Gone but not forgotten: "What's love got to do with it ?"- Romance comics - Steranko, Romita, Colan

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.

Page Turners: The double page splash page - Buscema, Adams , Steranko, Kirby and others

One of the many things that made US comics so special back in the day was when they featured a double page spread. Below are a selection of some of my favourites to go along with the above classic from John Buscema from "Avengers Annual" #2 (September 1968) sadly I do not own that issue but the above page is taken from the Avengers Epic collection - enjoy:

Above: "Captain America Special Edition" #1 by Jim Steranko - This was originally published in "Captain America" # 113 and reprinted in the 1980's in the excellent two issue "Captain America Special Edition".

Above: "Conan the Barbarian" #16 (July 1972) by Barry Smith

Above: Jack Kirby - Originally published in "Fantastic Four Annual" # 6

Above: "Our Army at War" #253 by Russ Heath.

Above: "Avengers" #93 by Neal Adams - Probably my all time favourite double page spread.

Above: Detective Comics #526 by Don Newton and Alfredo Alcala

Above: "Not Brand Echh" #13 (May 1969)by Marie Severin.

Marvelmania: Posters - Part 2 -Kirby, Trimpe, Romita, Steranko, Purcell

Of all the Marvelmania adverts perhaps the most iconic were the ads for their Superhero posters. These were large 2ft x 3ft posters featuring some of Marvels top characters of the time that were released in two sets. My personal favourite, set B (advert above) featured three classic Jack Kirby posters of the FF, Silver Surfer, and Thor along with the rather strange addition of a Black Knight poster which was credited to artist Howard Purcell.

The Black Knight poster seemed to be a strange addition to this set as the character wasn't particularly popular (and was totally unknown to myself) at the time. However, I do remember thinking it was an excellent poster. Howard Purcell is not an artist I am aware of but his style looks a bit like John Buscema to me.

Set A (advert above) was also pretty impressive and featured the art of Kirby, Sternanko,Romita and Herb Trimpe.

The Hulk poster was pencilled by Kirby and redrawn by (then current) Hulk artist Herb Trimpe.

John Romita's Spider-Man poster was also based on a Kirby original (see below - coloured version of Kirbys original pencils from "The Kirby Collector" magazine) .

Dr Doom by Kirby. At this time Dr Doom had his own strip in Astonsihing Tales and was of course arguably Marvels main bad guy, so a poster was a good choice. This is one of my all time favourite Kirby pieces of comic art.

Set A was rounded of by the above Steranko Captain Americ poster - another belter.

Above: Kirbys origial Spider-Man poster.

Favourite covers: Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. - issue 6 - Jim Steranko

The above issue of "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." issue 6 was published in November 1968 however, it wasn't until 1972 when I first saw this Sternako cover printed in an old US Marvel comic advertising its release. It’s fair to say I was immediately intrigued by the cover art and made it my goal to track down a copy as soon as I could. That task would take me some time!

It wouldn't be until 1983, when Marvel reprinted the Steranko illustrated/written S.H.I.E.L.D. comics in a 2 issues limited series (see covers below) that I eventually obtained a copy of that amazing cover. But like most comic fans I craved a copy of the original comic book and I finally tracked down a reading copy of “Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." issue 6 (for only £4!) in a local book stores closing down sale last week (50 years after first seeing the cover in 1972). Although I was pleased to eventually find this issue I was slightly disappointed to see that the story was illustrated by Frank Springer and not Sternako whose last internal artwork and story appeared in issue 5. In the story itself (plotted by Roy Thomas & written by Archie Goodwin) an asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and only Nick Fury can stop it. However, there are alien forces that will stop at nothing to ensure that the asteriod finds it target, planet Earth!

This issue of S.H.I.E.L.D also featured an advert for "Hulk King Size" issue 1 featuring that stunning Hulk cover by Steranko.

Above, the covers to the 2 issue limited "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D." 1983 series featring Steranko's run on the series. Issue 2 cover taken from Marvel Wiki (I can't find my issue!)

Steranko's cover to "Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D" issue 6 has been usued in many comics including the first issue of Marvel UK's "Future Tense" comic (with awful colouring).

Favourite covers: The Hulk - King Size Special issue 1 - by Jim Steranko

The above cover to the “Hulk King-sized Special” issue 1 is one of the most distinctive and iconic covers in the history of comic books showing a custom designed Hulk logo crumbling under its own immense weight as the Hulk strains with every sinew to keep it in place. The cover drawn by the legendary Jim Steranko in 1968 is a brilliantly designed, coloured and immensely powerful illustration of the Hulk, yet despite this Steranko’s original version wasn’t used due to concerns that the Hulks face looked too “brutal”. As a result an editorial decision was made that Marie Severin would redraw the Hulks face so it would appear less “monstrous” the result is still a great piece of work but perhaps not as striking as Steranko’s original vision.

The comic itself contain the story “The Hulk Battles the Inhumans” written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Marie Severin and Syd Shores and present the Hulks first encounter with the Inhumans. As the Hulk wanders the Alpes he is attacked by Lockjaw who teleports him to the dimension where the evil Inhumans ( Maximus, Aireo, Falcona, Nebul, Leonus, Stallior and Timberious) have been banished (page below taken from Marvel Wiki).

The first version of Steranko's Hulk cover that I actually bought was when it was reprinted as the cover to “Mighty World Of Marvel” issue 129 (March 1975) however, as was the case with the US edition the cover was still not printed exactly as Jim Steranko had originally drawn it. This version certainly featured Steranko’s original Hulk head, but the Hulk was no longer standing on the crumbling words “Battles the Inhumans” instead this was replaced by the wording “Battles the Inheritor” an albeit minor but necessary change as the UK cover was used for the story that appeared in the “Incredible Hulk” issue 149 (the story with the Inhumans having appeared in the Mighty World of Marvel issue 60-61).

Steranko’s original cover art eventually appeared in the second issue of FOOM magazine in 1973 (which he was editing at this time) along with other version of the Hulk by other artists. The cover to FOOM 2 also included a new Steranko "less brutal" Hulk cover.

And of course Steranko drew a more "monsterous" looking Hulk in his excellent run on Captain America, most notably in issue 110.

Until very recently this has been a comic I have coveted since I first saw it advertised in a US Marvel comic when I was about 13 years old (this was after 1968 - I’m not that old). Last week I found a poor quality copy that had a nice clean cover for only £3. Although the actual comic pages were in poor condition (and 2 pages are missing) I was pretty chuffed to eventually get this issue for the classic cover alone.