Let me check my double-check checklist: Flowers, check; candy, check; sappy love card, check. Okay, I guess I am ready for Valentine’s Day tomorrow. Any of you who have significant others, just a reminder for you to remember them.
I am giving you readers a Valentine, yet another
groaner of a love tale. I like love stories well enough, but I have been in the real-life love game long enough to know that there are a lot of wrong moves someone trying to attract a lover can make. In the case of June, she has Perry, a perfectly nice guy who likes her, but she likes Ken. She not only wants to ditch Perry for Ken, Perry is a nice enough guy that he helps her do it.
Not only is Perry a nice guy, he is a dead ringer for Clark Kent. When the inevitable happens and June ends up in Perry’s arms she might think, “Gosh, Perry is a real super guy!” And she could be right.
The story is by Dana Dutch, who was a star of love story writers for St. John romance comics,* and it appeared in
Pictorial Romances #4 (1950). The Matt Baker-like artwork is attributed to longtime comic book journeyman Chuck Winter.
*
Romance Without Tears and
Confessions, Romances, Secrets, and Temptations, Archer St. John and the St. John Romance Comics, both by John Benson.
9 comments:
Once again, I try to figure for whom a story were written. In this case, I can imagine two sorts of readers. One is of guys who were door-mats. The other is of gals who wanted to imagine that, with enough effort and pretense, they could connect with the local heart-throbs, to imagine themselves loved by guys who were so devoted to them that they would let these women use their hearts as a stepping-stones, and to think that the guys with whom the were involved really were the most desirable fellows. In combination, that's quite an order to serve-up.
No we know where all the "super-dickery" Superman stories come from. This is exactly like one of those insane Lois Lane stories where Superman spends the entire comic making her life difficult to teach her "a lesson."
Strangely enough, that lesson always benefits him!
Perry is doing what is well known in advice columnists as "the white knight." A guy that secretly wants the girl, and so always hangs around helping her out and being the shoulder she cries on when the guys she's actually interested in dump on her. The idea (in his mind) is that if he's "there for her" for long enough, he builds up enough debt that she'll be his (i.e., have sex with him.) Never works, it's stalker-ish, and ultimately a lie.
There's a reason she's not with you, ya dope! This story probably lead a lot of guys wrong!
Hi Pappy -- at first glance, I thought it could be by Curt Swan...
If that story came out today, Perry would be the helpful gay best friend...it's a stereotype, but he knows an awful lot about women's clothes, hair and makeup and he's in the drama club....just a thought.
Well, Brian (and here I go telling more about my life than I should), I watched my son get his heart broken several times during his teens and early twenties by being the white knight. I got my heart broken early on a couple of times so I learned not to go all-in on a relationship, keeping it more casual...if the girl liked someone better, I moved on. Anyway, my son's way did work for him, and he has been married to her for about 14 years, with two children.
Something I admired about his way is he never gave up being the nice guy.
Brad S., it does look something like Swan, which could be from Winter's time spent at DC Comics in the forties (he helped to create Liberty Belle, for one thing).
Daniel, what I notice in most love comics is the lesson has to be taught to the female, which may mean it was written by a man who has been dumped. I assume the writer saw himself as the wronged guy who by being the actual best choice, just needed to hang around long enough for the girl to find out for herself.
The trick is to get the girl to admit she was wrong in dumping the nice guy for the bad boy, but several women I know have told me when they were young they went for the bad boy. I guess the other trick is to be a nice guy who looks like a bad boy.
Pappy, being a "white knight" isn't being a nice guy. Being a nice guy is good. Being a white knight is *pretending* to be a nice guy because you think it'll lead to sex; i.e., being a woman's friend because you want to sleep with her, not because you are her friend or nice.
So your son did it the right way :)
Brian, your description of white knight isn't exactly what I inferred 20 years ago from a school psychologist, to whom I was explaining my son's behavior. When she said "white knight" I automatically gave it a more positive spin.
I did a bit of research and you are correct; I feel a bit deflated, but it is better to know the truth than go on believing as I had for years. Now with his stable marriage and two kids I think he has outgrown the syndrome. I hope so, anyway.
Thanks for the note and the explanation.
Brian, your description of white knight isn't exactly what I inferred 20 years ago from a school psychologist, to whom I was explaining my son's behavior. When she said "white knight" I automatically gave it a more positive spin.
I did a bit of research and you are correct; I feel a bit deflated, but it is better to know the truth than go on believing as I had for years. Now with his stable marriage and two kids I think he has outgrown the syndrome. I hope so, anyway.
Thanks for the note and the explanation.
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