Valentine's Week Special YOUNG LOVE "Be My Valentine"

It's Almost Valentine's Day...

...and this never-reprinted tale from Prize's Young Love V4N1-#31 (1952), written and illustrated by the team of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who pioneered the romance comics genre, is all about a Valentine's Day card and it's effect on both sender and receiver!

While Young Love was the second romance comic published (Simon & Kirby's earlier comic, Young Romance in 1947 was the first), it was the last ongoing romance comic book published by a major publisher, ending it's run in 1977!
(Though Prize's comic book line had gone out of business in 1963, DC bought out the publisher's inventory, including unused material, and kept both Young Love & Young Romance going until the '70s!)
BTW, you may have noticed the handsome guy in the cover photo looked sort of familiar!
He's Robert Redford, and the photo was taken during his "photographer's male model" period in the early 1950s!

Next Week: We Return to the Swinging '60s for Another Torrid Tale of Mod Love !
You''ll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
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Young Romance

Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics

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Psychedelic '60s Stories MOD LOVE "She's the Hippest Girl in the World"

Here's a psychedelic piece from the Swinging '60s, when Free Love was all the rage, baby!

Best read by the light of a lava lamp while buring some incense!

Western's Mod Love (1967) was a magazine-sized 50¢ multi-color publication with all material written by Michael Lutin and illustrated by already-famous graphic artist Michael Quarez who went total "pop art", with one important difference!
Unlike most "pop art" visualizers (including myself) who used exaggerated dot screens to mimic Roy Lichtenstein's pseudo-pop art work...

...Quarez used only solid colors in his work, creating incredibly-vivid visuals, such as this two-page spread about hot, hot, hot fashion boutique Tiger Morse's Teenie Weenie!

We ran the stories over a decade ago with scans we found on the Internet, but since acquiring a copy of this very-hard-to-find publication, we've remastered them from scratch and will present them on three of the four Wednesdays in February!

But, Next Week...

...aka Valentine's Day Week, we're paying tribute to the creators of the romance comics genre, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with a special never-reprinted, cover-featured, Valentine's Day tale from Young Love !
(And yes, that's a very young Robert Redford, during his male model period, on the cover!)

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

Love in the Office YOUNG ROMANCE "I Love You, Frank Gerard"

 You think "mansplaining" is a new phenomenon?

Hardly.

It was happening at least as far back as 1948, when this tale appeared!

This never-reprinted story of business, love, and the business of love is from Prize's Young Romance #4 (1948).

Layouts by Jack Kirby, pencils by Jerry Robinson & Mort Meskin, inks by Joe Simon.

The writer is unknown, but believed to be Simon and/or Kirby.

Next Week:
We're Not Yet Sure What We'll Present!
But We 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...

Young Romance

Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics

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WOMEN IN LOVE "I Was a Greenwich Village Character"

For over a century, NYC's Greenwich Village has been considered a creative utopia...

...and the unknown writer of this tale seems very familiar with the workings of both the commercial art and fine art communities that mingled in The Village!

This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' 100-page one-shot Women in Love (1952) is incredibly-overwritten, as if it was a prose story that just happened to have illustrations!

Artist Gerald McCann had the unenviable task of trying to actually illustrate panels that are overflowing with captions and text!

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Exactly What We'll Present!
But...

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...

Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics
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Anything BUT Archie! HOMER HOOPER "Twelve-Dollar Conundrum"

How Close Can You Come to Being an Archie Clone...without  Being Sued?

Atlas Comics sure gave it a shot with this series!

This typical tale from Atlas' Homer Hooper #3 (1953) was scripted by Stan Lee and illustrated by Hy Rosen.

Besides the blonde (who was well-off but not rich), the red-headed lead and the nasty frenemy, the series also featured a brunette, Homer's skinny best friend with a big nose, an athlete, brainy nerd, annoyed teachers and principal, etc.

Hy Rosen, who did a credible job as a Dan DeCarlo clone was one of the few artists working in the style who didn't end up at Archie Comics.

In the mid-1940s he added newspaper editorial cartooning to his already-busy schedule.

When comics almost died in the mid-1950s, Hy took on advertising storyboard work to take up the slack, creating the "White Tornado" ad campaign for Ajax Cleanser!

Hy's last work was for Harvey Comics in the early 1990s...on New Kids on the Block and Saved by the Bell comics!

Interestingly, his eulogy at his "home" newspaper, The Albany Times-Union, makes no mention of his comic book work!

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 our sponsor..

Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Buy...

Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics

1940s-1970s

An Illustrated History
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Yuletide Tidings PEP COMICS "Archie in 'Christmas Cheers' "

It's comics' all-American boy...as most of you don't know him...

...a buck-toothed, layabout, closer to Reggie (who doesn't appear in this tale), than the wholesome teen of today!
(BTW, for an explanation of War Bonds, and why Archie's dad invested part of his son's $50 check, go HERE!)

Written by Harry Sahle and Ed Goggin, penciled by Sahle and inked by "Ginger" (Virginia Drury), this story from MLJ's Pep Comics #46 (1944) is notable for the debut of two characters; Pop Tate, owner of "Pop's Chocklit Shop" (Called "Tate's" in this tale), and Gabby, a short-lived character who screwed-up other people's lives by continually blabbing things others were not meant to know!

As you can see, the original Bob Montana character designs (which Sahle and Drury matched almost exactly) had not yet been updated to the streamlined Dan DeCarlo versions, which serve as the primary templates of the characters from the 1950s to this day!

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...

Archie and Friends All-Stars Christmas Stocking
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