Laugh at Love TRUER THAN TRUE ROMANCE "What Are You Saying?!" & YOUNG ROMANCE "Heartbreak"

Yep, we're taking a humorous look at romance during the month of Valentine's Day!

And we're starting it off with another of Jeannie Martinet's rewrites of an otherwise never-reprinted DC Silver Age tale!

Now that you've seen how this story was reconceived for the cynical 2000s in Watson-Guptill's Truer Than True Romance (2001), let's see what the unknown original writer of this Jack Sparling-penciled and Vince Colletta-inked tale from DC's Young Romance #161 (1969) had in mind...

Is that adorable, or what???

Note: I really didn't believe there were any Vietnam War romance comic stories until I found this one!

Next Week:

Valentine's Day!!!

 And We Guarantee That...

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

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Truer Than True Romance

John Buscema Tales "Prescription for Happiness" & "S.O.S. for Love"

Though most of John Busecema's romance comics stories were one-shots...

...along with one two-parter (as shown HERE and HERE), he did do two series of 2-3 page shorts!

Entitled "Prescription for Happiness" and "S.O.S. for Love", the shorts featured distressed lovers asking a counselor for advice, much like the licensed (and unlicensed) advisors we presented last year in our Advice d'Amour tales!
Appearing in Orbit's Love Diary and Love Journal comics, the strips initially-featured rotating artists, but once Buscema took over, he stayed on both of them for the remainder of their runs, doing almost a dozen tales of woe!

Yes, the title on this one is "S.O.S. Love in Distress".

To be fair, this was the final strip in the final issue of Love Journal, so the editor can be forgiven for letting the incorrect header slip by!
After all, what were they going to do...fire him?
In a couple of cases, as Orbit was winding down operations just before cancellation, they took an "S.O.S. for Love" strip from the previous year like this one...

...and re-ran it as "Prescription for Happiness", just changing the logo and re-naming the counselor...without even redrawing him to match the other strip's host!

I guess they thought "PfH's" Ray Mann and "S.O.S.'s" Mark Ford were interchangeable!

Next Week...

What Will February Bring?

At This Point, We Haven't Decided Yet!

But We Can Assure You...

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

And now a Word from Our Sponsor...

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Big John Buscema

Comics and Drawings

A combination of complete checklist of Buscema's comic and magazine work and a heavily-illustrated catalog of a 2009 Italian museum exhibition of his work!

John Buscema Tales OUR LOVE STORY "Boy Who Can't be Mine!"

Though Marvel continued publishing romance comics until 1976...

...they stopped running new material in 1973.

This tale from Our Love Story #16 (1972) was John Buscema's final romance comic assignment.

Written by Stan Lee and inked by Joe Sinnott (who inked more issues of Fantastic Four than anybody else in history, including almost all of Buscema's stories), the story demonstrates Buscema's almost effortless mastery of graphic storytelling, going from plot point to plot point with a variety of angles and perspectives that a TV or movie cinematographer would be proud of!

Next Week...

Well, We Ran a Tale Each from the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s

What Will We Close Out the Month With?

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...

Big John Buscema

Comics and Drawings

A combination of complete checklist of Buscema's comic and magazine work and a heavily-illustrated catalog of a 2009 Italian museum exhibition of his work!

John Buscema Tales OUR LOVE STORY "Only One Can Win!"

Though Don Heck is better-remembered by today's fans as a penciler...

...he actually was a rather elegant (though slow) inker, as his rendering of John Buscema's pencils on this Stan Lee-scripted torrid tale from Marvel's Our Love Story #3 (1969) amply-demonstrates!

Because, like John Buscema, he was such a fast penciler, both Marvel and DC used Heck in that capacity, only rarely letting him ink even his own work!
To be fair, Buscema was a faster inker...and John eventually talked Marvel's editors into letting him ocasionally ink his own rough layouts (not full pencils).

Next Week, John Buscema's final romance comic tale, from 1972!

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...

Big John Buscema

Comics and Drawings

A combination of complete checklist of Buscema's comic and magazine work and a heavily-illustrated catalog of a 2009 Italian museum exhibition of his work!

John Buscema Tales LOVE DIARY "Not Meant for Love"

Once he was no longer constrained by Atlas Comics' tight graphic formatting...

...artist John Buscema was able to indulge his storytelling instincts, making any tale he illustrated, even one as well-written as this, better!

Written by Dorothy Woolfolk, who later became the "womens' comics" editor at DC (including romance and superheroine titles), this never-reprinted story from Orbit's Love Diary #13 (1951) is a classic example of what a romance comic was in the genre's prime!

Next Week, a 1960s story from John Buscema!

Witness his artistic evolution decade by decade!

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...

Big John Buscema

Comics and Drawings
A combination of complete checklist of Buscema's comic and magazine work and a heavily-illustrated catalog of a 2009 Italian museum exhibition of his work!