What are the rarest romance comics? 35 35

[Yorick]

On 9/9/2023 at 11:47 AM, Darwination said:

I'm gathering so few of many issues get put in slabs because it's only worth it for the higher grades?

The interior artwork on many romance titles are fantastic.  If you slab it, I hope there's a scan online to appreciate. 

[plady69]

On 9/9/2023 at 5:26 PM, Darwination said:

Romantic Love 10 (1954-03.Avon) cover Everett Raymond Kinstler.

Kind of a wolfish look from casanova here.  I'm not sure the blonde is impressed.

I love moonlight covers.

Someone getting lucky tonite!

[Darwination]

A couple more moonlight covers.  Another Kinstler, I wish I had a better copy, for real

Realistic Romances 016 (1954-06.Avon) cover Everett Raymond Kinstler

Water stains, creasing, waviness, and pencil marks can't stop me tho -

 

Really a favorite, what a scene. A redhead in black silk, a convertible by the sea under the blowing palms?  I even love the strange dotted line around the moon.

or

Vince Colletta, underappreciated by all except perhaps us romance fans, My Own Romance 40 1954-10.Atlas

[Dr. Love]

On 9/10/2023 at 12:05 PM, Yorick said:

The interior artwork on many romance titles are fantastic.  If you slab it, I hope there's a scan online to appreciate. 

well apparently darwination is the one who uploaded a scan of the entire book to GCD about 13 years ago.  So, enjoy.  Although one reviewer left this comment as regards this issue:  "A very nice scan but some astonishingly bad art in this issue."

Except for the Baily cover, I would have to agree!

[Dr. Love]

On 9/10/2023 at 9:35 PM, Darwination said:

 

Vince Colletta, underappreciated by all except perhaps us romance fans, My Own Romance 40 1954-10.Atlas

 if by underappreciated, you mean hated with the heat of a red hot sun by many SA fans, then yes!

I strongly recommend a great book, "The Thin Black Line: Perspectives on Vince Colletta, Comics’ Most Controversial Inker" 

I can't say enough about Colletta's work.  At his peak in 1954, it was the best.  Not just covers - unlike most others, he could do the heavy interior lifting as well.  No harder genre to draw than romance, cause there really wasn't anything exciting happening.

Even later in 1958 when he was phoning it in as a surprise uncredited artist in this DC book, his talent shows through

 

 

 

[Dr. Love]

and speaking of Baily

identifiable in terms of the hand, but no one trick pony

 

        

 

[Darwination]

Nice ID, Doc, there's no way I'd hit that one.  I'm honestly not very familiar with Baily.

And I can't disagree with your assessment of the art in issue #5, but when it comes to the goldenage, some bad art is still good art if you know what I mean.  It looks like the GCD has the issue pegged as almost completely Eugene Hughes with some pencils by Sal Finocchiaro (neither of whom am I familiar with).

A couple of pages I like

Full scan for those that want a better look here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/ij9n7emh9ang2dl/Ideal_Romance_005_%281954-08.Key%29_%28LoveJones-DREGS%29.cbr/file

A 2009 scan, but it still looks O.K.  I might take a different approach a couple places on the cover these days, but I'm happy enough with that, too.

 

Edited September 11, 2023 by Darwination

[Yorick]

On 9/11/2023 at 8:54 AM, Darwination said:

For a second there, my mind went all Wertam, and I thought that wasn't her shoulder...

[Yorick]

On 9/11/2023 at 8:54 AM, Darwination said:

there's no way I'd hit that

Where did that "out of context" thread disappear to?? 

[MusterMark]

On 9/11/2023 at 11:20 AM, Yorick said:

For a second there, my mind went all Wertam, and I thought that wasn't her shoulder...

I see where your focus lay

[Robot Man]

[Darwination]

Youthful Love 01 1950-05 cover Walter Johnson

I tried to grab a few from the box at hand that were maybe scarcer, but this one isn't quite as scarce as I thought.

Hideous.

Wonderfully hideous

[Yorick]

On 9/12/2023 at 8:16 PM, Darwination said:

Youthful Love 01 1950-05 cover Walter Johnson

Hideous.

I like most everything about that...  but their faces. 

