Welcome back to the Forgotten Library. As always, I’m Nikki Gee. Today’s episode goes a little bit more back to form; I’m inclined to think of a podcast more like a television show, and episode 4, while still entertaining to some, added a different element, like a special guest that isn’t to everyone’s taste or a cross-over episode that no one asked for.
So, today we’re going back to our little four-color friends, Golden Age Comics. In episode 3, I gave a very brief overview of comics in general, so if you’d like to hear more about that you can listen to the first few minutes of that episode, or check the show notes for my sources. Since then I’ve done a little more research into the beginnings of the romance comic specifically. This episode goes a bit long, and I’ve learned my lesson. It will be split into two shows this time!
The romance comic origin story begins with the pulps. These were magazines named for the type of paper on which they were printed, which was much cheaper to print than, say, the “glossies” or “slicks” like Saturday Evening Post, which were printed on much higher-quality paper and could command a slightly higher price.
The pulps began in 1896, but really hit their stride in the 1920s. I won’t go into too much detail about the pulps, as these will probably feature in a future episode, but many titles were long running, some to over 100 issues. One of these was Love Story Magazine, which printed an astronomical 1,158 issues in its 26 year run.
Pulps eventually died out, mainly due to paperback novels, the rise of television, and comic books, which were similar to the thrilling tales of the pulps, but with pictures!! And in color, too!! So, these comics, geared towards teens and young girls, also gave rise to the specific romance genre eventually. But first, there was Archie.
Archie was put out by MLJ Comics, which eventually became Archie Comics publications. Archie is generally recognized as the first teen humor title; while there were others, they weren’t as well-known – or as long-lived. Prior to Archie, there were newspaper strips, such as Freckles and His Friends (1915), and Harold Teen (1919), as well as Andy Hardy movies (MGM, 1937-1946) with Mickey Rooney, and Henry Aldritch movies (Paramount, 1939-1944) and radio program. Harold Teen would also star in an all teen humor comic book called Dell Four Color in 1942.
Archie made his debut in Pep Comics and Jackpot Comics, eventually taking over Pep with exclusive cover rights in December 1944. The first issue under his own name was in Winter 1942, but he shared this issue with some animal humor comics as well, which were popular at the time – such characters as Cubby the Bear, Judge Owl, Squirmy the Worm and Bumbie the Bee-Tective. World War II and post-War paper rationing led to Archie appearing sparingly during 1945-1946 (with 10 issues and 12 issues, respectively).
There were other experiments of “regular teen” comics along the same line, such as Wilbur, also from MLJ; he predated Archie by a few months and got his own comic after starring in Zip Comics, but eventually died out in 1944. Also, Hap Hazard from Ace ran from 1944-1949; this would become Real Love in April 1949, Ace’s first romance title.
The female frontrunner to Archie was Patsy Walker; she made her debut around the same time as Archie, but was put out by Timely, the company that eventually became Marvel. Yes, that Marvel. Miss America was a flying heroine in Marvel Mystery Comics from 1943-1948, and eventually got her own comic book. Patsy Walker debuted in the second issue of Miss America’s own title and became the lead feature after Miss disappeared from her own comic after issue #5. This led to the title evolving from a superhero title into a pre-teen and teen comic. In addition to strips, it had features on fashion, beauty, and so on, as well as lots more advertising than its contemporaries.
Patsy had her own title by 1945. Unlike Archie and other comic book characters, she only ever appeared inside the pages of these four-color beauties – never television, or radio programs. Her comic became very popular. During an upset in the early 1950s which led to many publishing houses, including Timely/Marvel, jettisoning many of their titles, Patsy Walker and Miss America were kept as bi-monthly publications. According to Michelle Nolan, “Nearly 20 percent of Marvel’s comic books in 1958 featured the same two teenage girls.”
Patsy Walker would have five titles over the years: Miss America, Patsy Walker, Patsy and Hedy (featuring Hedy DeVine, Marvel’s answer to Archie’s Veronica), Patsy and Her Pals, and Girl’s Life. These latter two were more limited runs. Girl’s Life was only 6 issues and marketed as Patsy Walker doing the editing.
Patsy Walker and Archie spawned many competitors in the “teen humor” niche. From 1947-1950, Timely/Marvel publisher Martin Goodman had approximately 230 issues devoted to teen humor, stretched over 14 different titles. Some of these were “working girl” comics, such as Millie the Model, Nellie the Nurse, Tessie the Typist, and so on. Some were marketed as “career girl” comics. One of note was Meet Miss Bliss in 1955, which had a four issue run; Meet Miss Bliss was written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Al Hartley and was about an elementary school teacher trying to find love. These issues were during the Comics Code Authority period, so publishers were basically throwing anything at the wall to see what stuck, as it were. Other short-lived Lee-Hartley efforts during this time were: Della Vision (slapstick strips about television), Patty Powers (movie stars), Sherry the Showgirl, and Showgirls.
