Known Issues (the comics, I mean)

In this first post I will list the current known issue titles, and update it every time a new one is discovered.

Accordingly, this page was Last Updated on the: 4th of March 2024

The existence of the following 30 issues are confirmed:

1. Cathy and I
2. For Mother's Sake
3. He Scorned Her
4. He Scorned Her (Squarebound)
5. He Knew My Secret
6. His Love
7. Honeymoon Without Love
8. I Betrayed Him
9. I Dared Not Love
10. I Did Not Love Him
11. I Lied For Love
12. I Lived in Fear
13. I wanted Both Men
14. Long Distance Wife
15. Love Broke My Heart
16. My Fabulous Past
17. My Jealous Heart
18. My Love Memoirs
19. My Love Secret
20. My Love Story
21. My Love Story (Squarebound)
22. My Second Love
23. My Secret (Cover 1)
24. My Secret (Cover 2)
25. My Secret Life
26. Our Secret
27. The Frightened Bride
28. The Storm in My Heart
29. They Called Me a Flirt
30. True Love

Here they all sit, in the Village. Sorry, files...

I'll update this table too as I post the details of each book that I have in the thread:

• Cover banner: This is a STREAMLINE Pictorial Romance
• Priced at 6d
• 28 pages
• Double stapled
• 6 & 7/8" x 9 & 7/8"

The Frightened Bride is a little bit naughty really, claiming to be an 'All In Colour' book. Lots of black and white inside, along with single colour pages (much like the Marvel UK weeklies).

The indicia is a 'Streamline Publications Ltd' one, 105, Curtain Road, London, printed by The New Avenue Press Ltd, 3/4 Sherwood Street, London W.I. I must Google those locations at some point, and see whether there are any signs remaining that they were ever there:

The Stories this time are:

Story #1: I Was a Frightened Bride (happily, given the comic's title)

This story originally appeared in 1949's My Experience #19:

Story #2: I Was a Shrew 

This story originally appeared in 1952's Popular Teen-Agers 14:

Note that the UK reprint is missing the original splash page - possibly due to the bottom smacking? 

Story #3: He Turned Me Down

This story also originally appeared in Popular Teen-Agers 14:

• Cover banner: A Streamline Pictorial Romance (6d 'dumbbell' style)
• Priced at 6d
• 28 pages
• Double stapled
• Black and white interior pages
• 7" x 9 & 3/8"

They Called Me A Flirt is one of what I call the 'dumbbell' covers - by that I mean that the cover banner comprises two 6d priced circles connected by the Streamline Pictorial Romance wording, appearing rather like a dumbbell in shape:

There are four issues with that banner style so far.

The indicia reads "Streamline Publications Ltd, 105 Curtain Road, London, E.C.2, Printed by Dyson Bros., Gladstone Street, Peterborough":

The Stories this time are:

Story #1: They Called Me A Flirt (the comic's title):

This story originally appeared in TBC

Story #2: I Was A Slave To Love

This story originally appeared in 1950's My Past Thrilling Confessions #11:

The story here is missing the splash page from the original, possibly due to its rather threatening nature. The 'I Was A Slave to Love' title wording, curiously, is in a different text and missing the exclamation mark of the original.

Story #3: Cheated

This story originally appeared in 1949's My Secret Story #26:

Once again, the rather aggressive splash page of the original is absent. The story title is changed and the top word box of the original is absent to accommodate the new one.

On 5/2/2022 at 5:58 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

The indicia is a 'Streamline Publications Ltd' one, 105, Curtain Road, London, printed by The New Avenue Press Ltd, 3/4 Sherwood Street, London W.I. I must Google those locations at some point, and see whether there are any signs remaining that they were ever there:

There sure aren't. The former location of Streamline Publications on Curtain Road, is now part of trendy "nightclub in a ball pit" Ballie Ballerson. Meanwhile, The New Avenue Press address -- which was a public house before that -- now hosts the Blanca Bar restaurant on its ground floor.

Really excited to see the rest of these, by the way. I ... did not expect there to be quite this many of them.

On 5/2/2022 at 6:11 PM, Qalyar said:

There sure aren't. The former location of Streamline Publications on Curtain Road, is now part of trendy "nightclub in a ball pit" Ballie Ballerson. Meanwhile, The New Avenue Press address -- which was a public house before that -- now hosts the Blanca Bar restaurant on its ground floor.

Curtains for Curtain Road! 

Just like the old Miller building.

