We're only at the end of July, mid-way through Summer...
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| Cover art by Jack Kirby and George Klein |
...but this tale by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta just screamed to be told (and not for the reason you think)!
PSST!
Wanna know a secret?
This story, which we're presenting from Marvel's Teen-Age Romance #84 (1961) later appeared in Our Love Story #9 (1971) in an extremely-modified form!
The art in
Our Love Story was retouched by art director John Romita to "update" the hairstyles and some of the fashions...
"Why did they do that?" 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 6-12 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, totally-changed every 5-6 years anyway, and wouldn't notice the "old" plots.
We had previously-posted the reprint version
HERE, but didn't have the original story for a complete comparison (just the splash page).
When we finally acquired the original story we just
had to do a "contrast and compare"!
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...
