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What are the rarest romance comics?
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Started by Bo_Hogg,

6,494 posts in this topic

eschnit

eschnit

Posted
Posted
On 7/21/2021 at 10:56 AM, Dr. Love said:

and here are the Promise romance to date.  It's beginning to look like the kid was more a Church type of collector, buying books because that's the mission, having not much to do with genre preference.  I find it hard to believe a male teen in that period would be "into" romance books on the basis of they were just so awesome!  And romance photocovers?  That's a bridge too far for most if not all, even today.  Except myself and @Bumble Kitty!  Maybe a case could be made for him being a Kirby freak of the first order, and just followed that fanboyishness into Prize romance.  But what about the Timely romance?  Just a Timely fan in general?  A litmus test will be if he bought Fawcett romance, as they were certainly available (being the only romance title coming out monthly) but exclusively "sappy" photocover (always the happy couple) with no star artists or salacious content. 

Speaking of which, would love to see some (more) Fox.  The one entry showing up so far is a disappointing 5.5.

Ideal 5 7.5
My Romance 1 9.4
My Romance 2 8.5
My Romance 3 9.2
My Story 5 5.5
Young Love 17 9.2
Young Love 18 7.5
Young Romance 1 7.0
Young Romance 6 9.0
Young Romance 7 8.5
Young Romance 8 8.0
Young Romance 9 9.4
Young Romance 10 9.0
Young Romance 11 9.2
Young Romance 12 8.5
Young Romance 13 8.0
Young Romance 14 9.4
Young Romance 15 9.6
Young Romance 16 9.8
Young Romance 17 7.5
Young Romance 20 9.6
Young Romance 21 9.6
Young Romance 22 9.4
Young Romance 23 9.4

I’d guess it’s more likely he bought every new issue his local comic shop got in, and they didn’t carry a lot of romance, but some.  You’re right, I can’t imagine the photo cover romance comics were appealing to anyone really.  But whomever was buying them, Asian male teenagers probably wasn’t their target market.

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Dr. Love

Dr. Love

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We'll see about distribution in his local area moving forward. By '49 to '50 romance was exploding as they all rushed in to exploit the new niche demographic. 1 out of 5 books published was love.

The whoever was buying was girls. And Junie, Edgar, and Davis. That's about it!

And, btw, this bit about Junie being Asian, you know this...how?  Illuminati type stuff or what?   hm

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szav

szav

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Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 2:24 PM, eschnit said:

I can’t imagine the photo cover romance comics were appealing to anyone really.

Odd that they made so many of them then no?  I’m guessing they had wide appeal at the time.  I suppose one might argue that they were cheaper to produce but I’m not even sure that was true.  

Does anyone know?  With what they had to pay a photographer and models were photo cover covers cheaper to produce than paying the various artists involved in drawing a cover?

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comicnoir

comicnoir

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Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 6:26 PM, szav said:

Odd that they made so many of them then no?  I’m guessing they had wide appeal at the time.  I suppose one might argue that they were cheaper to produce but I’m not even sure that was true.  

Does anyone know?  With what they had to pay a photographer and models were photo cover covers cheaper to produce than paying the various artists involved in drawing a cover?

They were cheaper. They were stock photos bought from a photo agency. The publisher paid very little.

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Dr. Love

Dr. Love

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On 8/18/2021 at 3:50 PM, comicnoir said:

They were cheaper. They were stock photos bought from a photo agency. The publisher paid very little.

Ron's right.  Made good business sense not just on the money front - and these guys were all about the money - but the market they were aiming at were used to buying other romance publications (pulps and slicks primarily) that showcased photocovers, so they were a familiar and easy way to transition into this new purchase.

A better question is why do adult male collectors buy photocovers?  For that, you'd have to ask me and @Bumble Kitty.  It's an acquired taste, shall we say, not natural to guys that grew up on Marvel superheroes.

I did enjoy owning these three for a while.  Wasn't easy getting them out of Bechara Maalouf's hands back in the day.  I still have trouble on occasion with my rear end from the bending over he gave me at the time!

@sagiihey Corey this one's for you too!

 

IMG_5780.thumb.JPG.69ce1609371514c91d6b639da8e44a32.JPG

 

 

 

 

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szav

szav

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On 8/18/2021 at 3:50 PM, comicnoir said:

They were cheaper. They were stock photos bought from a photo agency. The publisher paid very little.