On 5/2/2022 at 6:11 PM, Qalyar said:

Really excited to see the rest of these, by the way. I ... did not expect there to be quite this many of them.

Me neither - they won't stop coming! 

Definitely more out there, as I left one behind by mistake.

Ahh, I love comics....

On 5/2/2022 at 9:16 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

This story originally appeared in TBC

Story #2 from They Called Me A Flirt.  What is "TBC"?  To be cited?

I'll start digging around to see if I have any other Streamlines.

On 5/3/2022 at 1:34 AM, Yorick said:

Story #2 from They Called Me A Flirt.  What is "TBC"?  To be cited?

I'll start digging around to see if I have any other Streamlines.

To be confirmed, Yorick. I couldn't match the content to an original book despite looking up every comic I could find with a similar title. The GCD record suggests that the title was changed - that seems to be a good call as the 'flirt' wording has clearly been changed in the story text so it follows that the title would have been too. It's quite interesting comparing content actually, and seeing what has been either changed or omitted completely. Anything suggesting domestic violence seems to be out. 

On 5/3/2022 at 1:37 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

To be confirmed, Yorick. I couldn't match the content to an original book despite looking up every comic I could find with a similar title. The GCD record suggests that the title was changed - that seems to be a good call as the 'flirt' wording has clearly been changed in the story text so it follows that the title would have been too. It's quite interesting comparing content actually, and seeing what has been either changed or omitted completely. Anything suggesting domestic violence seems to be out. 

I don't have a scan of this one (and definitely don't own a copy), so I can't confirm, but my suspicion is that "They Called Me a Flirt" may have begun life as "They Called Me Worthless", the third of three stories from the fairly scarce My Confession #7 (Fox, 1949). That's a great book with early Wally Wood art and a fantastic GGA cover. Skimming over the list of late 40s Fox romance titles (because I'm clearly being constructive this morning...), it also stood out as a reasonable likely candidate.

On 5/4/2022 at 4:36 PM, Qalyar said:

I don't have a scan of this one (and definitely don't own a copy), so I can't confirm, but my suspicion is that "They Called Me a Flirt" may have begun life as "They Called Me Worthless", the third of three stories from the fairly scarce My Confession #7 (Fox, 1949). That's a great book with early Wally Wood art and a fantastic GGA cover. Skimming over the list of late 40s Fox romance titles (because I'm clearly being constructive this morning...), it also stood out as a reasonable likely candidate.

They only have issue #8 on Comicbook+, alas. Fingers crossed someone will have a copy and be able to confirm 

One thing that has become apparent scanning books for the Digital Comic Museum/ CB+ is how rare some certain books are that aren't normally considered high demand.  The Fox Romance books have a lot of nearly impossible to find issues.  When I scanned a coverless copy of My Love Memoirs from a Fox Giant, it took us years to locate a picture of the front cover at all... and that issue has early Wally Wood art!

On 5/4/2022 at 5:58 PM, OtherEric said:

One thing that has become apparent scanning books for the Digital Comic Museum/ CB+ is how rare some certain books are that aren't normally considered high demand.  The Fox Romance books have a lot of nearly impossible to find issues.  When I scanned a coverless copy of My Love Memoirs from a Fox Giant, it took us years to locate a picture of the front cover at all... and that issue has early Wally Wood art!

Indeed. There are so many old books out there of which so little is known, and perhaps may never be known. I do like mucking about with obscure comics Eric 

Slightly OT, but years ago I had a really neat lot of 1950s Streamline crime comics... must have won them in a UK auction somewhere, but can't remember where. I sold all but one (the last one shown here, the 'Spectacular Crimes' with the women in prison cover), and dearly wish I'd kept them all. The cover drawings are really charmingly crude, almost like R. Crumb's art. Cool project, Marwood!

On 5/4/2022 at 6:12 PM, Point Five said:

Slightly OT, but years ago I had a really neat lot of 1950s Streamline crime comics... must have won them in a UK auction somewhere, but can't remember where. I sold all but one (the last one shown here, the 'Spectacular Crimes' with the women in prison cover), and dearly wish I'd kept them all. The cover drawings are really charmingly crude, almost like R. Crumb's art. Cool project, Marwood!

 

They. Are. Excellent!

There's something about charmingly crude, isn't there. And my God, Streamline were good at it 

On 5/4/2022 at 10:24 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

something about charmingly crude

I love dollar comics!

On 5/4/2022 at 6:28 PM, Yorick said:

I love dollar comics!

Ah yes, the old 'drop a ton of old books on his head' trick. One of the fastest routes to love. Canny lass.

