Wednesday, September 4, 2024

Lost Love MY LOVE "I Was a Girl Who Would Stop at Nothing!"

Our Theme for September is "Lost Love"...
...but it's not about characters who lose their paramours (because that happens all the time), but never-reprinted stories from the Bronze Age such as this cover-featured one from Marvel's My Love #17 (1972) with a kool cover by then up-and-comer Alan Weiss!
Scripted by Stan Lee, penciled by George Tuska and likely-inked (opinions vary) by John Verpoorten.
Speaking of Stan Lee...
Does the unnamed decidedly-young male ingenue of the tale look...familiar?
Stan was, in fact, 50, the year this story was published!
Are we looking at the comic book equivalent of a mid-life crisis?
On a more serious note, in 1968 Marvel revived their long-cancelled romance comics, when they changed distributors and expanded their line from only eight titles a month to over two dozen!
(Before the 1957 implosion, Atlas had numerous romance books, including Western and military love titles, some of which we've run on this blog!)
Almost all Marvel's current creatives (except, ironically, Jack Kirby, who co-created romance comics with Joe Simon) contributed to My Love and Our Love Story, but that wasn't enough to keep them going!
By 1972 they were running new material only in the front of the books with reprints filling the rest.
Interestingly, they were already reprinting earlier (1968-69) stories from Our Love Story and My Love, usually in the other title (My Love stories in Our Love Story, Our Love Story tales in My Love) because using older, 1950s Atlas tales usually required redrawing hairstyles and clothing to bring them "up to date" as we showed HERE).
As a result, almost every story done for the Silver/Bronze Age books has been reprinted at least once...except for four of them, which no one who didn't buy the original books has seen since that era!

But you'll see them here in September!
And You'll Cry Your Eyes Out If You Miss Them!

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Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Super-Love MAN OF STEEL, WOMAN OF KLEENEX

You know you've wondered about it...
Normally, we'd post the rest of this fascinating (and scientifically-accurate) four-page article right here, but this version from Penthouse Comix #5 (1995), while illustrated by 1960s-80s primary Superman artist Curt Swan, has nudity, so you'll have to go to our "brother" RetroBlog...
to read the rest!
It's worth the effort, but don't go there if you're on your office or school computer!
Wait until you get home!
If you're already home...go for it!

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Super-Love LOVE AND CAPES "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Part 1A

We Have Already Seen...

Mild-mannered, slightly-klutzy, glasses-wearing accountant Mark is romantically-involved with bookstore owner Abby. whom he met when he did her financials!
A typical, perhaps even unremarkable, love story...except that Mark is also the multi-powered super-hero known as...The Crusader!
He has just revealed his secret identity to Abby, who after the initial shock wore off, seems to be taking it in stride...until she discovers he was previously-involved with his glamorous, scantily-clad super-teammate...whom he still works with!
It looks like we're off to a good start!

Next Week:
We End This Chapter of Super-Love with the Most Controversial Story about Clark Kent and Lois Lane Ever Published!
(And, It's by a Famous Sci-Fi Author!)
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
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Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Super-Love LOVE AND CAPES "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Part 1

While Young Heroes in Love was a super-soap opera...
...this popular series is a super-sitcom, playing off decades-old concepts from both DC and Marvel...but mostly DC!
And on that light-hearted note, we take our leave until
TOMORROW
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
Created, written and illustrated by Thom (My Little Pony) Zahler, the series has continued, on and off, from 2006 to the present, detailing Mark and Abby's relationship from dating to...well...what dating and getting serious often leads to...no, not divorce!
Think of the culture clashes of Bob ❤︎ Abishola, but with superbeings!
In fact, reading this tale. with all the major superheroing being "off-camera", I wonder if it was meant to be a TV sitcom!
(Note: I hoped to do a link to a DVD or Blu-Ray collection of 
Bob ❤︎ Abishola, but there ain't none!
Why???)
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
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Friday, August 16, 2024

Super-Love BRAVE AND THE BOLD "In the Coils of the CopperHead" Conclusion

When Last We Left our Horny Heroines and Hapless Hero...

Batman's somewhat-silly plan to make the crafty CopperHead believe he was leaving a near-priceless artifact unguarded due to being distracted by Wonder Woman and Batgirl fighting over his affections has backfired spectacularly as both super-heroines are now totally-enamored of the Caped Crusader and the villain has made off with his prize!
I'd like to believe that writer Bob Haney was given the concept by editor Murray Boltanoff, not that Haney himself came up with the plot.
Note: editor Boltanoff was not a "continuity cop".
Many of the characters appearing in his books acted out of character from time to time!
This was artist Bob Brown's first time drawing Batman, obviously impressing artist-turned Editorial Director Carmine Infantino enough to move him over to the Batman and Robin strip in Detective Comics when the Bob Kane Studio's contract ended in early 1968!
BTW, Brown was the illustrator of the Detective Comics story that revamped Batman from campy tv-era Bright Knight back to the original concept of nocturnal Dark Knight as shown HERE!
Brown stayed on the title until he left DC in 1973, going to Marvel, where he ended up on Daredevil and the Black Widow a few months after the tale we told last week was published!
Ironically, Brown also illustrated one part of the two-issue introduction of Marvel's villainous CopperHead during this run, thereby being one of only three artists to create same-named (but not same-powered) villains at both DC and Marvel!

Next Week:
Another Tale of Super-Love from Somewhere in the Multiverse!
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And Now a Word from Our Sponsor
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(which reprints this story...but in b/w)
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