Titles changed rapidly and yet the numbering would stay the same; this was to get around the post office. Technically, a new title would need a new permit, but by keeping the numbering sequential, the publishers would usually be able to slip it past the PO and keep the costs down. To give an example of how insanely quickly titles and genres could change in one sequence: Four Favorites, a comic about WWII superheroes, ran from issue #1 until issue #32; issue 33 was a one-shot called Penalty; issue 34 was Four Teeners, a humor one-shot; issues 35-40 were Dotty (more teen humor featuring the titular character) to Glamourous Romances starting with issue 41.
As stated in episode 3, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (the duo who created Captain America in 1941), started the romance comics craze with Young Romance in 1947, which was put out by Crestwood Publications. However, that was not their first assay – prior to Young Romance, the two put out My Date, a teen humor comic that lasted four issues, from July 1947 until January 1948. Consider it one more bridge to romance comics. After this, there was no stopping the train. Marvel (still Timely at this point) would counter with My Romance in August 1948. Fox Comics was third with My Life in September 1948, numerically continuing their sexy teen humor title Meet Corliss Archer. Fawcett Publications switched Captain Midnight to Sweethearts in October 1948, and Crestwood (eventually bought out by DC comics in 1963) would publish a sister to Young Romance called Young Love, starting in 1949. After this, pretty much everyone, even the tinier publishers, got into the romance comics in some way, leading to what Michelle Nolan, author of Love on the Racks, calls the Love Glut. This was not sustainable long term, of course, so by the early 1950s, many of these titles would be canceled.
Dr. Wertheim’s Seduction of the Innocent (1954) demonized comics for being too violent and suggestive for young readers, leading to delinquency and other such evils. Some publishers began to self-censor their overly violent or salacious content. The Comics Code Authority began in 1955; there were 41 general standards regarding crime, violent imagery, sexual and suggestive themes, and so on. Some code examples: No profanity, obscenity, or excessive use of slang terms. No references to physical afflictions or deformities. No nudity or indecent exposure, no suggestive postures. Females should be drawn without exaggeration of physical attributes. The sanctity of marriage should be upheld always – no illicit sex, no joking about divorce or seeing it as desirable, and no stimulation of the lower or baser emotions.
Well, that just kills a lot of the fun, doesn’t it? These restrictions did, indeed, lead to much more watered-down fare in Comic Book Land, and some publishing houses folded entirely because of them.
Today’s fare is once again from Ace Magazines. I would have done these in chronological order, but as you can tell from this brief synopsis, that proves way too complicated, so alphabetical for now unless I can find a different way to do this. Ace Magazines also went by the names Ace Periodicals, Ace Comics, and Periodical House. They were one of the first American paperback lines and got their start in pulps. As noted earlier, Hap Hazard was their teen character answer to Archie until 1949 with Real Love, Ace’s first romance title; at this time, Ace dumped most of its pulps for comics, then in the mid-1950s, gave up the comics game entirely in favor of paperbacks, which were becoming more profitable for them.
Ace would publish a total of 279 issues, across 12 different titles; one of these was a hybrid from their original teen comic, Dotty, which then became Glamourous Romances. This, along with Love at First Sight, Love Experiences, and Real Love, were the publishing house’s longest-running series.
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All Romances ran six issues from August 1949-August 1950. Number 5 is not available on any of the comics websites I have checked, so let’s see what we can dig up in the 5 extant copies.
Right on the inside cover is a full-sized house advert for all of Ace’s romance comics, billing them as “Exciting! Fascinating! Different!” Every cover has an embracing couple on them, which, yeah, romance mag, but is it really different, then?
Our first story is “I couldn’t go back to him.” No, I just couldn’t! We open with a blond woman and a dark-haired dude with a pipe; he has his arm around her and they’re standing at a white picket fence with a cute ranch-style home in the background. The text intro tells us that the woman had gone to visit her old school friend, Gloria, and met Michael. Of course, she wasn’t expecting anything at all, at all, but they had a whirlwind courtship and now they are engaged. Michael bought them this cute little house and it’s all furnished and ready for them and their love, aw. Faye sighs happily about the house, and Michael tells her that he’s the envy of all the menfolk in their town because she’s the best-looking woman they’ve ever seen. That seems pretty shallow, and indeed, in the next panel, Faye tells us that Michael is always talking about her looks, and that worried her because it seems that’s all he cares about. Yeah, you don’t have to squint to see that red flag waving there, honey.
