Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 So Charlton GA was really about 2 titles - Pictorial Love Stories, 5 issues at the start of the "romance wars" circa 1949 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 and True Life Secrets, 29 issues at the end of the GA/beginning of the CCA period. #23 gets all the price action for this title but #25 is the last precode Charlton, and a fabulous bookend for the luscious #23. Talk about getting your last licks in. I've posted this one before here and there. It's pretty nasty...for a romance book. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 You nailed it, Doc. My thought was that looks like Romita's romance work before I even read the comments. i wouldn't be surprised if it was "borrowed". Pretty savvy, RJ. But you know what they say about "borrowing" from DC - good enough for Lichtenstein, good enough for...well, everyone else. Soon I'll be pivoting to Silver romance and starting a thread on that side of the block. That's really a Charlton/DC story. Here's a preview. Remember the stylistic components I was talking about a few posts back? Check it. At DC, we don't need no stinkin' dialogue or thought balloons. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Was there a warehouse find of TLS 23? Seem to be a ton of them around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Was there a warehouse find of TLS 23? Seem to be a ton of them around. I don't think so, but I totally know what you mean. This book was never that hard to come by, even back in the day. Considering the supply, I've been kinda stupified about the prices it gets. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 oops - forgot these Charlton precode, Romantic Story and Sweethearts They are continuations of titles acquired from Fawcett. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Was there a warehouse find of TLS 23? Seem to be a ton of them around. I don't think so, but I totally know what you mean. This book was never that hard to come by, even back in the day. Considering the supply, I've been kinda stupified about the prices it gets. I'm pretty sure there was a warehouse find, most copies are in at least midgrade, and high grade is not in short supply. I bought one in the earlier days of ebay from a seller that had half a dozen copies listed. It can go for big bucks in high grade, but 5.0-6.0- copies seem to sell for $25 - $50 usually. Thing #16 was a warehouse find, and I'm pretty sure Crime & Justice #20 was as well. Both are Sept. 54 cover dated Charlton books. TLS #23 was a couple months later, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all from the same find. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 The cover for Romantic Story #27 is taken from Fox's My Love Memoirs #9, and the one for Sweethearts #27 is from Fox's My Life #14. The cover to TLS #25 has a Fox book look to it as well, but I couldn't find one. Of course, TLS #23 is taken from My Desire #4. I wonder just how many Charlton romance books recycled Fox covers. Romantic Story #28 and #29 are as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusterMark Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 You nailed it, Doc. My thought was that looks like Romita's romance work before I even read the comments. i wouldn't be surprised if it was "borrowed". Pretty savvy, RJ. But you know what they say about "borrowing" from DC - good enough for Lichtenstein, good enough for...well, everyone else. Soon I'll be pivoting to Silver romance and starting a thread on that side of the block. That's really a Charlton/DC story. Here's a preview. Remember the stylistic components I was talking about a few posts back? Check it. At DC, we don't need no stinkin' dialogue or thought balloons. Beautiful cover! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I wonder just how many Charlton romance books recycled Fox covers. Good eye RJ. That's all of them. You're right about TLS 25, it wasn't swiped form a published cover, but it's got to be a Fox all the same. I kinda feel the same way but not as strongly about Sweethearts 31. Romantic Story 28 = swipe from My Love Affair 2 (1949) which was reused for Intimate Confessions 1 (1950) Romantic Story 29 = swipe from My Story 9 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inaflash Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 oops - forgot these Charlton precode, Romantic Story and Sweethearts They are continuations of titles acquired from Fawcett. Great books. The cover on 27 is really striking. Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I see what you mean about Sweethearts #31, especially with the fur coat as Fox has a number of expensive gift type covers. Most genres have been more heavily investigated by fans for cover swipes and reused art than romance. I imagine there are dozens of books out there from a variety of publishers that are generally unrecognized that have swiped and recycled covers, and not just from other comics, as we know that pulp covers were a common source of inspiration for comic artists as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 I wonder just how many Charlton romance books recycled Fox covers. Good eye RJ. That's all of them. You're right about TLS 25, it wasn't swiped form a published cover, but it's got to be a Fox all the same. I kinda feel the same way but not as strongly about Sweethearts 31. Romantic Story 28 = swipe from My Love Affair 2 (1949) which was reused for Intimate Confessions 1 (1950) Romantic Story 29 = swipe from My Story 9 Romantic Story 26 seems to resemble one of the (pre-Baker) Cinderella Love covers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Was there a warehouse find of TLS 23? Seem to be a ton of them around. I don't think so, but I totally know what you mean. This book was never that hard to come by, even back in the day. Considering the supply, I've been kinda stupified about the prices it gets. I'm pretty sure there was a warehouse find, most copies are in at least midgrade, and high grade is not in short supply. I bought one in the earlier days of ebay from a seller that had half a dozen copies listed. It can go for big bucks in high grade, but 5.0-6.0- copies seem to sell for $25 - $50 usually. Thing #16 was a warehouse find, and I'm pretty sure Crime & Justice #20 was as well. Both are Sept. 54 cover dated Charlton books. TLS #23 was a couple months later, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were all from the same find. Just checked and 23 has 32 graded copies, including 12 graded 9.0 and above. 