OUR LOVE STORY "Summer Must End"

It's not Labor Day weekend...yet...

...but this tale by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Vince Colletta still seemed appropriate.

Jack Kirby/George Klein

PSST!

Wanna know a secret?

This story, which we're re-presenting from 1970's Our Love Story #9, originally-appeared in 1961's Teen-Age Romances #84!

It was even the cover story in T-AR!

The art in Our Love Stories was retouched by art director John Romita to "update" the hairstyles and some of the fashions.
"Why did they do it?" you may ask...

With sales falling on most non-superhero genres in the late 1960s (including Western and war as well as romance), this "updated reprinting" became a common practice on romance comics until the genre all-but died out in the late 1970s.

Publishers would do a new 8-12 page lead story and use retouched reprints to fill out the book.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

b) updating the art was cheaper than totally-redrawing the story. 

c) the artists were better-utilized doing stuff that sold better (like superheroes).

d) the audience for romance comics, unlike superhero comics, changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the old plots.

BTW, here's the original version of page 1...

Compare and contrast!

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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NEGRO ROMANCE "Possessed" Conclusion

We Have Already Seen...

Gloria was an lonely, insecure woman.

After being laid off from her job, she wandered into a park and sat next to a most interesting man, to whom she poured out her troubles.

That man, Lloyd, introduced her to his mother, who offered Gloria a job in her beauty salon.

Over time, Lloyd and Gloria fell in love.

But Gloria was frightened that this situation, like every one before it, would end abruptly, leaving her with nothing.

To prevent that, Gloria manipulated everyone; Lloyd, Lloyd's mother, and her co-workers, to create an environment where she would be indispensable to all.

When Lloyd brought home a fellow (female) college student at Christmas, Gloria thought she was a rival for his love and let him know, in no uncertain terms...

Fascinatingly, except for skin color, this could be a tale in ANY romance comic of the period.

Last month, the PBS series History Detectives did a segment on the issue (#2) of Negro Romance this story was taken from.
The artist, Alvin Hollingsworth, was one of the few Black comic artists of the 1940s-1950s, illustrating every genre from Westerns to horror to sci-fi to romance.
Like many Golden Age comics artists, he went on to do commercial art as well as becoming a noted fine art painter with numerous gallery exhibitions.

Another Black artist, Matt Baker, also did numerous romance comics (as we've shown HERE) as well as the Phantom Lady series which became notorious when one of it's covers became the centerpiece of a crusade against comics by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham.

(Note: the scans for this story from Negro Romance are from the History Detectives website.
Though we did scan the actual comics covers [not 2nd generation reproductions] for use on merchandise [see below], the books were encased in lucite [slabbed], so we couldn't access the stories for scanning.)

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...

Check out the

Negro Romance
Comic Collectible Store

featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

NEGRO ROMANCE "Possessed" Part 1

It's said that Love is blind.
In comics, at least, it's also color-blind.
When Black or other ethnic characters appeared in titles published in the Golden Age of Comics (1940s-50s), they were usually stereotypes common to movies and radio shows of the period.
There were a couple of notable exceptions.
One was All-Negro Comics, a comic created and produced by a Black publishing house, which, ended up being a one-shot title.  (There's a fascinating article about it HERE.)
The other was a romance comic...Negro Romance, published by Fawcett Comics (Captain Marvel, Hopalong Cassidy) and Charlton Comics.
We'll go into the history of the book later.
Right now, let's look at love...

 WTF?

"Interesting", indeed!

Is Gloria's world about to crumble around her?

If so, what is she going to do about it...and to whom?

And what about the history behind the all-but forgotten Negro Romance comic?

To find out, you'll have to be here...Tomorrow!

Same Blog Time!

Same Blog Feed!

And now, a word from our sponsor...

Check out our

Negro Romance
Comic Collectible Store

featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues!

JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "My Cosmic Hero"

A romantic summer evening at the drive-in...

...except it's in the 21st Century...as seen from the viewpoint of 1952!
(I'm still waiting for my flying car!)

If the art style looks familiar, it's the work of Dan DeCarlo, who helped establish the iconic "look" of Archie Comics!
Dan actually started at Atlas Comics (the 1940s-50s predecessor to Marvel Comics) doing a variety of humor strips before beginning a long-term run on various Archie titles in 1951.
Even then, he continued to work for a number of other publishers, including Standard Comics, who asked him to create, write, and illustrate a teen-humor series.
(Every publisher had at least one of them!)
Exactly whose idea it was to set it in the "far future" of the 21st Century is unknown, but the resultant strip, though extremely derivative of Archie, was unique in the teen-humor genre for it's Jetsons-style setting and "futuristic" slang.

BTW, we're presenting more teen-humor because our post on Tippy Teen was one of the most popular items we've ever run!
(And we have lots of teen-humor material on hand!  Archie Comics isn't the only stuff out there!)

Is there a particular genre (Western, gothic, action, humor, etc.) or time period (1950s, 1960s, 1970s) you'd like to see stories from?
We've posted material from a wide variety of subjects over the past few months.
We'd love to have you post comments so we have a better handle on what types of strips you'd like to see here.

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...

Check out the

Jetta of the 21st Century™

Comics Collectibles Shop

JUST MARRIED "A Good Fight is Fun!"

If you're not married, ask your friends (or your parents). They'll tell you...

...making up afterwards is really the best part!

From Just Married #102, published in 1974.

Art by Demetrio Sanchez Gomez (who signs each page).

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...

Check out the

True Love Comics Tales™

Comics Collectibles Shop