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Baker Romance
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Started by JvR11,

13,351 posts in this topic

Point Five

Point Five

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Posted

There's definitely a conversation to be had about why e.g. the couples on the covers of St. John titles like Teen-Age Romances and the above Going Steady look like their ages are skewing to late 20s (charitably) or 30s. 

My guess has long been that if teenagers to college students were buying romance comics, St. John/Baker tried to make the covers more 'aspirational' by making the characters slightly more mature and sophisticated. But that's just a guess. Thoughts?

 

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Changer

Changer

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Some more Bakers came in from CGC today

so Economy sent in January, back under 12 months at least lol 

p.s  interesting that this year my vuescan software was crashing my HP 8200, finally tried a windows scanning app works again, but now I have 2 hp 8200 lol 

 

Scan_20221224.jpg

 

Scan_20221224 (8).jpg

Scan_20221224 (9).jpg

Edited by Changer
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plady69

plady69

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On 12/24/2022 at 6:50 PM, Point Five said:

There's definitely a conversation to be had about why e.g. the couples on the covers of St. John titles like Teen-Age Romances and the above Going Steady look like their ages are skewing to late 20s (charitably) or 30s. 

My guess has long been that if teenagers to college students were buying romance comics, St. John/Baker tried to make the covers more 'aspirational' by making the characters slightly more mature and sophisticated. But that's just a guess. Thoughts?

 

Good point. I will put that in my pipe and smoke it! 🤔

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Ryan.

Ryan.

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On 12/24/2022 at 9:50 PM, Point Five said:

There's definitely a conversation to be had about why e.g. the couples on the covers of St. John titles like Teen-Age Romances and the above Going Steady look like their ages are skewing to late 20s (charitably) or 30s. 

My guess has long been that if teenagers to college students were buying romance comics, St. John/Baker tried to make the covers more 'aspirational' by making the characters slightly more mature and sophisticated. But that's just a guess. Thoughts?

 

Definitely possible. Baker also drew the majority of these covers while he was in his 30s and, for his own reasons, unmarried, so it may have felt more authentic to him to draw people closer to his own age.

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Funnybooks

Funnybooks

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Posted
On 12/24/2022 at 9:50 PM, Point Five said:

There's definitely a conversation to be had about why e.g. the couples on the covers of St. John titles like Teen-Age Romances and the above Going Steady look like their ages are skewing to late 20s (charitably) or 30s. 

My guess has long been that if teenagers to college students were buying romance comics, St. John/Baker tried to make the covers more 'aspirational' by making the characters slightly more mature and sophisticated. But that's just a guess. Thoughts?

 

editor was a dirty old man

 

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plady69

plady69

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On 12/28/2022 at 12:59 PM, Ryan. said:

Definitely possible. Baker also drew the majority of these covers while he was in his 30s and, for his own reasons, unmarried, so it may have felt more authentic to him to draw people closer to his own age.

Another good point. Firing up the pipe again…

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ageofsilver

ageofsilver

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All good thoughts, but I like Point Five’s best. When I was pre-teen and teenager, one of my greatest drivers was to be older. The perceived freedom, the things one would be able to own (eg. cars and motorcycles), and the fulfillment of new desires was strong. Seeing older guys with their cars, girlfriends and no parents involved was intoxicating. Baker’s older couples also fit with the perception I have of teen and twenties people in movies of the era as just looking older. Bacall was 16 in her first roll with Bogart, I believe. Did not look it. Just 2 cents. 

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MBFan

MBFan

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St. John Matt Baker covers with older looking characters are mostly, if not all, from the time when the Comics Code Authority was coming into play. The obvious examples are from late 1954 onward, after the Senate hearings in April and June of ’54.

Matt was a pro and delivered what his clients ordered. He probably wouldn’t begin to age cover characters on a whim. More likely, St. John was avoiding trouble by having Baker depict people in such a way that they couldn’t possibly be mistaken for young teen-agers.

Situations on Baker covers during that period are clearly college or young adult oriented. No more promiscuous, trash talking teens on the beach!

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