"Masher!"

Riding the NYC subway can be an adventure...

...like this atypical tale of lechery, love, and the law!

This tale of female empowerment from 1954 is from the short-lived Police Trap #1, illustrated (and probably written) by Bill Draut, who also did a lot of romance comics work in the 1950s-1970s, primarily for Harvey, Toby, and DC.
He continued working until the mid-1980s, ending up (like many other comic artists) working on animated tv series, where he was one of the primary designers for the original GI Joe cartoon.
And, please remember to be observant and careful when you ride public transportation!

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!

(But, we will tell you that October will be a month of spooky Gothic and horror-themed tales, most of them multi-parters!)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Check out the

True Love Comics Tales™

Comics Collectibles Shop

JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY "What a Specimen"

To help ease your return to school or work after Labor Day...MORE fun with Dan DeCarlo's Jetta!

2011 ain't what they thought it would be in 1953...

"Leaping Electrodes!"
"Now we're cookin' with uranium!"
"Go atomize yourself!"
"This is simply electronic!"
Why aren't we all talking like this?

This tale from Jetta #6 (which was actually the second issue) was written and penciled by Dan DeCarlo, but it may not have been inked by him.

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!

(I know we say that every week...but it's true!)

And now a word from out sponsor...

Check out the

Jetta of the 21st Century™

Comics Collectibles Shop

ADVENTURES IN ROMANCE "Heels Over Head in Love"

With Labor Day coming up, it's time to ease into Autumn...

...as we did into summer, with another story from the short-lived (and never reprinted) Adventures in Romance!

Written by the prolific Dana Dutch, about whom very little is known, except his extensive list of  comic scripts.
Interestingly, out of 206 identified scripts, over 200 were romance stories, with a smattering of superhero and high adventure!

Illustrated by the versatile Frank Bolle, who's still active in the field today!

Here's his website!

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!

(You will! Really!)

And now a word from our sponsor...

You can own a kool komic collectible
(t-shirt, mug, tote bag, etc.)

 embellished with the cover art from the comic that featured this week's torrid tale...

 ...by clicking HERE!

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...

Check out the

True Love Comics Tales™

Comics Collectibles Shop

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!