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...
Support True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Buy...

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...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

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Best of DC Romance Comics
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It's the Season for Lovin' SECRETS OF YOUNG BRIDES "Can This Be Love?"

Though It's the Middle of August, Let's Take One Last Summer Fling...

...with a '70s tale from Charlton's Secrets of Young Brides #3 (1975)

Man, dig those crazy fashions and hairstyles!

Illustrated by the talented Enrique Nieto (who did only romance, horror, or gothic romance tales)

Next week:

We haven't yet decided 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 our sponsor...

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics
and/or

Marvel Romance

Some of the best Marvel love comics from the 60s and 70s!

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Beach Read KISS OF DEATH "Chapter Four: Mystery of the Locket"

We Have Already Seen...

Anne Mason lying in a coffin after being attacked by strange beings...

...and now, the astounding conclusion to this tale from DC's Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love #3 by Jack Oleck and Don Heck!

Ah, a happy ending...

But not for Gothic Romances in comic book form!

This title, DC Comics' Dark Mansions of Forbidden Love, only lasted four issues before becoming Forbidden Tales of the Dark Mansion, a standard horror comic that ran ten more issues.

Its sister title, Sinister House of Secret Love suffered a similar fate, turning into Secrets of Sinister House, also after four issues.

Marvel Comics' attempt at a similar title was not a comic, but a b/w magazine with prose stories and spot illustrations called Gothic Tales of Love.

It died after three issues.

Charlton Comics' Haunted Love was the second-longest running series with ten titanic issues of weird love. 
We've presented a couple of stories from it HERE and HERE.

But the longest-lasting gothic romance comic book was based on a daytime tv soap opera...Gold Key's Dark Shadows, which ran thirty-five issues and lasted four years longer than the TV show!
Then, in 1991, Innovation Comics did three mini-series (one cancelled after only a single issue) based on the short-lived primetime revival of the show, adding nine issues to the count.
Finally, in 2011, Dynamite Entertainment resurrected (as it were) the original TV show with a twenty-three issue run as well as a five-issue crossover mini-series with Vampirella!

Next Week: Well, We're Not Sure What We'll Present...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..

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love

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