He continues waxing poetic about her beauty, and that she needs to go to Los Angeles and get herself a lovely trousseau that will complement her looks. She demurs because she doesn’t want to be apart from him for a couple of days, but he says she’s got to have a lovely wedding gown and be the “most beautiful bride in the whole state of California.” This ain’t a little flag, y’all, it’s a fucking banner.
Before she leaves, she talks to her friend, Gloria, and discovers that Gloria and Michael used to date. But Michael swears he only has eyes for Faye now, because she is so beautiful. You’re a trophy, Faye! Michael can’t wait to mount you on the wall.
Of course, tragedy must strike, or there isn’t a story. On the train, there is a terrible crash, and Faye is flung into a mirror which cuts her face, making her a candidate for plastic surgery.
In the hospital, Dr. Robert asks for a photograph of her so that he can fix her face. Swathed in bandages, Faye says he can do what he likes, for nothing matters anymore! Okay, pig face it is, then!
Faye tells us that she was too ill to care at first, but then realized that if she needed that much plastic surgery, her face must be terribly scarred. What would Michael do? But then she also discovers that there was a mix-up during the wreck and she was reported as dead. She wonders if, since she’s probably ugly now, she should just let him go on thinking that she’s no longer among the living. The doctor breaks in on her thoughts and asks if there isn’t anyone he can contact for her. She has no living relatives, of course, and she doesn’t want anyone to know about her, least of all Michael.
When her bandages finally come off, she cries that she looks horrible. The nurse tries to assuage her upset, saying that the lines on her face will go away as she heals. But she hates her face. She wants Michael, but yet says nothing, because she’s disfigured now and she knows that he won’t want her. She is ready to leave the hospital, and Dr. Robert asks if there’s anyone to take care of her and he feels responsible for her. She says that she was a doctor’s receptionist before the accident, and he says, Great, I need a new office assistant, so you could work for me, and you can board with me and my sister. Faye wants to know if he just made this job up to help her out, but he doesn’t really answer that. During this scene, by the way, Faye has on a hooded cloak and her face is in shadow.
Dr. Robert’s sister, Molly, is kind to her from the very beginning. We can see Faye’s face now, and she is still pretty, just a different way (her nose is different, that sort of thing). Faye keeps herself busy, but Molly think it’s not “normal” for Faye to stay in and not date. Don’t think about turning lesbian, Faye; Molly has her eye on you. She also tells us that she has been avoiding mirrors as much as possible.
Finally, the doctor forces her to look at herself in the mirror. She realizes she COULD go back to Michael, and this causes the doctor to sigh and turn away. Faye knows that the doctor is in love with her, but who cares about that? She’s still pretty, so she still could be with Michael. Even though she’s been away for three months . . . and he thinks she’s dead . . .
Faye says her tearful goodbyes to Molly and Dr. Bob and travels back to the little house that might have been hers. Of course, he doesn’t recognize her when he comes to the door – duh, you had plastic surgery, remember? What’s worse is that she hears Gloria’s voice inside the house, saying that the person at the door is probably the society reporter she invited from the paper.
Michael invites her in and tells her that she’s very beautiful. Faye realizes she must reveal herself, and indeed, Michael thought that she was dead. Once he hears the story, he kisses her and Faye waits for the thrills . . . but they’re not there. Gloria’s shocked face is in the doorway in the background, which . . . yeah. She’s supposed to be marrying this guy, and all of a sudden his old girlie comes back and he’s into her again. Sup, Shallow Bastard? Especially when we discover that their wedding day is TOMORROW. Faye tells Michael to go after Gloria, but Michael’s like, “Eh, she’ll get over it. Boy, you rescued me today from marrying THAT uggo, huh? Give us another kiss, baybee!” Faye says, Nope, you were only ever infatuated with me. Gloria is the one for you. The whole time I was away I thought about this house. Michael says, Well, if you marry me, then the house will be ours. Faye says “When I marry, Michael, it will be a man I marry, not a house!” I sure hope so, lady, as I think there are laws about that sort of thing.
He gives her a weird ultimatum: if she leaves, he’ll marry Gloria and never look at another pretty face for the rest of his life. That’s a horrible thing to say about your betrothed. Faye’s like, Boy, bye, I’ll send you a wedding present. She goes back to Dr. Bob’s house, which pisses Molly off, because she figures Faye is coming back to break her brother’s heart. Bitch, you can’t seem to make up your mind, so I completely understand why Molly would be shitty to you.
