Laugh at Love FLIP! "For the Love of Mike"

Our final "Laugh at Love" entry was created for one of the many MAD comic book clones of the 1950s!

But, it was illustrated by an artist who was noted for his serious romance comic stories!

Writer Nat Barnett never wrote a romance comic tale.

His two-dozen or so comic book scripts ranged from humor (including this story from Harvey's Flip! #1 [1954]) to horror to war, but absolutely no love comics!
Artist Bob Powell was another matter, as anybody who has perused this blog can tell you!
Starting with "I Joined a Teen-Age Sex Club!" he's one of the biggest comic creatives featured here!
As a bonus for our finale of fun, here's the original art for this story, thanks to the ever-amazing Kraktactaka!

Next Week:

We're devoting all of March to one graphic novel of True Love based on a very popular (and controversial) prose series!

And, as Always, 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 Buy...

Sincerest Form of Parody

Paid Link

Laugh at Love MARVEL ROMANCE REDUX "Love Me, Love My Clones!" / MY LOVE "Jilted!"

It's possible to interpret "symbolic" splash panels literally...

...as RE-writer Paul Di Fillipo does in this story...which is not originally by writer Jean Thomas, penciler Gene Colan, and inker Bill Everett as these credits list!

Before we proceed to the original tale, we'd like to point out that the art here is so iconically "romance comic", that a panel from page 3 was used for the cover of the trade paperback reprint Marvel Romance (2006)...

So, who did the art?

All will be revealed at the end...

For the record, the art is by penciler Don Heck and inker John Romita Sr!

The writer is unknown, but suspected to be Stan Lee!

I did a little research on-line at the Grand Comics Database (an amazing resource) and discovered...
1) There are a couple of dozen romance comics tales spread over several different publishers titled "Jilted" or "Jilted!" (Note the exclamation point!)
2) None of the stories with that title had credits for Jean Thomas. Gene Colan, or Bill Everett!
3) The Marvel Romance Redux reworking's credits list John Romita as penciler and Jim Mooney as inker...with question marks, and states..."Art is credited to Gene Colan, pencils, and Bill Everett, inks, but this is clearly in error."
Sloppy reference work on Marvel Romance Redux by the editor and/or assistant editor, eh?

Next Week:

Our Final Humorous Romance Story (for now) and We Guarantee That, Even Though It Is Funny...

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...

Marvel Romance Redux

Laugh at Love on Valentine's Day MARGIE COMICS "Elusive Valentine!"

Here's a never-reprinted Valentine's Day treat...

...from almost 80 years ago years ago, featuring a teen humor character from the company that later became Marvel Comics!

Until the mid 1970s when Archie Comics became the sole "teen humor" publisher, every company had several titles with wacky teenage protagonists.
Margie, created/written/illustrated by Morris Weiss was typical of the genre...

• Irresponsible, impulsive teen (of either gender)!
• Usually-clueless object of affection!
• Constantly-irritated parents!
• An annoying younger sibling (usually of the opposite gender to the protagonist)!
• Various eccentric friends!

Initially a backup strip that floated to whatever humor comic needed a 5-6 page filler, she finally got her own title by taking over Timely's Comedy Comics in 1946 as of #35 and holding on to it until #50 in 1950, when the book became Reno Browne: Hollywood's Greatest Cowgirl.
Margie went back to being a floating backup strip for another year before disappearing completely, never to be seen again!
This particular tale (one of the few comic tales I could find with "Valentine's Day" in the title that didn't deal with the famous gang-war massacre!) is from Timely's Margie Comics #37 (1946).

Happy Valentine's Day!

Laugh at Love TRUER THAN TRUE ROMANCE "What Are You Saying?!" & YOUNG ROMANCE "Heartbreak"

Yep, we're taking a humorous look at romance during the month of Valentine's Day!

And we're starting it off with another of Jeannie Martinet's rewrites of an otherwise never-reprinted DC Silver Age tale!

Now that you've seen how this story was reconceived for the cynical 2000s in Watson-Guptill's Truer Than True Romance (2001), let's see what the unknown original writer of this Jack Sparling-penciled and Vince Colletta-inked tale from DC's Young Romance #161 (1969) had in mind...

Is that adorable, or what???

Note: I really didn't believe there were any Vietnam War romance comic stories until I found this one!

Next Week:

Valentine's Day!!!

 And 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...

Truer Than True Romance

John Buscema Tales "Prescription for Happiness" & "S.O.S. for Love"

Though most of John Busecema's romance comics stories were one-shots...

...along with one two-parter (as shown HERE and HERE), he did do two series of 2-3 page shorts!

Entitled "Prescription for Happiness" and "S.O.S. for Love", the shorts featured distressed lovers asking a counselor for advice, much like the licensed (and unlicensed) advisors we presented last year in our Advice d'Amour tales!
Appearing in Orbit's Love Diary and Love Journal comics, the strips initially-featured rotating artists, but once Buscema took over, he stayed on both of them for the remainder of their runs, doing almost a dozen tales of woe!

Yes, the title on this one is "S.O.S. Love in Distress".

To be fair, this was the final strip in the final issue of Love Journal, so the editor can be forgiven for letting the incorrect header slip by!
After all, what were they going to do...fire him?
In a couple of cases, as Orbit was winding down operations just before cancellation, they took an "S.O.S. for Love" strip from the previous year like this one...

...and re-ran it as "Prescription for Happiness", just changing the logo and re-naming the counselor...without even redrawing him to match the other strip's host!

I guess they thought "PfH's" Ray Mann and "S.O.S.'s" Mark Ford were interchangeable!

Next Week...

What Will February Bring?

At This Point, We Haven't Decided Yet!

But We Can Assure You...

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 Buy...

Big John Buscema

Comics and Drawings

A combination of complete checklist of Buscema's comic and magazine work and a heavily-illustrated catalog of a 2009 Italian museum exhibition of his work!