Laugh at Love! TRUER THAN TRUE ROMANCE "I Hate My Hair!" / FALLING IN LOVE "Stolen Dreams!"

Over the past two weeks, we presented stories created in the early 1970s...the end of romance comics!

For the remaining two entries, we're running stories created during the 1950s-60s, the Silver Age of Comics!

Ironically, writer Jeanne Martinet would be considered "politically-incorrect" today for her characterization of androgenous appearance and the resulting gender confusion!

Hardly the sort of thing penciler Tony Abruzzo, inker Bernard Sachs, and an unknown writer had in mind when they created the story for DC's Falling In Love #4 (1956).

Interestingly, when this story was reprinted over a decade later in DC's Falling in Love #99 (1968), only the women's hairstyles were "updated", with the protaganist's hair modified to the then-trendy "page boy" style!

Neither the mens' hair nor anybody's fashions were updated!

(They usually gave the men sideburns and/or longer hair to make them look "mod"!)

But they felt they had to change her hair!

Go figure...

Next Week:

The Final Serious Romance Story Rewritten for Laughs and We Guarantee That...

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

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Truer Than True Romance

Laugh at Love! MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "Girl with Bogart's Brain!" / MY LOVE "As Time Goes By!"

Several years after DC did Truer than True Romance...

...Marvel did a similar project...but with a couple of differences...

Rewritten by John Lustig, already known for a similar series of re-written comics called Last Kiss, this Gene Colan penciled, Dick Giordano inked tale originally appeared in Marvel's My Love V2N16 (1972), originally scripted by Gary Freidrich during a period when Bogie-mania was sweeping the country due to interest in the actor as a result of Woody Allen's then-current movie Play It Again, Sam, where the ghost of Humphrey Bogart appears to Allen's nebbishy neurotic character to offer advice about romance.

With the Bogie revival in full swing in art/revival theatres (there were no DVD/BluRays, streaming services or even VHS tapes or Turner Classic Movies in 1971), someone at Marvel decided it would make a kool romance tale...

BTW, we mentioned there were a couple of differences between Marvel Romance Redux and Truer Than True Romance...
1) This project was limited to stories just reprinted that same year in the trade paperback Marvel Romance (2006)...

...perhaps because the raw source material (photostats and film negatives) was readily-available.

And it explains the title; Marvel Romance Redux!
2) The rewrites were all done by male writers who likely weren't actual fans of the original stories (though they were fans of the artists' work...in other genres)!

Next Week:

Another Serious Romance Story Rewritten for Laughs and We Guarantee That...

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...

Marvel Romance Redux

Laugh at Love! TRUER THAN TRUE ROMANCE "Job from Hell!" / YOUNG LOVE "Love a la Carte"

Take an old romance comics story...

...and totally-rewrite it...without altering the artwork!

It's actually quite funny!

Author Jeanne Martinet (who did the rewriting) received DC Comics' cooperation with full access to their art archives so the original printing film could be reused to maintain an authentic retro comic book "look" in her "Classic Love Comics Retold!" anthology Truer than True Romance (2001)!
This particular piece was from DC's Young Love #85 (1971), and the original storyline by scripter Jack Oleck was vastly different!

The art was by Art Saff, who started drawing comics featuring beautiful women during the Golden Age, continued in the Silver Age, and kept going into the Bronze Age, as demonstrated HERE!

Next Week:

Another Serious Romance Story Rewritten for Laughs and We Guarantee That...

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...

Truer Than True Romance

She's NOT Barbie! She's BUNNY!

 Harvey's female teen character, Bunny, was a doll...literally!

1n 1966, a toy company wanted to launch a line of Barbie-type dolls, with the added kick of a comic book tie-in to boost public awareness!
Much like the way the 1980s GI Joe comic series was co-conceived by Hasbro and Marvel, Harvey's writers and artists worked with the toy company's staff on character development and storylines for the comic and toys.
Like most Harvey characters, Bunny had an ongoing obsession--in this case with teen fads and trends...clothing, dances, hairstyles, etc!
Presumably, this was to encourage doll buyers to pick up the newest clothing and accessories the manufacturer could produce after seeing them in the comic!
The proposed Bunny line also had what would have been the first African-American fashion doll character, her best friend Marcy, beating out Barbie's "Colored" Francie by a year!
Marcy was a major part of the comic series, including performing in an all-Black band called SOULar System which had it's own backup strip!
However, before a single doll could roll out of the factory, the toy company collapsed!
The Harvey family, deciding not to let the already-written and drawn pages go to waste, decided to publish the comic anyway.
It sold well enough to keep going for twenty 68-page issues from 1966 to 1971 and produce a one-shot spin-off, Harvey Pop Hits: Rock Happening, featuring the various musical groups introduced in the series!

Here's Bunny's never-reprinted "origin" tale from Harvey's Bunny #1 (1966).

Written by Warren Harvey (yes, one of the Harvey family who owned Harvey Comics), illustrated by Hy Eisman.

We previously ran a later Bunny story HERE, which, with its' thinly-masked drug references, was obviously not one of the original batch of pages done to tie-in with the proposed doll!

Next Month

We're going to spend August Having

FUN!

FUN!

FUN!

But not quite the way you think!

Be Here Next Week to Find Out!

And, Remember, 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 Buy...

Archie's Rivals in Teen Comics

1940s-1970s

An Illustrated History