MY LOVE "A Teen-Ager Can Also Hate!"

A while ago, we ran a classic Atlas romance tale...

...which was reprinted almost a decade later with clothing and hairstyles "updated".

Here's that story from Atlas' Teen-Age Romance #86 (1962) as it appeared in the back of Marvel's My Love #14 (1971)

Scripted by Stan Lee, penciled (and probably plotted) by Jack Kirby, inked by Vince Colletta.

Next Week:

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

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

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Marvel Romance: the Trade Paperback!

Marvel's picked some of the best love comics from the 60s and 70s!

"It Happened at Woodstock," "My Heart Broke in Hollywood," "Love on the Rebound!"

Collects Love Romance #89 and #101-104; My Love #2, #14, #16 and #18-20; Teen-Age Romance #77 and #84, Our Love Story #5; and Patsy Walker #119.

The Love Poems of Len Wein

The late writer Len Wein was best known as the co-creator of the All-New X-Men...

Secret Hearts #148 (1970) art by Gray Morrow

...including Storm, NightCrawler, Colossus, and particularly, Wolverine!

But before he hit the comics equivalent of the motherlode, Len took writing assignments in a variety of genres, including romance!

And, when DC romance titles needed poems on their intro/contents pages, the then-neophyte scribe was eager to try his hand...

Secret Hearts #146 (1970) Art by Jay Scott Pike

Secret Hearts #147 (1970) Art by Jay Scott Pike

Secret Hearts #150 (1970) Art by Gray Morrow

Young Romance #170 (1971) Artist Unknown

This last one is more an intro than a poem.

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

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True Love Comics Tales!

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Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics

ROMANCES OF THE WEST "Cowboy or the Playboy?"

Did she want a man...or a real man?

This "modern" Western (set in the present) has the answer!

This never-reprinted tale from Timely's Romances of the West #1 (1949) was one of Marvel mainstay John Buscema's earliest assignments, and only his second romance tale!

To see other examples of his romance comics work from the 1950s to the 1970s click HERE!

Next Week:

We don't know yet what we'll present, but we can guarantee...

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

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

TENDER LOVE STORIES "Spark of my Heart!"

We end the Summer vacation season as we began...

...with a never-reprinted tale about a guy, a girl, and gearshifts!

Written by May Sterling, penciled by Kurt Schaffenberger, and inked by John Celardo, this tale from Skywald's Tender Love Stories #4 (1971) was the final original story from the short-lived company's longest-running title!

While Schaffenberger and Celardo were both long-time pros who began their careers back in the Golden Age of comics, this is May Sterling's only writing credit!

Schaffenberger, in the 1950s and 60s, was DC's "go to" artist for female characters with long stints on Lois Lane, Supergirl, and Mary Marvel as well as occasional assignments on Wonder Woman and Mighty Isis!

Oddly, he had very few romance comic assignments over his long career...

Is "May Sterling" a pseudonym, or was she a comics neophyte who went on to other things after this one script?

Sadly, we'll never know...

Next Week:

We don't know yet what we'll present, but we can guarantee...

You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales

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Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "I Was a Beach Blanket Barbarian" / TEEN-AGE ROMANCE "Summer Must End"

Five years after Truer than True Romance...

...Marvel did a mini-series based on the same concept...except it was written entirely by men!

Re-written by John Lustig, who had experience doing similar re-writes of Charlton's First Kiss series as Last Kiss.

The original version of this tale was the cover-featured story in Atlas' Teen-Age Romance #84 (1961)...

This was the original splash page...

...but the Marvel Romance Redux appearance wasn't the first reworking of this story!

When the tale was reprinted in Marvel's Our Love Story #9 (1971), it wasn't rewritten...it was redrawn!

"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.
You can read both the earlier versions HERE.

Next Week...

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, But We DO Know...

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

Please Support True Love Comics Tales

Visit Amazon and Order...

Marvel Romance Redux