Number 2256: Sally’s bad boy

Sally has the love of a good guy, Frank, but she doesn’t appreciate him. He’s boring...a square! She meets Buck, a night watchman at Shipman’s Department Store, and  that’s where it all goes wrong. Buck is as bad as Frank is good, as exciting as Frank is boring. Some girls like bad boys. Sally does. Sally also likes the presents Buck gives her, but isn’t inquisitive enough about where they are coming from. Buck expects repayment for his gifts to her, and we all know what that means.

I like the pre-fabricated house inside the department store. Just the thing for illicit love after the store doors are closed. But for Sally, it signals the end of her “Side-Street Love.”

This tale of a good love thrown over for a bad boy lover, is from Harvey Comics’ First Love Illustrated #15 (1951). Artwork is by Bob Powell.

Number 2073: Too superstitious for love!

Jinx is aptly named. She is very superstitious and it makes her life a living hell of indecision and fear, especially when it comes to love. In some ways I am sympathetic to Jinx, having my own superstitions, but I was never superstitious about love. Superstition had nothing to do with relationships I sabotaged all on my own.

“Superstition Made Me Afraid to Love” is from Harvey Comics’ First Love Illustrated #3 (1949). (Those of you who read IDW’s Weird Love will recognize it as being reprinted in issue #13.) Comic art expert Jim Vadeboncoeur attributes the artwork to Tom Gill, who later got real lucky and landed the account to draw the Lone Ranger for Dell Comics.

Number 684


A Valentine from Pappy



With a title like "Love In Bondage" from Harvey's First Love Illustrated #45, I settled down for a hot read. Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was more routine romance, without anybody being tied up. Then I got to the final panel and thought, "John and Perdita are gonna have a very interesting honeymoon!" It's hard to mistake the intentions of John's future mother-in-law.

As a Valentine's Day bonus, I've got some historic love, "Famous Love Affairs:" the passions of Antony and Cleopatra told in three breathless pages from ACG's Lovelorn #3.