Number 2411: Black gold, broken hearts

The course of true love never did run smooth, as the Bard said. It is not only true in plays, but in every love story I have ever read, seen in a movie, or personally lived through in my life. Love comics are easy to understand because they are almost always about a young woman being loved by a fellow she rejects for another fellow, who turns out to be no good for her. She goes back to the first fellow. The stories always end with an embrace and kiss. Ah, love.

So “Black Gold, Broken Hearts” is a typical story, but has our girl Millie’s struggling ma and pa suddenly rich from the discovery of oil on their property! Millie can get rid of Tom Barrow, who loves her, and go to college. It seems her main interest in college is not a degree, but to learn to act snooty and put on airs to match the other rich gals. Doing that attracts Stanton Forsyte who appears to be as ritzy as his name implies. It all gets sorted out, of course, but in these love stories I notice the nice guy usually wins and doesn’t hold it against the girl, so he is a noble swain, after all.

Before reading the story, though, Romantic Adventures, which is the source, used to also include a page or two on how girls can avoid losing their love once they find each other. The pages I have included aren’t credited for writers, so I don’t know if they were written by a woman or a man. I opt for a man because of the whiffs of male dominance, but on the other hand, such things were taught to girls in days gone by.

From Romantic Adventures #58.

Two pages from Romantic Adventures #14.
“Black Gold and Broken Hearts” is from Romantic Adventures #58 (1958). No writer is listed by Grand Comics Database, but Kenneth Landau did the artwork, as well as the page, “100 Ways to Lose a Man,” above. No writers or artists are listed for the one-page advice fillers from Romantic Comics #14 (1951), “Pal or Sweetheart?” or “Dating Do’s and Don’ts.”

Number 2269: Love is a circus

“Savage Sweetheart” is a three-ring circus of love and hate. Marcia loves Leroy and hates David; David loves Marcia and hates Leroy. Leroy loves gambling and he owes $3000 to some crooks. He pretends to love Marcia. The crooks love that they can manipulate Leroy into having Marcia, who is now owner of the circus after the death of her dad, include some crooked gambling into the circus. Despite beautiful Marcia throwing herself at him, Leroy just pretends to love her so he can carry out his felonious plan.

This torrid tale of the tanbark is drawn by Emil Gershwin, and art-spotter Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr puts a question mark beside the name Celardo as inker. According to some biographical information I read online, Gershwin, who usually didn’t sign his name, was a top illustrator, with rave reviews from Alex Toth. Further reading finds that Gershwin assisted Dan Barry on the Tarzan newspaper comic strip, and later John Celardo took over the feature. Some Tarzan-styled stuff is included in the drama, when David fights a lion. I wondered if Emil Gershwin was related to the famous Gershwin brothers, George and Ira. Emil’s daughter, Nancy, says the famous composers were Emil’s first cousins.

The story appeared in ACG’s Romantic Adventures #7 (1950).

Number 1315: Romance in a trance

Admit it, guys. You looked at those ads in old comics for books on how to hypnotize, or thought of sending for the Hypno Coin, hoping that you could put a hot girl into a state where she would go out with you. I know you did, because I did, too. Hypnosis would make it easy, wouldn’t it? As I recall from my dating days, nothing about dating was easy, even if I’d had the powers of the great stage mage, Manfred. In this mesmerizing memoir he hypnotizes rich girl Francine Van Rhys into being his love slave. Luckily for Francine, she also has romantic Raymond Keenan who loves her, and is mighty Manfred’s rival. The power of love overcomes the power of Manfred’s hypnosis.

Here’s a Valentine’s Day treat for tomorrow from ACG’s Romantic Adventures #7 (1950). Artwork is credited to Bob Lubbers by Golden Age art expert Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Here’s a Valentine for those among you Pappy’s readers who like paper dolls. It’s a shorty from Katy Keene #16 (1954), and includes a page of fashions for you to cut out. Just remember to print them off first; don't attack your monitor with scissors.

Number 1292: The murderous child

“Love is for the Living,” from ACG’s Romantic Adventures #5 (1949), isn’t all that original. A drab governess goes to work for a handsome widower with a small child, then has to win the love of both. What struck me when reading the story was that it reminded me of The Bad Seed, the popular novel/play/movie, about a young blonde child who commits murder.

Maxwell Anderson's 1955 play was adapted from the novel by William March, published in 1954. Life magazine covered the play and its young actress, Patty McCormack, in a January, 1955 issue. Here's the first page of the article:

The comic book story appeared about five years before the novel, and I'm not claiming it had any influence on the novelist. It's just an interesting coincidence. Stories about children who murder aren't all that rare. But the drama of the attempted murder does add some depth to an otherwise shopworn romance plot, and it helps that the Romantic Adventures story is well illustrated by Emil Gershwin. Were I to give advice to someone in the same position as governess Celia Parrish I'd tell her even though it looks like she's won the love of the father, I wouldn't turn my back on his daughter.