24 and 25 have one graded copy each and 22 has four. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 Most genres have been more heavily investigated by fans for cover swipes and reused art than romance. I imagine there are dozens of books out there from a variety of publishers that are generally unrecognized that have swiped and recycled covers, and not just from other comics, as we know that pulp covers were a common source of inspiration for comic artists as well. Just so. and Sqeggs is correct - the Romantic Story 26 is clearly a borrow from ZD Cinderella Love 5. and thanks Ken. That whole mirror thing was used by Fox in a variety of ways, which I think was unique to them. This particular cover - no background at all - really focuses the attention on the image in the handheld mirror to great dramatic effect. Notice the difference in image size between the Charlton cover and the Fox. And of course the change from the usual Fox yellow background to white. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heronext Posted February 7, 2015 Share Posted February 7, 2015 No book from me, friend. But a book about romance books lies dormant in the heart of our own RCheli. I believe life got in the way of that project, as it often does, but his blog about the genre from 10 years ago lives on, preserved in time. Check it out. Raphe's knowledge and passion on the subject are evident. Thirty Two Pages of Love and nice pickup of the Cole run by the Substitute Duke. I hope I'm not talking out of turn, but if you have a moment you should also check out his website - a great new tool for listing and selling books, both slabbed and raw. Heronext Thanks for the shout out! Dr. Love, spreading what he reads Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Thank you, Duke. I'll spread a little more then! I'm going to post some Fox covers for you'all. Because I know you'll like them. Heck, everybody does. Well, every one of us does, but not so much the 12-20 year old girls in 1947-1950 buying the romance comics that were beginning to flood the market. Michelle Nolan, in her fabulous book "Love on the Racks" (a must have resource for any fan of the romance genre), describes the Fox books as "an almost unreadable combination of the crass and the sleazy." There is no denying that the art was usually poor; the production values were worse than that; the stories ranged from downbeat to depressing; and the covers pictured behavior from both sexes that was either violent, cruel, sexist, or manipulative. They seemed to resemble the worst of the most sensationalist pulps of the 1930's. In other words, what collectors today, mostly male, would call features, rather than bugs! 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Fox was third into the romance market with My Life #4 (Sept 1948) behind Marvel's My Romance #1 (Sept 1948). Young Romance had been on the stands for almost a year and was a huge hit. The title sold 92% of its print run. With the third issue, Crestwood increased the print run to triple the initial number of copies. Circulation jumped to 1,000,000 copies a month. Initially published bimonthly, Young Romance quickly became a monthly and generated the spin-off, Young Love - together the two sold two million copies a month. Every publisher except for Dell wanted a piece of this very lucrative pie. After all, this wasn't young males replacing their purchasing preferences with something different. This was add-on business from a demographic they hadn't been able to tap before. This was four color gold, if you could get in there quick enough to establish your brand and create a following. Of the 22 romance publishers in 1949, eight jumped on the bandwagon pretty hard, especially Fox. In the wake of the first four isues of My Life (#4-7), Fox flooded the market with 17 new romance titles in the last seven months of 1949, eventually reaching 21 romance titles in 1950. Of those 17, fully a dozen were continued from tittles in their other genres, with Fox hoping to save on the cost of new postal permits. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 But the explosion of romance books, of which Fox was just one contributor, had a serious unintended consequence - a market glut that simply couldn't be absorbed, with romance printing about one out of every five comic books published at that time. As quickly as they got in, Fox got out, converting 18 of its 21 romance titles to other genres in the second half of 1950. They discontinued the other 3 titles, all shortly before going out of business. Other publishers followed (getting out of romance that is), but Fox was remarkable for the speed of their explosion and implosion. So hopefully this little history lesson should help create a context in which you see these books. The Fox issues weren't just mildly distasteful to young girls, they were hardly on the stands before they were gone. The fact that they exist at all today is remarkable. But that's just one chapter in the story of the Rise and Fall of the Romance Empire. The Greatest Story Never Told, except for it has been, by Michelle Nolan (from whom I copied liberally for this post), but mostly unknown outside of a small circle of fans and romance junkies. It was a phenomena, hardly noticed by mainstream collectors and little understood - for the girls that bought the Golden Age romance books cared little for them afterwards and apparently had more pressing things to do than waste their time on comics. They had their hands full participating and helping to drive the engine of the post-war boom and birthing and raising us, the Baby Boomers. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
