Wednesday, September 4, 2013

AMAZING ADVENTURES "Asteroid Witch"

Most comic book romance tales are geared towards 'tween/teen girls...
Art by Clinton Spooner
...which make you wonder what the 'tween/teen male attitude on romance is.
This never-reprinted story from Ziff-Davis' Amazing Adventures #1 (1950) offers that viewpoint.
Women, alien or not, are scheming little trollops, plotting to control helpless men, usually by tricking them into marriage.
No wonder there's so much misogyny in America...
While the writer for this story is unknown (but believed to be editor Jerry [Superman] Siegel), the art is by Murphy Anderson, who did a lot of work for Ziff before moving on to illustrate the Buck Rogers newspaper strip!
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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Thursday, August 29, 2013

HEART THROBS "I Know My Love!"

The story we presented yesterday, "Summer Love", had previously-appeared under this cover...
..in DC's Heart Throbs #63 (1960).
When it was reprinted in 1970, the title was also changed.
(DC tended to do this more than Marvel.)
It drives comics historians nuts trying to match up different printings of stories!)
John Romita Sr was doing a lot of romance comics work for DC during this period, before leaving to go to Marvel in early 1965.
You'll note that, besides the usual "updating" of hair and clothing, the art in the reprint version shown yesterday is "extended" on each page because the original pages had a printed header across the top of the art area.
The reprints eliminated the headers, and the art was extended either along the top or bottom of the page, depending on which way would be easier and/or faster to do.
As we showed HERE, 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.
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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Wednesday, August 28, 2013

GIRLS' LOVE STORIES "Summer Love"

Here's some light beach reading for Labor Day weekend...
...in fact, it's so light, there's no dialogue or captions!
Not a word, except the title...
This silent story was re-presented from DC's Girls' Love Story #155 (1970).
The writer is unknown, but the art is by penciler John Romita Sr and inker Bernard Sachs!
You may wonder how and why the artist who was then drawing Spider-Man for Marvel would do a romance comic story for rival DC?
If you come back tomorrow, I'll explain...
And now a word from out sponsor...
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Wednesday, August 21, 2013

UNTAMED LOVE "Wrong Road to Love"

Chosing between two hunky guys is the dream of many women...
...but Julie didn't realize how actually living with two of them could change her life!
Unlike many 50s-60s romance comics, this one actually lives up to the titilating title.
This never-reprinted story from #1 (1950) shows a woman living (supposedly platonically) with two men in a remote enviroment for months in a plotline right out of a romantic film of the era!
You wouldn't see that happening once the Comics Code took over...
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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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

JETTA OF THE 21st CENTURY: Zoomer "Time Out for Trouble"

Like Archie's crowd, Jetta's supporting cast got occasional solo stories...
...like Zoomer and Atomica, a pair of "typical" teen-agers who would've fit in nicely in Riverdale, though 20th Century tech will give them problems, as you'll see...
This 60-year old tale of time and two teens from Standard's Jetta of the 21st Century #6 (1953) was written and penciled by the legendary Dan DeCarlo, and inked by Fred Eng.

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 [sob] true!)

And now a word from out sponsor...
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