Dr. Love Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 And the last one - my personal fave 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusterMark Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Awesome, each and every one!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagii Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Tawdry, trashy, exploitative.........I LOVE IT Dr. Love does it again! Peerless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs 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. Oh, yeah? Dang! I was sure I had a couple more covers of Daisy and Donald courtin' and sparkin' but I can't find them. But yeah, Dell didn't jump on the romance bandwagon (unless you count the Lennon Sisters (yuck!) ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs 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! I second that emotion on the Nolan book. Indispensable ... but kinda dry. I don't think too much is known about how these books were put together and what the artists (and writers) thought about their work on them. So the book necessarily lacks some of the inside stories that jazz up books about the superhero side of DC and Timely/Atlas/Marvel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 And the last one - my personal fave Tremendous string of books. There is only one Dr. Love! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Oh, yeah? But yeah, Dell didn't jump on the romance bandwagon (unless you count the Lennon Sisters (yuck!) ) Well then in addition to the hot Duck love (which is awesome btw) there is one more Dell to mention. It kinda depends on your definition. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Oh, yeah? But yeah, Dell didn't jump on the romance bandwagon (unless you count the Lennon Sisters (yuck!) ) Well then in addition to the hot Duck love (which is awesome btw) there is one more Dell to mention. It kinda depends on your definition. That one I think you have to count, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 That one I think you have to count, no? Yup. In my world (of which I am currently Collector Rex), I get to pick and choose on the exact romance list, which I have as 5,846 books. Michelle Nolan has it on her book's Appendix: Catalog of American Romance Comics, and I agree. But Nolan also includes Private Secretary #1 & 2, which I say doesn't belong. But she doesn't include Star's Popular Teen-Agers, which I do. So our two counts aren't identical, but close enough for government work. Don't ask how she can have 3 Dells on the list and then say Dell had not one. Or how I can quote her but have one Dell on my list too. Too many words! Hulk's head hurts! 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrBedrock Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Killer cool books Andy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MBFan Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Thanks, Dr. Love, for sharing your knowledge and covers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjpb Posted February 8, 2015 Share Posted February 8, 2015 Thanks, Dr. Love, for sharing your knowledge and covers! +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonwad Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks, Dr. Love, for sharing your knowledge and covers! +1 Another batch of great ones. Fox sure didn't think they could have too many titles with the word "My" in it. The My Confession #7 is just a tremendous cover and I'm sure I'll find a high grade copy any day now. It reminds me of Eisner's Spirit #22 cover that came out a year later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damonwad Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 This is another one I really like, though I wish there was no dialog. Love those blue eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks guys! much appreciated. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers romance collectors romance appreciators. I still can't get a fix on the artists for these Fox covers. Whatever research I've done, though not exhaustive to date, has given me nada. Nothing in Overstreet, nothing in GCD. Jon Berk has great stuff on the Fox superhero earlier period, but on the romance he dries up. There are two or three distinctive hands at work and you'd know their work in an instant so it shouldn't be this hard. But it is. If you've got a hunch, chime in please. The My Confession 7 is one of the big Fox romance books. There are other Fox books that are more obscure, some of the strange photocovers, and they will get big $ as they are rarely seen at all. But for drawn work, this book is much desired. I passed on fighting for the Crippen 9.0 in 2007; it was just too much money for me considering we were only up to the M's in the Heritage rollout and I had to conserve resources for the who knew how many more romance books to come for the rest of the alphabet. That was a huge mistake. That book is a stunner. They all have bleed through (that I've seen) but this copy had no other visible issues. Very very clean. Then one of the two 7.5s came around on CC in 2012 and I passed again due to PQ. Another huge mistake. Prices had escalated so that the 7.5 with LT-OW was now going for what the 9.0 went for previously. Finally a fellow boardie was graciously willing to part with the other 7.5 and this time I didn't flinch. If you come across one snap it up. It will always be priced higher than other comparably graded romance books - but romance books will always be priced lower than other genres. 