Number 2062: Karen's bitter love

Trouble brewing. Karen meets Brad, a handsome guy who falls for her. So far so good. But Karen has a boyfriend-stealing sister, Enid, to whom she introduces Brad. Uh-oh. Karen even tells Enid she is bringing Brad home because, “I want him to meet you.” Why is Karen playing with fire, knowing her sister will make a play for Brad? Is she testing Brad’s love and devotion? Is she purposely sabotaging her relationship with Brad so she will be able to grow into an old, bitter women (hence, the title of the story), blaming her sister for ruining her life?

That’s all the amateur psychiatry I can muster for a six-page love story. The main selling feature for me with “Bitter Love” is Reed Crandall’s artwork. He draws Karen as pretty but demure, and Enid as gorgeous and sexy (the red hair and the plunging decolletage are clues). Beyond the artwork, the story follows the predictable patterns of comic book love, with Karen’s demureness and dignity winning out over hot sister’s hotness.

Illustrator Norman Saunders did the cover. From Cinderella Love #11 (actual #2, 1951):

Number 781


Backwoods gal makes good!


This story, from St. John's Cinderella Love #13, 1953, feeds into a stereotype of country folks, if you see it as something of Li'l Abner, only done more seriously. Betty Lou lives with her lazy pappy and hard-working mammy in Arkansas, where she has to walk 30 miles to a hog-callin' contest. Betty Lou is accosted by Hurd Maxwell, a hillbilly her pappy is having a feud with. Hurd has rape on his mind, but he's interrupted by the movie feller from Hollywood. That's where this unlikely story veers from stereotype into outright fantasy, and the story ends with Betty Lou a movie star. (I don't write these things...I just post them.)

Maybe Hurd Maxwell had been reading some of these paperback books of the era, where backwoods girls are mighty sexy, and mighty easy.



John Benson's excellent book on St. John's love comics, Romance Without Tears, is still available from Amazon.com. "My Prince Charming" is not included in Benson's book.

Starting this Sunday, August 1, a special theme month for Pappy's. Each week will feature a genre of comics. First up, "Science Fiction Week," followed by "Crime Does Pay" week, "Un-super Superheroes" week, and finally, "Comical Comics" week. I had a great time finding stories to fit into the themes and I believe you'll enjoy them.