Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romance. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

HI-SCHOOL ROMANCE "Baby-Sitter's Blues"

From the title, you wouldn't think this was a Yuletide story...
...but it most definitely is!
Does this story (by unknown writers, artists, or a writer-artist) from Harvey's Hi-School Romance #3 (1950) give you the "warm and fuzzy" feeling such holiday tales are supposed to provide?
Merry Christmas!!!

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

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..
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Wednesday, November 13, 2024

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...

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Halloween HeartBreak WORLD OF FANTASY "Strange Wife of Henry Johnson!"

Welcome to our final Countdown to Halloween 2024 tale...

...as we look at the never-reprinted tale behind this incredibly-misleading (but atmospheric), never-reprinted Bill Everett cover!
That means no one has seen this story from Atlas' World of Fantasy #4 (1956)...except you...for almost seven decades!
So she's not a witch...but an alien!
I have the feeling the cover was done before the Comics Code Authority began its' stranglehold on what was left of the comic book industry, but frugal editor Stan Lee didn't want it to go to waste, so he had an unknown writer along with artist John Forte take the basic plot and drop the supernatural element, replacing it with sci-fi!
It's still a nice tale of "love conquers all", eh?
Next Week:
We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, But We 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 Order...

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Halloween HeartBreak GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED LOVE "Crush"

Just When You Believe American Romance Comics in General...

...and Gothic Romance Comics in Particular, Died Out, Along Comes a Kool Anthology of Them!
Scripted by Janet Hetherington, rendered by Ronn Sutton, and colored by Bekka Kinzie, this tale from Bedside Press' Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is a wild variation on the "handsome widowed sea captain and the beautiful virginal governess" plot that was a classic Victorian romance trope which still has a happy ending, even without the sea captain...or perhaps due to not having the sea captain!

Next Week:
Another Tale of Out-of-This-World-Love!
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...

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

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..
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