REACH FOR HAPPINESS Episode 1

This blog was intitiated in 2011 in response to the cancellations of two of the few remaining TV soap operas...

...so it's only appropriate that we present the longest-running romance comic soap opera, patterned on the fondly-remembered tv/radio serial format!

Well?

Well?

Well?

Be here next week, when we continue after this extremely-awkward pause.

Written by Jack Miller, penciled (and possibly inked) by Gene Colan.

Beginning in Secret Hearts #110 (1966), this strip presented the longest ongoing plotline in DC Comics until the 1980s with an astounding 29 chapters...and an actual conclusion to the plotline.

There were several other attempts at serial storytelling in the DC romance titles...

3 Girls..Their Loves...Their Lives... 22 chapters in Heart Throbs.

Lisa St Claire 10 chapters in Young Love.
Confessions 6 chapters in Girls' Love Stories.

20 Miles to Heartbreak  4 episodes alternating between two titles, Young Love and Secret Hearts.

Am I Too Young for Love? 3 chapters in Heart Throbs

Love is What it's All About 3 chapters Young Romance

3 Loves...1 Broken Heart! 2 chapters in Young Love

My Time to Love 2 chapters in Girls' Romances

...but this was the longest.

None of them has ever been reprinted in its' entirety, though individual chapters have popped-up here and there.

We'll be presenting one chapter a month, spread over two consecutive weeks.

Next week:

Secrets revealed!
More characters introduced!
 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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True Love Comics Tales™

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CAMPUS ROMANCES "Love was My College Major"

School's back in session, and it's time for your lesson in love...

...from a writer who takes the "book" part of "comic book" to the extreme!

Considering letterers have always been among the poorest-paid of the various contributors to comics, I wouldn't be surprised if whoever did this job said "The hell with it! I'd rather dig ditches. It'll be easier!" after finishing the assignment.

The art for this tale from Avon's Campus Romances #2 (1949) by Manny Stallman and John Guinta tries to compete with the text, but some panels look like the illustration was just an afterthought.

The script, by an author whose name is lost in the mists of history, reads like a radio soap opera, with an incredible amount of "internal monologue" by Karen.

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..

Visit Our

School of Love

Comic Collectibles Shop

 featuring the cover from the issue of Campus Romances this story is taken from!

"Harvey and Duke" by Stan Goldberg

In tribute to the late Stan Goldberg, here's a 1970 story illustrated by him...

...featuring a red-headed high-schooler and his clique...but it's not Archie Andrews and company!

Despite taking all the established Archie tropes, reworking them slightly by making Harvey the "new kid in town", and adding Stan Goldberg's extremely Dan DeCarlo-esque art, Stan Lee's final Silver Age co-creation, Harvey, was gone after only six issues from 1970-72!
At least it lasted longer than Stan's previous Archie clone, Homer Hooper, which went bye-bye after only four issues.
The poor-selling series is very HTF and has never been reprinted.
Stan Goldberg went to DC, where he did other Archie-style strips for a couple of years before making his way to Archie, where he worked continuously (with occasional freelance gigs) up to his recent passing.

Next week:

We don't know what it'll be, but...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

FAST WILLIE JACKSON "Failing Sailing"

It's nearly the end of summer, so let's take a cruse with a bunch of comic book teenagers and young adults!

What could go wrong?

Was the story supposed to run one or two pages longer?

It seems odd to end it at this point without seeing what's in the chest...

Illustrated by Gus Lemoine, the script for this tale from Fitzgerald's Fast Wilie Jackson #6 (1977) was either by him or publisher/editor Bertam Fitzgerald.

Previously, Gus pencilled shorts and a couple of covers at Archie Comics from 1967 to the mid-1970s.

The Fast Willie books were his final credited work.

(There is a theory that Gus was really Henry Scarpelli, a versatile humor artist who did work for Archie as well as Archie-clone books for both Marvel and DC.

The period when "Gus" was active at Archie was before Scarpelli's credited work appeared there, so...it's like "Gee, Clark, we never see you when Superman's around! Why's that?"

Lois Lane couldn't prove it, either.)

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...

Visit the

Fast Willie Jackson
Comic Collectibles Store

featuring the cover art from the HTF premiere issue
on kool kollectibles!

DARING LOVE "Dear John"

What's the worst sort of mail for a guy in the military to get from your sweetheart?

But, what are the consequences when the letter turns out to be...oh, just read the story...

Wasn't it lucky that the blindness (which is only temporary) kept him from reading the "Dear John" letter in this amazingly politically-incorrect tale?

The writer and artist for this lead story in Gilmor's Daring Love #1 (1953) are both unknown.

The book is the last of three attempts by different publishers to use the "Daring Love" title on a comic book.

None lasted more than three issues and, in fact, this was the only issue from this publisher.

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