REACH FOR HAPPINESS "Episode 28" Part 2

We Have Already Seen...

Rita has come out of her coma and, realizing she doesn't really love him, broken her engagement with Greg.
But, most of the people of Danville Corners think Karen has stolen Greg from Rita!
Meanwhile, Karen receives some rare good news from teenager Joanie who was considering getting married while still in high school...

Yes!

You read it right!

Next Month!

The Final Chapter!

Don't Miss It!

This chapter of "Reach for Happiness" from Secret Hearts #137 (1969) was written by Jack Miller, penciled by Jay Scott Pike, and inked by George Roussos (except for the cover which Bill Draut penciled and editor Dick Giordano inked).

 Next Week:

We don't know what we'll publish...yet!

But, You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss It!

And now a word from our sponsor...

Please Support

True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics

REACH FOR HAPPINESS "Episode 28"

When Last We Left Karen...

...hey, we finally have a splash panel that actually reflects the beginning of the chapter instead of the end!

Has Karen's reputation been dragged through the mud?
Will this complicate her revived relationship with Greg?

Next Week:

The Sordid Truth!

This chapter of "Reach for Happiness" from Secret Hearts #137 (1969) was written by Jack Miller, penciled by Jay Scott Pike, and inked by George Roussos.

Please Support

True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics

SEARCH FOR LOVE "Atomic Amour"

With all the current talk about Russkie deceit and deception...

...we forget they were masters of such things during the Cold War!

As hard as it is to believe, this tale appeared in a romance comic, specifically, ACG's Search for Love #2 (1950).

Similar tales had appeared in crime/espionage titles, but their audience was radically-different from romance series' readers!

Regrettably, both the writer and illustrator(s) are unknown, so we can't blame anybody in particular for their stereotyped attitudes towards intelligent women.

Next Week

The Return of Romance Comics' Longest-Running Serial...

Reach for Happiness

And now a word from our sponsor...

Please Support True Love Comics Tales!

Visit Amazon and Order...

Weird Love

Vol 1

TENDER LOVE STORIES & YOUNG ROMANCE "Fashion Plate"

When is a contemporary love story not a contemporary love story?

When it was "contemporary" a decade earlier!

You'd think a tale heavily-oriented about current fashion would have been written and drawn, well, currently!

But this story published in Skywald's Tender Love Stories #4 (1971) wasn't scripted and illustrated in 1971!

It was created almost a decade earlier...in 1963!

Published in Prize's Young Romance #124 (1963), the original version illustrated by Bob Powell presents the male ingenue first as a leather-clad biker, then as a preppie, and finally as an average Joe.

The reworked version, inked by Bill Everett, presents the guy first as a leisure-suited layabout, then a double-breasted suit-clad dandy, and finally, again, as an average Joe.

You'll also note in both cases, Bob starts out with extreme hairstyles, then gets trimmed as the tale goes on!

Of course, looking back on these tales decades later, both stories seem like "period pieces"!

And, yes, we did wear clothes like you see here in both those time periods!

They were considered "cutting edge" then.

"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 8-20 page lead story and use retouched reprints to fill out the book.

Editors felt that:

a) the plots were relatively timeless.

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

c) 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!

Next Week...

We Don't Know What We're Presenting...Yet!

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

And now a word from our sponsor!

Please Support True Love Comics Tales by Visiting Amazon and Ordering...

Marvel Romance

I LOVE YOU "Night Without Tears"

What happens when you fall in love with your cousin?

This never-reprinted tale from Charlton's I Love You #91 (1971) has one possible solution!

"...related by marriage!"

Writer Joe Gill and illustrator Steve Ditko certainly found a way out of that conundrum, eh?

Note: though Ditko has drawn thousands of stories and covers during his over half-century of comics creating, romance comics account for only a dozen or so stories!

Next Week...

We Don't Know What We're Presenting...Yet!

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

And now a word from our sponsor!

Please Support True Love Comics Tales by Visiting Amazon and Ordering...

Marvel Romance