PICTORIAL ROMANCES "Fast Company"

Though this romance story doesn't have any Black characters (like our Soul Love or Negro Romances entries)...

..it certainly qualifies as a Black History Month post, not because of who's in it, but because of who did it!!

Though the writer of this tale from St John's Pictorial Romances #7 (1951) is unknown, the penciler is Matt Baker with long-time collaborator Ray Osrin inking the story.

Matt Baker was one of the few Black comic book artists of the Golden and Silver Ages, and was easily the most prolific of them!
Though known for his "good girl" art, including the famous (and infamous) Phantom Girl stories, he handled every genre with ease, including horror, war, sci-fi, and romance!

Sadly, though, few of his stories featured Black characters...who were rare in comics until the mid-1960s!

You can read a short, but complete bio HERE!

Next Week:

We Don't Yet Know What We'll Present, But We Guarantee that...

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...

Matt Baker

Art of Glamour

FAST WILLIE JACKSON "Frankie in 'What -- Me Worry' "

"Sadie Hawkins Dances" were popular in the pre-Women's Lib days...

...when the concept of girls asking boys out was still considered a novelty!

Illustrated by Gus Lemoine, the script for this never-reprinted tale from Fitzgerald's Fast Willie Jackson #6 (1977) was either by him or publisher/editor Bertram Fitzgerald.

Previously, Gus pencilled shorts and a couple of covers at Archie Comics from 1967 to the mid-1970s.

The Fast Willie books were his final credited work.

(There is a theory that Gus was really Henry Scarpelli, a versatile humor artist who did work for Archie as well as Archie-clone books for both Marvel and DC.

The period when "Gus" was active at Archie was before Scarpelli's credited work appeared there and disappeared after Scarpelli began receiving credit for his work on Archie titles.

So...it's like "Gee, Clark, we never see you when Superman's around! Why's that?"

Lois Lane couldn't prove it, either.

For the record, noted art identifier Martin O'Hearn believes Lemoine and Scarpelli are not the same person.)

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...

Visit the

Fast Willie Jackson

Comic Collectibles Store

featuring the cover art from the first, never-reprinted issue!

YOUNG ROMANCE "Without a Doubt"

A never-reprinted one-pager from DC's Young Romance #203 (1975)...

...writer and artist unknown.

The kool thing is that it presents a universal concept in visual form that just happens to feature Black characters.

In fact, odds are the artist(s) made the choice for reasons only he/she/they will ever know...💖

Happy Valentine's Day!

NEGRO ROMANCE "Too Late for Love"

Boy meets girl...

...girl's best friend marries boy!

Girl falls for new boy, but then best friend and hubby re-enter girl's life and...

Presuming Artie does take her back and they marry, how are they going to get custody of the kid?

I suspect writer Roy Ald didn't really think the problem through in this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Negro Romance #1(1950)!
The illustrator who hewed closely to the Fawcett "house style" is unknown.

Thanks to Kracalactaka for the scans.

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...

Visit our

Negro Romance
Comic Collectibles Store

featuring the cover art from all four HTF issues
on kool kollectibles!

SOUL LOVE "Dedicated Nurse"

At long last, we present the final story...

...from Jack (King) Kirby's Soul Love!

Note...it's somewhat "politically incorrect"...but not for the reason you might think!

(Hey, look!

A "Kirby Quote"!)

You'll note pages 5 and 6 aren't as "clean" as the other pages, which are scanned from the actual original art!

They're scanned from photocopies, which are the only versions I could acquire, but they're legible enough to "fill out" the tale!
(Oh, man!
More "Kirby Quotes"!)

Written/penciled/edited by Jack Kirby and inked by Vince Colletta, the story takes the typical attitude of the period about overweight women, though Aleda's not actually obese.

(In fact, I was involved with a woman who had a similar body type, which I found extremely-appealing!)

You can read other Soul Love tales we've presented HERE.
Soul Love would have been the second romance comic oriented to a Black audience.

The first was the four-issue 1950s series Negro Romances, which we covered HERE.

Thanks to Kracalactaka for the scans.

Next Week:

We don't know what we'll present..yet,

but we can guarantee that...

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...

Dingbat Love

(covering Jack Kirby's unique and unpublished projects, including Soul Love and True-Life Divorce!)