• Cover banner: This is a STREAMLINE Pictorial Romance
• Priced at 6d
• 28 pages
• Double stapled
• 6 & 7/8" x 9 & 7/8"

His Love is one of our second wave issues, but with an all B&W interior.

The indicia is at the rear of the book this time and reads 'Published by Streamline Publications Ltd, 105, Curtain Road, London, E.C.2. and printed by Speedwell Printing Co., Footscray, Kent':

The Stories this time are:

Story #1: His Love (the comic's title):

This story originally appeared in Women in Love #3 (spotted by @Qalyar):

Note the amended title, minus the 'Kind Of'.

Story #2: That Fortune of Mine:

This story also originally appeared in Women in Love #3 (thanks again @Qalyar!)

As we starting to find, the splash page is once again missing - a little too racy perhaps?

Story #3: Second-Rate:

This story originally appeared in TBC

I'm updating this table as I scan and record the details of each issue that I have (I have 19 of the known 25 to transcribe):

It may help show the sequence of issue production - issues with the same format, indicia details, etc. Although they share many characteristics, you would imagine that 'The Frightened Bride' would have come after 'His Love', given the move to internal colour. 

On 5/4/2022 at 11:09 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Always interesting to see "objectionable" panels removed and the resulting blank spaces.

On 5/4/2022 at 7:26 PM, Yorick said:

Always interesting to see "objectionable" panels removed and the resulting blank spaces.

Indeed. And look at the finesse of that replacement title! 

On 5/4/2022 at 1:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Story #2: That Fortune of Mine:

This story originally appeared in TBC

Got one! This was previously published as "My Reckless Fling" in Women in Love #3 (Fox, 1949). As with several of these, the splash page has been removed from the start of the story. See scans here.

EDIT: The panel removed from the right-hand page was a catfight slap.

On 5/4/2022 at 7:30 PM, Qalyar said:

Got one! This was previously published as "My Reckless Fling" in Women in Love #3 (Fox, 1949). As with several of these, the splash page has been removed from the start of the story. See scans here.

EDIT: The panel removed from the right-hand page was a catfight slap.

Top man! I forgot that site existed 

On 5/4/2022 at 1:09 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Story #1: His Love (the comic's title):

This story originally appeared in TBC

"His Love" is also from Women in Love #3, where it began life as "His Kind of Love". This one was pretty easy, because I was pretty sure the title wasn't completely replaced -- those letters looked too professional to be Streamline originals!

On 5/4/2022 at 7:40 PM, Qalyar said:

"His Love" is also from Women in Love #3, where it began life as "His Kind of Love". This one was pretty easy, because I was pretty sure the title wasn't completely replaced -- those letters looked too professional to be Streamline originals!

You're on a roll Qalyar! 

I'll update this one tomorrow now - and the other, if you find it (no pressure...)

On 5/4/2022 at 1:42 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

You're on a roll Qalyar! 

I'll update this one tomorrow now - and the other, if you find it (no pressure...)

The "Second-Rate" origin escapes me, at least for now.

Assuming for the moment it's a Fox reprint, it's almost certainly from one of the less common books that hasn't had its contents indexed by any of the usual sources online. There's no prima facie reason to believe that all three reprints in this book would have originally been from the same narrow time period. But Women in Love #3 was a late 1949 book, so I've mostly been looking at other 1949 Foxes to try to find this one. Potential candidates include "Deserted Twice" from My Love Affair #3 or one of the "other thrilling love stories" (as the cover tells it) printed in My Desire, Intimate Confessions #32. Of course, if the source material for "Second-Rate" is considerably older than Women in Love #3 then, well, the universe of candidates swells quickly.

• Cover banner: This is a STREAMLINE Pictorial Romance
• Priced at 6d
• 28 pages
• Double stapled
• 6 & 7/8" x 9 & 7/8"

I Dared Not Love has the same layout, indicia and characteristics as His Love which is an indication that the two were produced in the same period:

The indicia is at the rear of the book and reads 'Published by Streamline Publications Ltd, 105, Curtain Road, London, E.C.2. and printed by Speedwell Printing Co., Footscray, Kent':

The Stories this time are:

Story #1: My Two Wedding Rings:

This story originally appeared in My Great Love #4:

Story #2: The Mistake I Made:

This story is clearly missing the original splash page and the title may be amended. Source TBC

Story #3: I Dared Not Love (the comic's title):

This story is also clearly missing the original splash page and the title, again, may be amended. Source TBC