Wednesday, November 27, 2019

OUR LOVE STORY "My Heart Broke in Hollywood!"

Hollywood's a town of dreams, both fulfilled and unfulfilled.
Which one is the case here?
This tale from 1970's Our Love Story #5 was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jim Steranko.
With less than 100 comic stories to his credit, Steranko was still one of the most influential comic illustrators of the 1960s-70s, bringing a deliberately-cinematic storytelling style to the page.
Next Week:
We're Not Exactly Sure Yet What We'll Present!
But...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!

And now a word from out sponsor..
Marvel's picked some of the best love comics from the 60s and 70s...including "My Heart Broke in Hollywood,"
Collects Love Romance #89 and #101-104; My Love #2, #14, #16 and #18-20; Teen-Age Romance #77 and #84, Our Love Story #5; and Patsy Walker #119.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

WARTIME ROMANCES "Make-Believe Marriage"

The 1950s.
When employers could legally-discriminate against you if you weren't married!
Here's a litany of lies and love (and a couple of wildly-improbable coincidences) illustrated by the legendary Matt Baker in St John's WarTime Romances #1, 1951.
Scripted by either Dana Dutch or editor Ruth Roche, this densely-plotted tale rivals the Simon-Kirby Young Romance and Young Love for appeal to both teen and young adult readers!
(In fact, the two demographics were pretty-evenly represented in 1940s-50s romance comics' readership!)
Next Week:
We're Not Sure Yet Exactly What We'll Present!
But...
You'll Cry Your Eyes Out if You Miss It!
And now a word from out sponsor..
Please Support True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Order...

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!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Support
True Love Comics Tales!
Visit Amazon and Order...

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!
And now a word from our sponsor...
Please Support True Love Comics Tales
Visit Amazon and Order...
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!