Love in the Time of Covid-19 FIRST ROMANCE "Midnight Kisses" and FIRST LOVE "Prescription - Love"

Usually it's two women fighting over the same man...

...but now, the tables are turned as a female MD must choose between a fellow doctor or a fever-ridden patient!

This tale from Harvey's First Romance #9 (1951) seems innocent, in fact, downright innocuous, eh?

The Comics Code Authority, founded in 1954, didn't think so!

When the story was reprinted in Harvey's First Love #79 (1957), they insisted on numerous changes...beginning with the title...which they apparently thought was too salacious!

Most of the other changes involve captions and dialogue, but also note a couple of art modifications!

Did the Comics Code go too far?
Were they over-reacting?
Enquiring minds want...nay...need to know~

Next Week...

Another Tale of Disease, Debilitating Conditions and Desire!

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

Love in the Time of Covid-19 CYNTHIA DOYLE: NURSE IN LOVE "Smash-Up!"

"Could Her Love Win Over Death?"

Without further adieu,  let's get to today's story about a loved one suffering from a debilitating disease...or is he?

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's Cynthia Doyle: Nurse in Love #69 (1963) plays up the "...In Love" aspect of the title while providing some rather iffy medical concepts!

Remember, this is a soap opera in comic book form!

It's not meant to be even a semi-serious feature about a female medical professional, like Dr Pat!

This is, as most 1950s-1970s strips starring nurses were, a three-Kleenex romance comic!

Heck, before the book became Cynthia Doyle: Nurse in Love as of #66, it was Sweetheart Diaries, a romance anthology!

Cynthia appeared in a single story in the final issue, then the entire book was turned over to her!
Why?

In the early 1960s, one of the most-popular genres in pop culture was "medical drama"!

Spearheaded on TV by hunky prime-time physicians Dr Kildare and Ben Casey along with the related series The Nurses as well as daytime soap operas with hospital settings and paperback romance novels with covers featuring "studs in scrubs" with swooning nurses, comics hopped on the medical bandwagon!

Charlton, which couldn't afford the rights to comics based on any of the TV shows, launched numerous series featuring doctors and nurses including Dr Tom Brent: Young Intern, Nurse Betsy Crane, Young Interns, Sue & Sally Smith: Flying Nurses and, of course, this book!

(Oddly, there were never any cross-over stories between the various books!)

Written by Joe Gill, penciled by Dick Giordano and inked by Vince Colletta, this story came about halfway through the book's run.

BTW: the series ended with Nurse Doyle and Doctor Benson's love unconsummated!
Surprised?

Next Week...

Another Tale of Disease, Debilitating Conditions and Desire!

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...

Night Nurse

Love in the Time of Covid-19 DIARY LOVES and WEDDING BELLS "Summer Serenade"

Can being stuck in quarantine with someone lead to True Love?

According to this story from Quality's Diary Loves #27 (1952), the answer is yes!

So the "quarantine" was a fake, since no mention of it is made to John when he pulls up in the limo!

(Admittedly, the timeline after Jan is told about measles is nebulous.

Was she there a day...a week...or longer, before John shows up?)

This story initially appeared in Quality's Diary Loves #27 (1962) and seems pretty innocuous.
However, when the story was reprinted in Quality's Wedding Bells #13 (1956), the newly-implemented Comics Code Authority insisted on some weird changes:
Jan's already-tasteful clothing now covers more of her!
Both Brent and John have been de-aged from early/mid 30s to early 20s!
The hand-scripted "diary entries" have been changed to standard comic book lettering..and the final "diary entry" has been re-written!

Either way, it's a happy ending!

Next Week...

Another Tale of Disease, Debilitating Conditions and Desire!

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

LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY "Dream Christmas" Conclusion

In the tradition of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies...

...it appears Ann has screwed-up her Yuletide romance with the studly (and rich) Chris due to a misunderstanding on her part!

Can she correct her mistake?

Will this tale have a happy ending?

What do you think?

...and they lived happily ever after!💕

We hope you've enjoyed our Christmas movie-length presentation.

We'll be back after New Year's Day with more happiness and heartbreak.

LOVE STORY PICTURE LIBRARY "Dream Christmas" Part 3

When Last We Left Our Lovelorn Protagonist, Ann...

Big city girl Ann, unable to find a romantic partner, journeys to the countryside to spend Christmas with relatives!

Once there, she meets Chris, a guy whom she had briefly (and klutzilly) encountered back in the city!

Note: he's the very image of a potential lover she had been dreaming about for months! (hence the story's title)
Is it fate that they encounter each other again?
When Chris invites her to a Christmas Day gala at his home, Ann's concerned that she has nothing to wear.
But, while she's shopping on Christmas Eve with her niece and nephew, she sees the perfect dress...which is amazingly-expensive.
Depressed about her lack of funds, she spills her heart out to the store Santa Claus...who takes an interest in her...

OOPS!
Has Ann's misplaced pride caused her to blow her chance at happiness with Chris?

Find Out Next Wednesday!

For Christmas this year, we're doing things a little differently.

Instead of a bunch of unrelated Christmas/winter season tales, we're presenting a movie-length "graphic novel" from England that reads like the script for a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

Sadly, the writer-artist credits for this story from IPC's Love Story Picture Library 1031 (1973) are unknown.

BTW, this title ran over 1600 issues by doing a half-dozen issues per month covering everything from holiday tales, to period pieces involving swashbuckers, to wartime sagas to contemporary stories!

They were as popular among British teen and young adult girls as Harlequin Romances were among Americans!