Dr. Bob comes in just in time, and Faye runs to him and tells him that he’s the one she loves, and he asks her to marry him. She says he made over her heart when he made over her face, and she loves him. For today, that is. I’d watch out for her, Doctor. She seems a bit fickle, JUST LIKE MICHAEL.
The next story is “Sister without scruples.” Sounds kink-ay!
A girl named Fran is our narrator for this one. She met Jeff Gilbert at a charity function three weeks ago, and he’s already told her that he loves her. Whirlwind romance, indeed! These all seem to have that theme – that’s probably why things get so easily screwed up. Anyway, Jeff says that it’s “high time” he met her family. “You know I haven’t any of my own – so yours will have to do for both of us!”
Oh, Jeff, I just love your patronizing tone. Especially from an orphan. And what if you don’t like her family; is that her fault?
Of course, Fran is more worried that Jeff will like them a little TOO much, especially her stepsister, Rita. Rita takes all of Fran’s men away from her, woe. She realizes that she can’t stall Jeff any longer, so she invites him to Sunday dinner.
At home, Fran confronts Rita and warns her to keep her mitts off this one. Rita’s response is that she can’t help it that they always fall for her, and what does Fran want her to do, dress like a hag? Rita’s mother says that “if a man isn’t willing to go, no other girl can get him away,” and that Rita is just uncovering their fickle natures early on, and isn’t it better to know now rather than later?
A man can’t be taken by another if he isn’t willing to go. I didn’t mention it in the previous story, but Faye pretty much says the EXACT SAME THING before the train crashes and she flies into the mirror. Yes, no other girl can take him away. If said girl keeps putting herself in that man’s way, however, with the intent of making his impossibly tiny waist-high head turn towards her, it’s also her fault. I love how Rita’s mom makes her out to be a hero to womankind of a sort. Yes, Rita, show these men for the scoundrels they are, with your raven tresses and teeny waist!
In the next panel, Fran tells us that Rita lied to the last two guys, telling them that Fran was a “two-timer” and other things, when she was only working late. Of course, her stepmother defends her real daughter, and her father just wants to read his damned paper, damn it.
Fran lays awake and worries all night. The next day, Jeff comes over for dinner and Fran introduces him to her family. Rita is posing sexily as she says that she needs to do some charity work, too, because Fran meets SO MANY charming men that way . . . that she likes to steal. Since we’re all about the shallowness in these stories, please indulge my skin-deep comment for a mo’. Both women are in this panel. Fran has her hair up and is wearing a yellow dress that kind of looks frumpy. Stepsis is in a red dress with a scoop-neck and her hair loose. So, you know that your bitch of a stepsister is going to try to grab your man away from you. You know she has that seductive look about her and wears her hair down, how scandalous! Your solution is to dress in a shirtwaist with frilly pockets? Yeeeah, she is looking pretty smoking by comparison. And bearing her shoulders.
Rita makes some insinuations about Fran, that she has SO many suitors, that sort of thing. Later, Jeff takes a walk outside with Fran and he floats the idea that Rita is a bit outspoken. Fran says that’s not quite the word for it. Then he says that Rita is very pretty, and Fran looks away, thinking, he’s a goner. To add further insult, he says that Rita seems to be the one that would be more “sophisticated” rather than Fran, but “appearances can be deceiving, I guess.” Is sophisticated code for “whore?” I think it is. Instead of really defending herself, Fran just says “not just appearances.” Girl, where are your claws? Fight!
Rita’s purrs did not fall on unwilling ears, we learn, as it’s just about a week later, and Jeff is taking Rita out instead of Fran! Hmm, a week seems rather long . . . perhaps his periscope is not up to snuff. He needs to talk to Dr. Howe! Rita is dancing with Jeff and makes further insinuations about her stepsister being not all she seems, and he’s like, “Don’t talk about Fran, let’s talk about US.” You seem to have fallen out of love rather quickly, Jeff, and without a word to your original girlfriend? Riiiight, but she’s the callous one. While these two are out having a grand old time, Fran is laying in bed, crying, and wondering how she can get Jeff back. If only there was a way to prove that her stepsister is the conniving one . . . but how?
The next day at work, Fran encounters Mr. Creeper, whose actual name is Lee. His opening line is, “Hello, beautiful! It couldn’t be ME you’re daydreaming about, could it?” He looks quite a bit older than her, which ups the ick factor. Ordinarily, Fran would turn him down, as he oh-so-dramatically says, for the twenty-first time (I really hope that’s hyperbole on his part, because if it’s not – dude, you’re beyond toeing the predator line and have actually leapt over it), but she says, “Oh, you give up too easily, try me again.” So he asks her on a date for the evening, and she says yes, wheels turning rapidly in her little blonde head. Fran has a secret, plotting bitch side to her, too, even though she pretends that she doesn’t.
