Crimebuster

I believe it depends on how they were made. This era of DC books printed that strip on the front cover, as they aren't actually squarebound. So it's totally fine. For squarebound books, though - which I believe includes X-Men #137 - it should be on the spine rather than on the front. Getting one that's properly aligned may be difficult, though, thanks to production variances. Good luck with the search!

I love pretty much everything about this - the big 25 cent era, the funky logo design, and especially the yellow background:

Maybe my favorite romance cover:

Love this cover, but... anyone else find that random sign advertising CUSTARD to be a little weird. Anyway, great composition and colors here:

Walt Simonson cover!

I've just been scanning some of my collection, so I'll be sharing some of my nicer DC Bronze books over the next few days. Nothing super high grade, but a lot of nice looking books in maybe the 6.0-8.0 range. Though this first one is lower grade. Still, it's such a striking cover, I had to scan it. (Also, I'm using Falling in Love #99 as the start of the Bronze Age for DC romance, though I know some would still consider this SA as a 12 cent cover)

Most of my silver age books are low grade readers. Here's a cool one, though - The Beatles by Gene Colan:

Second book arrived! It's technically only a VG+ or so because of a popped staple and tanning. But it presents great, and the price was right! if I find a good upgrade, I can always do that, but for now I'm happy to have this one in my collection!

Thanks for the tips - I somehow totally missed the entire Time for Love series, so I have added 40 to my list. And probably 13, because it's just so stupid. Got the first book from my list in the mail today!

So! After days of study, I have finished my list of top books. There are a lot of great covers hiding among the hundreds of duds. This is a pretty subjective list, of course. I love Haunted Love, for instance, so my ranking of those is probably higher than it would be for other people. I also had another 150 or so covers I liked, but that I didn't quite think were top level. I'm going to focus my Charlton collection on these 49 books. If there are any missing - other than the gigolo cover I mentioned before that I can't remember the issue # for - let me know! Note: I didn't put Negro Romances #4 on the list because it's just way out of my range. Otherwise it would be at the top. Here's my ranking! 1. Just Married 104 - the combination of art and subject matter put this at the top for me 2. Secret Romance 30 3. Romantic Story 92 4. Intimate 1 5. My Secret Life 20 6. True Life Secrets 25 7. Romantic Secrets 34 8. Romantic Story 46 9. Haunted Love 5 10. Just Married 102 11. Haunted Love 6 12. Sweethearts 45 13. Secret Romance 1 14. Haunted Love 7 15. True Life Secrets 23 - Just based on a quick ebay search, this seemed much more common than the other notable covers from this run. Or is it just because popularity has flushed out more copies? 16. Romantic Secrets 20 - it seems clear someone was studying Matt Baker, if not holding a Romantic Secrets #24 in their hands when they drew this 17. Brides in Love 8 18. Career Girl Romances 71 19. Brides in Love 33 20. Secrets of Love and Marriage 1 21. Romantic Secrets 28 22. Love Diary 64 - I noticed they re-used the image of the model for another cover later, but I like the original better. 23. Summer Love 48 24. Just Married 86 25. Teen Confessions 45 26. I Love You 95 27. Haunted Love 11 28. Sweethearts 115 29. I Love You 36 30. Teen Age Love 44 31. Teen Age Love 63 32. First Kiss 10 33. I Love You 126 - this is a reprinted cover, but it's much better than the original, which had a box covering half the composition, and more muted colors 34. My Only Love 6 35. True Life Secrets 12 36. Sweethearts 25 37. True Life Secrets 16 38. True Life Secrets 26 39. For Lovers Only 73 40. For Lovers Only 67 41. Romantic Story 103 42. Romantic Story 128 43. Just Married 101 44. My Secret Life 46 45. Teen Confessions 61 46. Love Diary 87 47. Secret Romance 33 48. Love and Romance 18 49. Teen Confessions 77 @Dr. Love How does the list look? Did I miss anything major? I have purchased 4 from this list so far, but they haven't arrived yet. I'll show them off when they get here.

