As we enter February, the “commercially” sanctioned month of love I thought it would be as good a time as any to visit possibly the most maligned of all comic book genres – the romance comic. Although these comics were of little (if any) interest to most boys back in the day, the fact was that romance comics were huge with thousands of titles published between 1947 and 1977, despite this and seeing these comics in the spinner racks it never crossed my mind to even peek inside a romance comic let alone buy one. Well, that was up until around 2010 when I heard that these titles included art by many of comic’s greatest artists including John Romita Senior, John and Sal Buscema, Jim Steranko and Alex Toth. Arguably the most sought after of these titles from the 1970s period is the above issue of “Our Love Story” (#5 - June 1970 - cover by John Romita) which featured Jim Steranko’s only romance strip and art by John Buscema, Gene Colan and John Romita.
Above the excellent splash page to the first story in this issue by Stan Lee - "But he's not the boy for me!" by John Buscema and Frank Giacoia.
The second Stan Lee story in this issue is "But he's the boy I love!" with art by Gene Colan and John Romita.
Rounding of this issue is the excellently illustrated strip “My Heart broke in Hollywood!" by Jim Steranko.
Although I only have a handful of romance comics in my collection it seems that the letters pages did not wax lyrical over the content of the actual strips and the heroes latest battles, instead they focused on the more real life issues of the trials and tribulations of dating and young love.
My only other issue of a Marvel romance comic is the above #4 of "Our Love Story" (cover by John Romita from April 1970) with some great art by Gene Colan,Sal Buscema,Frank Giociao and Don Heck.
My third and only other romance comic is of DC's popular "Young Love" #73 (below) from April 1969. Although the art in this issue is not as impressive as the two Marvel titles above, it does feature an excellent story illustrated by the great Alex Toth.
Around the late 1970's romance comics seemed to vanish from the spinner racks just like the Western, humour and war comics that thrived at this time. While many romance comics seemed on the face of it to be drab soap opera dramas, I'm sure many (mostly) girls enjoyed them as pure escapism, perhaps that’s why they "disappeared" at a time when comics were becoming darker and had to be taken "seriously". Personally, as I read these comics (especially the Marvel issues) you could see the soap opera romance elements of these wonderfully fun tales being played out in titles like Spider-Man , Daredevil and many others superhero comics.
I was probably about seven years old when I walked into my local newsagents in Cambuslang (near Glasgow) with my pocket money firmly he...
Following on from my last post featuring some of my favourite Marvel comic book covers from 1973, I thought I would show some of DC's ...
Nearly a half-century on I still consider 1973 to be the year that cemented my destiny in becoming a lifetime comic book fan. It was a yea...
I was just joining the Merry Marvel Marching Society when they broke out the genre comics Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness which I gathered with glee. Because of the great artwork I also picked up early issues of My Love and Our Love Story. My sister had some Charlton love comics and when she lost interest in comics, I quietly folded them into my burgeoning collection. She never missed to my knowledge.
ReplyDeleteI remember the spinner racks in my home town were full of Charlton romance comics. Thats good though that you managed to obtain your sisters comics.
DeleteA very interesting blog, Paul. I have managed to pick up a very few of the DC romance comics from the early seventies, but they are few and far between usually. I really like the look of both that Alex Toth story and the Steranko one. Pure class artwork. Fantastic composition and attention to detail and use of white space.
ReplyDeleteIts quite rare to see back issues of those classic 1960s/1970s romance comics, and when you do see them (in the Glasgow area at least ) they can be pricey. I might show the full Steranko strip here - it is indeed class.
DeleteThere's obviously something wrong with me because I actually quite fancy some of the burds in these pages. The art looks great and would actually attract a lot of readers who weren't normally into romance mags, I imagine. I'd certainly read them if they were available in a collected edition. More GGA please, McS.
ReplyDeleteI think there is a collected edition of DC romance comics, but I don't think Marvel have collected there strips. Some more GGA to come.
ReplyDeleteIn the UK there were magazines like Jackie aimed at teenage girls which contained romance photo-strips rather than drawn US-style romance strips (I know because my sister read Jackie for a while).
ReplyDeleteI remember Jackie mag Colin it was very popular in the 1970s . I used to read a friend's sisters copy from time to time especially the problems page, in a futile effort to try to " understand" girls. There were also weekly and monthly UK romance comics like "Serenade", "Valentine" and Love story picture Library etc
ReplyDeleteSadly, I totally failed to notice the existence of American romance comics when I was a kid. I don't know if they didn't sell them round my way or if my eyes just glazed over when I was confronted by them. Regardless, they were clearly objects of beauty.
ReplyDeleteI did read a few British girls' comics, back then because my sister used to get them. "Bunty" and "Jackie" were the ones I remember most strongly, with liberal use always being made of the Cinderella formula.
I think most of us lads missed these romance comic books back in the day Steve. I have only ever read around 15 US and UK girls comics in my time.
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