Robot Man Posted November 22, 2017 Share Posted November 22, 2017 It had me when I saw "I was branded by a tattoo artist". Not a common theme back then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 23 hours ago, Sqeggs said: I didn't bid on it but I can see a couple of bidders pushing the price up even for a mid-grade copy of a tough book. 23 hours ago, PeterPark said: granted, some precode romance are extremely rare, but for a 4.0? It's not like its thought to be the best copy out there...I think it is a cool cover but I didn't expect that price... Damn, I picked up a raw 6.0 on ebay a year or so ago for less around $30. Cool Romance is getting tough to find cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted November 23, 2017 Share Posted November 23, 2017 9 hours ago, Robot Man said: It had me when I saw "I was branded by a tattoo artist". Not a common theme back then... Sadly, it's a fake tattoo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Here's a few Infantino romance covers - there weren't very many. The last one from '67 screams Carmine from 10 ft away. Supposedly inked by Esposito, but I think a solo job. FoggyNelson and comicjack 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Today's multi billion superhero movie industry rests in part on this book. (All of this came to me one night, in a fevered dream.) 1962's Falling in Love 50 is where Romita absolutely dialed it in for his "look" - the blonde is the Gwen Stacy prototype, fully realized. He'd been working on the look for about 4 years at DC, finding his own way while staying within the parameters set by the accomplished stable of established artists (Sekowsky, Sachs, Novick, etc) and the brilliant strong editorship of three successive women: Zena Brody, Ruth Brant, and Phyllis Reed. When Romita moved to Marvel in 1965 and quickly found his way to Spiderman, it was his renditions of Gwen and particularly MJ with that whole good girl/bad girl vibe that blew the doors off the title. Ditko didn't have much sexuality going on, the poor schmo. Romita brought it in spades, and for sex starved teenage comic geeky nerds, it was like manna from heaven (speaking for myself and the rest of you, of course.) The cinematic success of Spidey 1, on the heels of the first XMen, helped establish the money making potential of superhero movies. Herego and ipso facto. Nuff said! damonwad, FoggyNelson, Point Five and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dr. Love Posted December 6, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted December 6, 2017 This is a big book, though many wouldn't know why. It's one of the sought after Lichtenstein romance books. Pickie, comicjack, FoggyNelson and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1950's war comics Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 2 hours ago, Dr. Love said: Today's multi billion superhero movie industry rests in part on this book. (All of this came to me one night, in a fevered dream.) 1962's Falling in Love 50 is where Romita absolutely dialed it in for his "look" - the blonde is the Gwen Stacy prototype, fully realized. He'd been working on the look for about 4 years at DC, finding his own way while staying within the parameters set by the accomplished stable of established artists (Sekowsky, Sachs, Novick, etc) and the brilliant strong editorship of three successive women: Zena Brody, Ruth Brant, and Phyllis Reed. When Romita moved to Marvel in 1965 and quickly found his way to Spiderman, it was his renditions of Gwen and particularly MJ with that whole good girl/bad girl vibe that blew the doors off the title. Ditko didn't have much sexuality going on, the poor schmo. Romita brought it in spades, and for sex starved teenage comic geeky nerds, it was like manna from heaven (speaking for myself and the rest of you, of course.) The cinematic success of Spidey 1, on the heels of the first XMen, helped establish the money making potential of superhero movies. Herego and ipso facto. Nuff said! Thank you Dr,Love ! everything i know about romance comics i learned from you !! (and from @Sqeggs) Lucky Baru, FoggyNelson and ComicConnoisseur 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky Baru Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 11 hours ago, Dr. Love said: This is a big book, though many wouldn't know why. It's one of the sought after Lichtenstein romance books. Is she sad or is something bad happening there? FoggyNelson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inaflash Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 15 hours ago, Dr. Love said: This is a big book, though many wouldn't know why. It's one of the sought after Lichtenstein romance books. !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 There's a lot of special going on for this issue. Just the cover alone. Out of 160 issues for the title, only a handful have a delimited title box. It's actually the exception to the rule for Girls' Romances. Handled the right way, this can actually add interest to the cover. Especially for this issue - the art extends beyond the box lower border, and has the "3D" effect that brings something different to the party. Pink covers are always a big plus. DC pink is awesome. The color green used in the title text is unique - no other title text is a shade of green for any Girls' Romances issues. Nice tie-in to the guys jacket. The pink coloring for the issue number, bolded for the month, is absolutely unique - tying into the color of the main panel. Just fabulous. And of course it's Tony Abruzzo art. Abruzzo's art was swiped over and over again by Lichtenstein. With good reason. “The finest artist in the romance field bar none,” Bob Kanigher once said, as quoted in Steve Duin’s 1998 book, Comics Between the Panels. comicnoir, Pickie and FoggyNelson 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicjack Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Pink covers in that shape are amazing to look at Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dr. Love Posted December 7, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted December 7, 2017 Here's the Lichtenstein painting, "Sleeping Girl", swiped from the Abruzzo 12 page story from this issue, "Don't Kiss Me Again". Here's the page/panel it is swiped from Abruzzo's portrait type work was incredible. The 3rd and 4th panels are outstanding examples of his fine work - signature close up moments, very dramatic, very expressive. His "ordinary" art that moves the action along from panel to panel is much less satisfying. Lichtenstein was very good at pinpointing the panels that really promoted an emotional response. For Lichtenstein, the graphic elements of the comics’ artwork excited his eye, clichéd features of the stories and artwork appealed to him, and he had fun picking out the “pregnant moments” in a narrative which would make a tasty