Makes sense then.  Seems like they may not have sold well because you see a few titles that started with drawn covers that went over to photos mid run, only to go back to drawn again later in the run.

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eschnit

eschnit

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Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 5:21 PM, Dr. Love said:

We'll see about distribution in his local area moving forward. By '49 to '50 romance was exploding as they all rushed in to exploit the new niche demographic. 1 out of 5 books published was love.

The whoever was buying was girls. And Junie, Edgar, and Davis. That's about it!

And, btw, this bit about Junie being Asian, you know this...how?  Illuminati type stuff or what?   hm

My memory was likely wrong.  I read the story, but I think it was a brother going off to fight in the Korean War.  Really lacking comment on my part.   Sorry about that.

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GreatCaesarsGhost

GreatCaesarsGhost

Posted
Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 5:50 PM, comicnoir said:

They were cheaper. They were stock photos bought from a photo agency. The publisher paid very little.

And the models couldn’t have much liked how it worked out for them. You know the young ladies below got their wake up call somewhere in their lives, when they figured it out

4EE0AA36-AA03-4E69-A7F1-D2BA6F71E102.jpeg

9B39F9AC-EDDB-4438-9423-754E9E3B3703.jpeg

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Yorick

Yorick

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Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 4:33 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

And the models couldn’t have much liked how it worked out for them. You know the young ladies below got their wake up call somewhere in their lives, when they figured it out

 

9B39F9AC-EDDB-4438-9423-754E9E3B3703.jpeg

Did you get this?  I was a bit surprised by the closing number...

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sagii

sagii

Posted
Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 7:02 PM, Dr. Love said:

Ron's right.  Made good business sense not just on the money front - and these guys were all about the money - but the market they were aiming at were used to buying other romance publications (pulps and slicks primarily) that showcased photocovers, so they were a familiar and easy way to transition into this new purchase.

A better question is why do adult male collectors buy photocovers?  For that, you'd have to ask me and @Bumble Kitty.  It's an acquired taste, shall we say, not natural to guys that grew up on Marvel superheroes.

I did enjoy owning these three for a while.  Wasn't easy getting them out of Bechara Maalouf's hands back in the day.  I still have trouble on occasion with my rear end from the bending over he gave me at the time!

@sagiihey Corey this one's for you too!

 

IMG_5780.thumb.JPG.69ce1609371514c91d6b639da8e44a32.JPG

 

 

 

 

Always enjoy seeing this group shot! Big fan of the series, cherish my set, and they would certainly be among the last books to go for me  if/when that day comes. When you sold me my #1 all those years ago, I knew I had to commit to completing the run. 

*never obtained a number #4, but sought after as it is, it's from a different publisher, isn't a photo cover, and is a reprint (interior) of number #2. All this I rationalized to make me get over going after it.

That said, though I sold them off here on the boards Forbidden Love is another photo covers favorite of mine. 

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Bumble Kitty

Bumble Kitty

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Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 4:02 PM, Dr. Love said:

A better question is why do adult male collectors buy photocovers?  For that, you'd have to ask me and @Bumble Kitty.  It's an acquired taste, shall we say, not natural to guys that grew up on Marvel superheroes.

The best way to answer this question is for me to post some photocover romance books over the next few weeks. Some of the covers are quite interesting and give insight into the specific culture at that time.  Plus when I picked them up, they were quite affordable.  Not like today with the Promise Collection books.

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comicnoir

comicnoir

Posted
Posted
On 8/18/2021 at 7:02 PM, Dr. Love said:

Ron's right.  Made good business sense not just on the money front - and these guys were all about the money - but the market they were aiming at were used to buying other romance publications (pulps and slicks primarily) that showcased photocovers, so they were a familiar and easy way to transition into this new purchase.

A better question is why do adult male collectors buy photocovers?  For that, you'd have to ask me and @Bumble Kitty.  It's an acquired taste, shall we say, not natural to guys that grew up on Marvel superheroes.

I did enjoy owning these three for a while.  Wasn't easy getting them out of Bechara Maalouf's hands back in the day.  I still have trouble on occasion with my rear end from the bending over he gave me at the time!

@sagiihey Corey this one's for you too!

 

IMG_5780.thumb.JPG.69ce1609371514c91d6b639da8e44a32.JPG

 

 

 

 

Maybe the most desirable trio of photo covers in the hobby.

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