ACTUAL ROMANCES "I Refused to Share My Husband's Love!"

Incest (potential or otherwise) is a near-taboo subject on soap operas today...

...but the then-brand new genre of romance comics took several cracks at it back in the 1940s.

Note: this never-reprinted tale from Timely Comics' Actual Romances #1 (1949) makes the brother and sister step-siblings, just to be safe.

Though the Grand Comics Database lists Mike Sekowsky as the artist, it looks a lot like a combination of Werner Roth and Bill Everett, both of whom were working for Timely.

The writer is unknown.

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

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

(Oh, you've heard that, eh?)

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PEP COMICS "Enter: Veronica!"

Though Betty Cooper had a four-issue head start on Veronica Lodge...

Note: Hedy Lamarr was THE blonde movie bombshell of the era.

...when Ronnie hit town in MLJ's Pep Comics #26, the battle was on!

Note: A "sub-deb" (sub-debutante) was a rich or well-bred young woman who had not yet come out into high society.

Note: Comedian Jack Benny was famous for being incredibly cheap.

The gang seems to have aged several years to 16-17 from their 12-14 year old versions only four issues earlier.

If so, did Betty have Archie all to herself for a couple of years instead of a couple of issues?

Either way, the romantic triangle between Archie, Betty, and Veronica would become perhaps the longest ongoing three-way in popular culture.

Even though the Life with Archie comic offered simultaneous alternate future universe plotlines featuring Archie married to both Betty and Ronnie, the current story featuring his demise seems to take place in a merged reality where we don't know who his final words are spoken to...

Who do you think it is?

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

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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True Love Comics Tales™

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PEP COMICS "Archie: the Way It Began"

With the death* of comics icon Archie Andrews making headlines...

...we're going to look back at how it all began 75 years ago, with the very first appearance of Archie, Jughead, and Betty...

Did writer Vic Bloom and artist Bob Montana know that their creation would not only take over the comic it premiered in (Pep Comics), but eventually the entire comic company which began as MLJ Magazines in 1939 and was renamed Archie Comics in 1946?
Note the gang are presented as being around 12-14 years old instead of the 16-18 range we're familiar with.

And, with Betty shown as moving into Riverdale in this story from Pep Comics #22, you may ask "Where's Veronica?"

Next week:
 
Enter: Veronica!

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

*The Life with Archie series is actually a "What If?" or "Imaginary Story" series about what happens when Archie marries the various girls he's been involved with, and how their adult lives evolve.

So the "real" Archie is still very much alive and appearing in Archie Comics!

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SOUL LOVE "Diary of the Disappointed Doll"

We presented one story from this never-published 1970s title last year...

...and here's another never-seen story,  also scanned and presented from the original art!

Written and penciled by Jack Kirby, inked by Tony DeZuniga.
Since the magazine was b/w, the art would be photostatted, then gray wash tones would be added as shown in this printed page from The ButterFly, a strip about the first Black superheroine (predating Storm of the X-Men) that appeared in the 1971 b/w magazine Hell-Rider.
You can read about her HERE.

Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.

The first was the 1950s series Negro Romance, which we covered HERE.

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GREAT LOVES "Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning"

Ever wonder if writers of romantic fiction were, themselves, happy...

 ...if they actually found True Love, or just wrote about it?

Well, wonder no more!

Illustrated by Jerry Robinson (who co-created both The Joker and Robin the Boy Wonder), this brief tale from Gold Key's Dear Nancy Parker #1 (1963) was the first in a projected series about famous real-life lovers.

Unfortunately, the romance anthology book was cancelled after the second issue...

Next week:

We haven't decided yet what it'll be, but we can guarantee that...

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

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