canvas. "Sleeping Girl" was painted in 1964 and sold at that time for $1,600. It remained in the same private hands until 2012, when it sold for $45 million at Sotheby's. Pickie, Carl Elvis, szucchini and 2 others 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicnoir Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 6 minutes ago, Dr. Love said: Here's the Lichtenstein painting, "Sleeping Girl", swiped from the Abruzzo 12 page story from this issue, "Don't Kiss Me Again". Here's the page/panel it is swiped from Abruzzo's portrait type work was incredible. The 3rd and 4th panels are outstanding examples of his fine work - signature close up moments, very dramatic, very expressive. His "ordinary" art that moves the action along from panel to panel is much less satisfying. Lichtenstein was very good at pinpointing the panels that really promoted an emotional response. For Lichtenstein, the graphic elements of the comics’ artwork excited his eye, clichéd features of the stories and artwork appealed to him, and he had fun picking out the “pregnant moments” in a narrative which would make a tasty canvas. "Sleeping Girl" was painted in 1964 and sold at that time for $1,600. It remained in the same private hands until 2012, when it sold for $45 million at Sotheby's. Someone should get that painting slabbed. Seriously, for once Lichtenstein was fairly close to the original. In so many cases his work looks like a cheap copy, although I still like it. He certainly found his niche. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 He certainly did, Ron. Which comes around full circle to Lucky Baru's question, " Is she sad or is something bad happening there?" The answer is yes to both. And amazingly, it's a somewhat timeless slice of the human condition, at least from the female point of view. Just last week a gal I know, in her late 20's somewhat younger than me, was telling me a tale of woe about a friend of hers who was head over heels for some guy who had a girlfriend, but she was unable to resist his advances. She knew it was wrong, and wouldn't work out well, but she felt helpless to push back. DC almost exclusively keyed in on the painful side of romance. They were The House That Sad Built. Other publishers went in a different direction. Fawcett, for instance, had 100% photo covers, and almost 100% of them were positive shots of couples in relationship. Mostly everybody had a mix of sad/glad covers, but the overwhelming majority were of a dramatic nature that featured pain, heartbreak, longing, betrayal and despair. And these were the shots that Lichtenstein went for. This is the kind of work that at the time was considered shocking and compelling. FoggyNelson and comicnoir 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dr. Love Posted December 7, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted December 7, 2017 Abruzzo was perhaps uniquely qualified to produce art depicting this. He was the unknown man at DC - after 20 years, he was still Tony who? Comic writer and editor Robin Snyder said of Abruzzo, "I have been looking for this fellow for over 30 years. He is the great lost mystery man of the comics. Tony worked for National for about 20 years and no one could tell me his name when I uncovered a huge number of pages of his original artwork during my tour of duty there. I advertised for help and asked everyone at the company. No one knew or cared. You may have noticed most fans dismiss love unless it is in a so-called super title..." Born June 21st, 1916, Anthony Abruzzo was of Italian heritage. His occupation on the 1940 census is listed as "Fashion Artist" for a dress house. His aunt was a dressmaker and, as a girl in Italy, his grandmother made trosseaus for the royal family. Abruzzo studied at Pratt Institute and the Traphagen Institute of Design. In addition to creating dress designs, he did fashion ads for the big stores and sold free lance sketches. After the war he landed at DC where he spent the rest of his professional life. He passed away in 1990, unmarried and childless. Well, not exactly childless. These artistic fragments still remain behind, frozen in time, for us to appreciate. adamstrange, comicjack, Pickie and 2 others 3 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comicnoir Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 I love it when you shed light on the heretofor unheralded artists. Nobody knew this man? He was the house style. The examples you show are exquisite. Dr. Love 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dr. Love Posted December 7, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted December 7, 2017 2 hours ago, comicjack said: Pink covers in that shape are amazing to look at yeh mon do pink trunks count? he hopes so comicnoir, FoggyNelson, comicjack and 2 others 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inaflash Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 2 hours ago, Dr. Love said: Here's the Lichtenstein painting, "Sleeping Girl", swiped from the Abruzzo 12 page story from this issue, "Don't Kiss Me Again". Here's the page/panel it is swiped from Abruzzo's portrait type work was incredible. The 3rd and 4th panels are outstanding examples of his fine work - signature close up moments, very dramatic, very expressive. His "ordinary" art that moves the action along from panel to panel is much less satisfying. Lichtenstein was very good at pinpointing the panels that really promoted an emotional response. For Lichtenstein, the graphic elements of the comics’ artwork excited his eye, clichéd features of the stories and artwork appealed to him, and he had fun picking out the “pregnant moments” in a narrative which would make a tasty canvas. "Sleeping Girl" was painted in 1964 and sold at that time for $1,600. It remained in the same private hands until 2012, when it sold for $45 million at Sotheby's. Really great and interesting information Andy. Pickie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 2 minutes ago, Inaflash said: Really great and interesting information Andy. thanks Ken, Ron the Lichtenstein DC's are one of the most underground niches. Even the list is closely guarded Illuminati type info. Blissard had a particular lot of 4 VG silver DC romance on Ebay, containing of the Lichs, and it went for like $500 or some such. Canadian Andy and Mick would have a mouthful or two to say about Lichtenstein and his war swipes. FoggyNelson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 (edited) I could go on and on about DC. (All romance, actually) Second to Charlton (!), in terms of overall output over the years - 932 issues. The Savannah ped is very comprehensive, but for romance, only kicked in starting about 1962 or so. Eric Estrada really stood out for me, too Edited December 7, 2017 by Dr. Love editd the DC number for truthiness FoggyNelson 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...