WARTIME ROMANCES "Make-Believe Marriage"

The 1950s.

When employers could legally-discriminate against you if you weren't married!

Here's a litany of lies and love (and a couple of wildly-improbable coincidences) illustrated by the legendary Matt Baker in St John's WarTime Romances #1, 1951.

Scripted by either Dana Dutch or editor Ruth Roche, this densely-plotted tale rivals the Simon-Kirby Young Romance and Young Love for appeal to both teen and young adult readers!

(In fact, the two demographics were pretty-evenly represented in 1940s-50s romance comics' readership!)

Next Week:

We're Not Sure Yet Exactly What We'll Present!
But...

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

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Love on the Racks

A History of American Romance Comics

SEDUCTION "Second Stringer"

What could be more autumnal than college football?

Perhaps a romance between a girl and two guys...a college football star and a college bookstore employee?

Scripted by Steve Jones and illustrated by Sandy Carruthers, this never-reprinted tale from Malibu's one-shot anthology Seduction (1991) takes a classic romance comics trope and updates it for a more modern sensibility!

You may note the art isn't as "polished" as most of the work we've presented.

During the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, there was a boom in b/w comics, and publishers were desperate for material, so some artists who were not-quite-ready-for-primetime got a once in a lifetime break.

One of them was Sandy Carruthers, who co-created a comic series that would produce a far more famous movie/tv franchise...Men in Black!

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Heart Throbs

Best of DC Romance Comics

SADDLE ROMANCES "Saddles in the Sky!"

Let's return to a romance sub-genre we haven't visited in a while...

...with the added twist that this story from EC's Saddle Romances #9 (1949) takes place in contemporary times!

With cover and interior art by then-still developing illustrator "Ghastly" Graham Ingels, this tale manages to take several well-worn cliches and make them entertaining!

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...
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Agonizing Love

The Golden Age of Romance Comics

Halloween HeartBreak TOMB OF TERROR "Rift of the Maggis" / HORROR TALES "Gift of Horror"

We've presented the classic O Henry story a couple of times...

...but this version from Harvey's Tomb of Terror #11 (1953) ain't the heartwarming Christmastime tale!

Written and illustrated by the highly-underrated Howard Nostrand,  it has a kool EC Comics vibe thanks to artist Howard's stylistic similarity to Jack Davis!

Due to the restrictions of the Comics Code, the story couldn't be reprinted without partially-rewriting and totally-redrawing it!

So, Eerie Publications  handed it to artist Oscar Fraga with the script reused...verbatim in Horror Tales V7N1 (1975)!

Note: b/w magazines weren't covered by the Comics Code, so Oscar could have gone even gorier...

Happy Halloween!

Weird Halloween Romances LOST WORLDS "Worlds Apart"

"Submitted for your approval, a romantic triangle with unequal sides..."

"...because one point of this scalene triangle is firmly entrenched...in the Twilight Zone!"

(It works if you read it in a Rod Serling-esque voice.)

Cue Twilight Zone theme music...

While the writer for this story from Standard's sci-fi anthology title Lost Worlds #5 (1952) is unknown, the art is by Nick Cardy, who began his career in the Golden Age and kept working up until his passing in 2013!

.Next week:

Our Final Tale of ♥True Love♥...with a Horrifying Halloween Twist!

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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Gothic Tales of Haunted Love