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks guys! much appreciated. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers romance collectors romance appreciators. I still can't get a fix on the artists for these Fox covers. Whatever research I've done, though not exhaustive to date, has given me nada. Nothing in Overstreet, nothing in GCD. Jon Berk has great stuff on the Fox superhero earlier period, but on the romance he dries up. There are two or three distinctive hands at work and you'd know their work in an instant so it shouldn't be this hard. But it is. If you've got a hunch, chime in please. The My Confession 7 is one of the big Fox romance books. There are other Fox books that are more obscure, some of the strange photocovers, and they will get big $ as they are rarely seen at all. But for drawn work, this book is much desired. I passed on fighting for the Crippen 9.0 in 2007; it was just too much money for me considering we were only up to the M's in the Heritage rollout and I had to conserve resources for the who knew how many more romance books to come for the rest of the alphabet. That was a huge mistake. That book is a stunner. They all have bleed through (that I've seen) but this copy had no other visible issues. Very very clean. Then one of the two 7.5s came around on CC in 2012 and I passed again due to PQ. Another huge mistake. Prices had escalated so that the 7.5 with LT-OW was now going for what the 9.0 went for previously. Finally a fellow boardie was graciously willing to part with the other 7.5 and this time I didn't flinch. If you come across one snap it up. It will always be priced higher than other comparably graded romance books - but romance books will always be priced lower than other genres. 'Cept funny animals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MusterMark Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Thanks guys! much appreciated. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers romance collectors romance appreciators. I still can't get a fix on the artists for these Fox covers. Whatever research I've done, though not exhaustive to date, has given me nada. Nothing in Overstreet, nothing in GCD. Jon Berk has great stuff on the Fox superhero earlier period, but on the romance he dries up. There are two or three distinctive hands at work and you'd know their work in an instant so it shouldn't be this hard. But it is. If you've got a hunch, chime in please. The My Confession 7 is one of the big Fox romance books. There are other Fox books that are more obscure, some of the strange photocovers, and they will get big $ as they are rarely seen at all. But for drawn work, this book is much desired. I passed on fighting for the Crippen 9.0 in 2007; it was just too much money for me considering we were only up to the M's in the Heritage rollout and I had to conserve resources for the who knew how many more romance books to come for the rest of the alphabet. That was a huge mistake. That book is a stunner. They all have bleed through (that I've seen) but this copy had no other visible issues. Very very clean. Then one of the two 7.5s came around on CC in 2012 and I passed again due to PQ. Another huge mistake. Prices had escalated so that the 7.5 with LT-OW was now going for what the 9.0 went for previously. Finally a fellow boardie was graciously willing to part with the other 7.5 and this time I didn't flinch. If you come across one snap it up. It will always be priced higher than other comparably graded romance books - but romance books will always be priced lower than other genres. 'Cept funny animals! And I think Funny Animals are great too!! (I don't mean to imply that you said otherwise). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) In other late breaking romance news this Confession of the Loverlorn 53, one of the ACG Fab Freaky Four, closed on Ebay last night for $787.77. This price did not have sufficient participation to sustain in the future...possibly. By that I mean 2 guys took it to that level, the bunch below them dropping away at the low $300 range. Still, impressive. and great news to those lucky enough to already own an issue. You know who you are. Edited February 9, 2015 by Dr. Love 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) 'Cept funny animals! Shoot, I've been scouting around for some sweet Frisky Fables and/or Frisky Animals, and they aint cheap. But I guess they live at the top of the funny animals heap? and I forgot to mention "uh...please don't correct me. It sickens me." - Mr. Furious from the Mystery Men movie which in my house is always followed by "don't get shizit wrong, you won't need to be corrected" Edited February 9, 2015 by Dr. Love 1950's war comics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 In other late breaking romance news this Confession of the Loverlorn 53, one of the ACG Fab Freaky Four, closed on Ebay last night for $787.77. This price did not have sufficient participation to sustain in the future...possibly. By that I mean 2 guys took it to that level, the bunch below them dropping away at the low $300 range. Still, impressive. Seems kinda high for that one, no? I bought a copy in about the same condition last summer for half that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