First, a couple purchases. I wouldn't consider these among the must-have Charlton romance books from my few days of studies, but I have a soft spot for Soap Opera storylines, like Night Nurse and 3 Girls, so I have to get this series as well as Soap Opera Love even though they are both reprint books: Both are miscut pretty badly, particularly #3, but they are in really nice condition.

Maybe this is just me, but I thought it was fairly clear in the movie that he got whisked off to some other place rather than "vaporized." The prequel comic looks to me to just be depicting what was in the film.

Okay, compiling my final list. I ended up with 55 books that seemed like standouts to me, but I think i will probably trim another 5-10 when i rank them. I'm also missing one candidate where I forgot to note the issue number - there's a cover where a lady is making out with a guy, and another woman is saying something like "she doesn't know Bill is actually just a GIGOLO!" Does this ring a bell? I don't want to go back through 1400 covers to find it!

I also love them. I'd rather have a comic with a date stamp than one without. Adds to the history!

Pulled the trigger on a couple of my favorites so far. I'll post them when they arrive, though... they are both more Bronze Age I guess. So far! Strange, I usually don't care about condition when I buy comics, but I want these to be in nice shape - I guess most Charltons I see in person are trashed, and they look so much better when I see these nice copies instead. it makes much more difference for me than it does with DC or Marvel books for some reason. I've identified a couple subsets of covers I have a particular interest in - covers about Vietnam and covers about women's lib are at the top, but I also tend to gravitate towards covers where people are dancing and masquerade ball covers. Still researching covers! When I'm done I'm going to present my top 25 or 50 or something. A lot of good stuff hidden amdist the chaff (is it just me, or is the period from like 1960-65 pretty dire compared to earlier and later?)

Those are pretty sweet. But just image how great they would look next to a complete run of Kull!!

Dropped the complete run of Kull down to just $55 shipped! Holy moley!!

Howdy! I'm still in the process of refocusing my collection, and so I've got two more complete runs to sell. A couple rules: 1. U.S. only, sorry friends around the world. 2. No hall of shamers, probies, what have you. 3. The price includes shipping, and I ship via USPS Priority Mail. 4. Please pay via PayPal only, thanks. 5. I'm sure there are other things, but I forget what, so let's just get to it. Invaders - complete run - $85 shipped SOLD! Kull - complete run - $75 $55 shipped SOLD! CLOSED!!

One issue that grabbed my attention, and that I had some questions about, is Just Married #104. There are no copies anywhere online for sale as far as i can find, and only a couple fuzzy scans of the cover. But it looks like it features an interracial couple kissing, something I have never seen on a romance comic before. I haven't finished going through all the Charlton covers yet, but I am wondering a few things. If someone has a copy of this, is it an interracial couple on the cover? This scan seems kind of washed out compared to the other one I found online, but the other one is such low res you can't see what you're looking at. Is there a story inside about an interracial couple? I know this came out right after they finished the David and Eileen arc about a Jewish-Catholic mixed faith relationship, so I could see it happening. Are there any other Charlton covers with interracial couples? Any other romance comics, period? I mean, actual romance comics, not post-70's indy books or undergrounds comix. Finally, is this issue rare? I've obviously just started looking, but compared to others around it I'm not having much luck finding a copy, and I know Charlton had distribution issues a decade earlier when they tried to sell Lobo, so I'm wondering if the cover material might have caused low distribution/sales for this issue. Really curious about this one, it jumps out to me as very unusual among the thousands of other romance covers I've seen. Of course, if this is just caused by poor color balance on the scans, then ignore everything I just said.

CGC 3.5!

I sense I am being sucked down an endless abyss here. I thought starting to collect Archie comics was bad enough.

I am currently studying these covers and compiling some cover lists of stuff that stands out to me. I'll post it when I am done so we can discuss how bad my taste is. I kind of want to get Career Girl Romances #50 because of the crazy guy in the background just grinning into the camera!

Isn't Beto one of the guys who does Love and Rockets?