Of course, he can’t believe his ears, and she jokes with him and tells us that she would feel bad about using Lee, but he made a play for all the girls and wasn’t really attached to anyone. That doesn’t mean this isn’t squicky, Fran . . .
Anyway, she goes home all happy and smiles past Rita, who is suspicious and wants to know what’s up. Fran waxes poetic about Lee and how wonderful he is, and it’s really, truly love this time, not infatuation! While she’s talking, Rita is all done up in a two-piece strapless bathing suit, with very prominent cleavage, and posing like a model while she listens to her stepsister. This volume has to be pre-Code, because there are several violations in this one panel!
Fran continues about how she’s so glad that Rita took Jeff off her hands, because then she never would have fallen for Lee, etc., etc. And seriously, Rita . . . how dumb are you? Two weeks ago, Fran was basically begging you not to steal her man, and now she’s all gushy and telling you too much information. Doesn’t this make you wonder at all?
Lee arrives at eight, and is surprised to see a smoking hot sister; Rita is equally surprised that Fran hooked a man like Lee. Rita is a little more covered in this scene, I suppose because she’s going out; she has on elbow-length gloves, FANCY. Rita purrs at him, too, and Lee invites her to join him and Fran for the evening. Fran is nearly giddy within, realizing this is working much better than she even dared to hope.
Rita dances with Lee in the next scene and says that Fran gets so jealous and likes the attention of every man in town; Lee doesn’t believe her.
By the next time Jeff comes to the house, Rita is going out with Lee, and turns Jeff down at the door. Of course, he’s stupid and doesn’t understand what happened. Several days go by, and Fran “accidentally” runs into Jeff on his way home from work. He tells Fran that he liked Rita very much but he can’t understand why now. She’s beautiful, but heartless. Why do they always lead with the looks? Fucking shallow asshole men.
So then, Jeff asks Fran if she’s doing anything that night. Would she like to go out? Fran suggests dancing at the Glass Slipper, which is where she knows Rita will be with Lee. They end up sitting at adjoining tables, and Rita comments that Fran sure moved on from being in love with Lee very quickly, eh? Fran’s all, What are you talking about? Me in love with Lee? Don’t be silly.
Rita realizes aloud that Fran lied to trap her; Fran replies coolly that she’s trapping herself. Both men realize that things finally make sense . . . oh, I guess the blood has ascended, huh, fellas? Jeff leaves with Fran, and Lee gets in Rita’s face and says that he couldn’t understand why she would have fed him those ridiculous lies about Fran, but NOW he gets it, and so goodbye, loser. Rita sits there and sobs for her little old self.
Outside, Jeff says that he’s been such a “stupid fool.” I’d also add “shallow jerkoff” to the mix, as well as “cowardly.” Now he knows why Fran was so hesitant to bring him home. He asks Fran if Rita has been doing this a long time, and she has; Fran didn’t want her to destroy her one real romance.
Jeff asks for her forgiveness, as he finally sees the light! He doesn’t expect it (but he really secretly does, because she’s a doormat), and she definitely does (because again, she is a doormat). So, what is the lesson here? Jeff really, truly loves Fran, except for the time that he was into her two-timing ho of a stepsis. But, but, it wasn’t his fault! Rita and her feminine wiles, and her . . . .shoulders, and that vixen hair!! Blast her!
I’d say “product of the times” and have done with it, but I can’t, because if these sorts of comics were produced today, it would be the SAME thing, except that Rita would stalk Jeff via Facebook or Instagram and then send him titillating text messages.
At the bottom of this page is a contest! Ace was giving away four cash prizes for the best submission of fifty words maximum. Rank your top three favorite stories and why? And which comics do you read regularly? That seems like a lot to cram into fifty words, but the top prize was $15, which in 2019 money, is $161.40 – so approximately $3.28 a word. Not too shabby. At first glance it seems weird, but look into quite a few comics of this time period and there are similar “contests.” Really, this is market research and actually pretty clever. Today, you’re lucky if you get an Amazon gift card.
This is where we’re going to wrap it up for this episode; there are a few more to get through, but we will tackle those in part two, which will be released later this week.
The Forgotten Library is on many podcast aggregators, the most popular of which are Anchor (where you’re probably listening right now), Apple, Spotify, or Stitcher. You can check the rest out on my Anchor page, where you can leave a comment. You can also email me or hit me up on Twitter at forgottenlibra1.
Until next time, I’m Nikki Gee, your intrepid library haunter.