[N e r V]

On 9/10/2023 at 9:35 PM, Darwination said:

A couple more moonlight covers.  Another Kinstler, I wish I had a better copy, for real

Realistic Romances 016 (1954-06.Avon) cover Everett Raymond Kinstler

Water stains, creasing, waviness, and pencil marks can't stop me tho -

 

Really a favorite, what a scene. A redhead in black silk, a convertible by the sea under the blowing palms?  I even love the strange dotted line around the moon.

or

Vince Colletta, underappreciated by all except perhaps us romance fans, My Own Romance 40 1954-10.Atlas

Years ago on another board there was a thread absolutely roasting his work on Kirby. Even Mark Evanier jumped on a bit in the thread as I remember. I think it’s fair to take exceptions to what he did with Kirby’s work and even his attitude toward treating comics as more a business.

The irony is like it or not there’s also a large segment (myself included) that love the Kirby/Colletta run on Thor. As Cory Sedlmeier said when working on the Marvel Masterworks of it that the voodoo magic was just right. A lot of die hard Kirby fans will dismiss that run too and as the thread showed years ago seem to resent anyone who liked it. It clearly bothered some that anyone could like a Kirby/Colletta book at all.

I’m glad he has a better place in his romance work today. To bad he left pretty young and long ago…

Edited September 13, 2023 by N e r V

[Courageous Cat]

On 9/11/2023 at 2:20 PM, Yorick said:

For a second there, my mind went all Wertam, and I thought that wasn't her shoulder...

don't feel bad, that was my initial impression too

[Darwination]

My Secret Affair 002 (1950.Canadian Edition) cover Artist Unknown

This one may be pretty rare.  EDIT: one Superior issue in census, no Fox issues.  From Superior, but still with only that finest Fox quality *cough*

I do love a number of the Fox Romance covers, though.  They're sleazy but charming, and usually the women are giving as good as they are getting in the battle of the sexes department.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/umfpgxfm8pd642q/My_Secret_Affair_002_%281950.Canadian_Edition%29%28Darwin-DREGS%29.cbr/file

Edited September 14, 2023 by Darwination

[Robot Man]

On 9/10/2023 at 9:35 PM, Darwination said:

A couple more moonlight covers.  Another Kinstler, I wish I had a better copy, for real

Realistic Romances 016 (1954-06.Avon) cover Everett Raymond Kinstler

Water stains, creasing, waviness, and pencil marks can't stop me tho -

 

Really a favorite, what a scene. A redhead in black silk, a convertible by the sea under the blowing palms?  I even love the strange dotted line around the moon.

or

Vince Colletta, underappreciated by all except perhaps us romance fans, My Own Romance 40 1954-10.Atlas

The Realistic Romances 16 contains a great marijuana story. I can’t get to my copy now or I would post it.

[Robot Man]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:23 PM, Darwination said:

My Secret Affair 002 (1950.Canadian Edition) cover Artist Unknown

This one may be pretty rare.  EDIT: one Superior issue in census, no Fox issues.  From Superior, but still with only that finest Fox quality *cough*

I do love a number of the Fox Romance covers, though.  They're sleazy but charming, and usually the women are giving as good as they are getting in the battle of the sexes department.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/umfpgxfm8pd642q/My_Secret_Affair_002_%281950.Canadian_Edition%29%28Darwin-DREGS%29.cbr/file

I’m not a romance collector per se, but I love the Fox ones. They all have that elevated “sleeze” factor. And they are mostly all pretty hard to find. A lot of amazing covers with minimal but to the point dialogue and wild stories. 

[Courageous Cat]

gotta apreciate grandmas honesty 

[Darwination]

On 9/14/2023 at 9:01 AM, Robot Man said:

The Realistic Romances 16 contains a great marijuana story. I can’t get to my copy now or I would post it.

Ah, yes, I've looked at that one recently.

I took the occasion of your mention here to do a upsized edition of the scan of this comic I did back in 2008 with wider/higher quality images along with some re-edits of a couple of the cover pages.

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/o1ehcrdqajmwcyc/Realistic_Romances_016_%281954-06.Avon%29_%28Darwination-IA%29.cbr/file

or you can read it online at the IA once it finishes deriving:
https://archive.org/details/realistic-romances-016-1954-06.-avon-darwination-ia

and, no doubt, Yoc or OE will likely have the new version up at the DCM before you know it, too.

I had put the splash for the Marijuana story up at Flickr but will drop all the story pages here since we're talking about it.  BTW the romance comics group/gallery I have at Flickr is very lonely - if we have anybody else that uses that platform they are welcome to join

at Flickr (a very strange place but also GREAT for viewing images not to mention I can up huge lossless files - not this comic tho, I was working in jpeg at the time)

Edited September 14, 2023 by Darwination