Confessions Illustrated

Paid Link

Friday, October 29, 2021

Halloween HeartBreak / Tell a Tale of Terror Thrice WEIRD MYSTERIES "Easy Dies It!"

You've seen two earlier versions HERE and HERE!
Now read the final...AFAIK...variation on a theme...
Writer Carl Wessler really knew how to milk a plot to death (pun intended)!
This never-reprinted Carl Burgos-illustrated, tale from Pastime Publications' Weird Mysteries #1 (1959) didn't have to stick to strict Comics Code standards since the periodical was a b/w magazine, and the Code only applied to four-color comic books!
We hope you've enjoyed our annual Halloween fantasy/sci-fi/horror romance blogathon.
Please bookmark us to enjoy the only weekly dose of romance in graphic form on the 'Net...and you wouldn't want to miss a single post because...
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...

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

SOUL LOVE "Dedicated Nurse"

At long last, we present the final story...
...from Jack (King) Kirby's Soul Love!
Note...it's somewhat "politically incorrect"...but not for the reason you might think!
(Hey, look!
A "Kirby Quote"!)
You'll note pages 5 and 6 aren't as "clean" as the other pages, which are scanned from the actual original art!
They're scanned from photocopies, which are the only versions I could acquire, but they're legible enough to "fill out" the tale!
(Oh, man!
More "Kirby Quotes"!)
Written/penciled/edited by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta, the story takes the typical attitude of the period about overweight women, though Aleda's not actually obese.
(In fact, I was involved with a woman who had a similar body type, which I found extremely-appealing!)

You can read other Soul Love tales we've presented HERE.
Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.
The first was the four-issue 1950s series Negro Romances, which we covered HERE.
Thanks to Kracalactaka for the scans.
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...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Love in the Time of Covid-19 BEWARE "Black Death" & TALES FROM THE TOMB "Devil's Plague"

Here's a story that was so not nice, they presented it twice!
Illustrator Henry Kiefer and an unknown writer crafted this tale for Trojan Magazine's Beware #7 (1954), during the height of the horror comics boom!
Because of the content, it was never reprinted after the Comics Code came into effect!
(And, to this day, still hasn't been reprinted!)
But that doesn't mean the story itself hasn't reappeared...
...as the editor of Eerie Publications' b/w magazine line (which was not regulated by the Comics Code) had artist Oscar Fraga re-do the tale verbatim from the original script in Tales From the Tomb V2N3 (1970)!
This version has been reprinted several times throughout the Eerie Publications line from 1971 to 1980, when they went out of business!
Next Week...
Another Tale of Debilitating Conditions and Desire!
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Visit Amazon and Order...
Weird Love