Wednesday, November 13, 2019

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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Wednesday, November 6, 2019

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!
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Agonizing Love

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

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!

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

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?)

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Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Weird Halloween Romances AGAR-AGAR "Rendezvous with Aquarius"

This isn't a scary tale...
...but it is a wild, surreal tale of inter-species love!
So, enjoy!
♪"This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius...Age of Aquarius..."♫
Oops, sorry, got carried away there for a second.
This psychedelic mini-series had eight installments, each one weirder than the previous.
Agar-Agar "got physical" (in a PG-13 way) with a variety of life-forms including centaurs, super-heroes, and a human or two.
Illustrated in a Peter Max-esque style by Alberto Solsona.
Written by Luis Gasca under the pen-name "Sadko" and published in England as part of Dracula (1971), a 12-issue partworks by New English Library, the first 3 tales made their American debut in Warren Publishing's Dracula TPB which reprinted #1-#6 of the British Dracula's run in 1973.
You'll see the rest of the series, including the five stories that have never been seen by American readers, here in once-a-month posts starting in January, 2020!
It'll be a groovy trip, baby!
Next week:
Another Tale of True Love...with a 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...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales
Visit Amazon and Order...