QUALITY Romance Comics

[AtlasT]

Generally, these books are pretty arid, but their photo covers are sometimes quite funky, and they do occasionally contain art by Bill Ward and Paul Gustavson, who are usually worth searching out.

 

Bill Ward, of course, is famous for his cheesecake art, and rightly so. Which leads to my comparison of these two books:

 

 

Diary Loves 15 contains a story illustrated by Ward in his classic style, which is reprinted in Girls In Love 46, a post-Comics Code book, with some...ah...modifications, shall we say?

 

The opening panels demonstrate some subtle differences:

 

 

The original panels are shown on the left, the reprint's panels on the right. Note that Martha, who, we are told, is losing , is apparently too curvaceous in the original splash to make this plausible, I suppose, and so is rendered in a less flattering skirt in the reprint. Note, also, that Celia is considerably less endowed in the reprint. This will be shown to be a recurring problem, if you will, for the reprinted ladies.

 

Note the reduced exposure in these panels:

 

 

as well as the dreaded disappearing decolletage.

 

I'm sure you can find the instances, in these panels, where the provacative becomes prudish:

 

 

I especially enjoy the addition of a panel in the bottom left panel, so that we cannot enjoy the extended view of Celia in her recently acquired tunic.

 

Finally, I believe these panels require no comment at all:

 

 

The question I am left with is this: Did the Comics Code Authority demand these revisions, or did QUALITY, fearing the CCA's opprobrium, make these changes of their own initiative? Either way, here is graphic evidence of the cover-up brought on by the advent of the Comics Code Authority, and a wonderful example of 1950s American mores.

[143ksk]

That is great

 

Thanks for posting it

[goldust40]

Excellent work. Definitely a subject worthy of an article in CBM (if it was still going). I had no idea that such daft prudery existed - I thought that the pre-code GGA/romance books were not re-used after 1955.

[AtlasT]

Here's another interesting reprint of a Bill Ward story.

 

 

The original story, "Brimstone Kisses," appeared in Flaming Love 4, dated Sept. 1950. This story was reprinted as "The Life I Chose" in Diary Loves 16, dated Nov. 1951. The reprint is the same art and story, with some color changes, except for the title and opening panel, both of which were substantially subdued in the reprint.

 

 

I'm sure you'll agree that the lady in the original sizzles much more; notice also, that the guy on the right side apparently feels the same, as he has lost his open-mouthed gape.

[ft88]

I guess the CCA had a problem with mustaches too.

[HouseofComics.Com]

I guess the CCA had a problem with mustaches too.

 

Yep, he's been cleaned up too.

[Scrooge]

I guess the CCA had a problem with mustaches too.

 

Yep, he's been cleaned up too.

 

It's not even the CCA since the reprint is also a pre-code book. It simply must have been the editorial team. Plus in Nov 1951, this predates most of the publicity against comic books. Interesting decision. I guess we have to go back and check if there had been a change in editor (or simply and I didn't check, the reprint was done by another publisher). Most interesting AT.

[AtlasT]

Bill Ward's best romance stories, IMO, are to be found in the issues from 1949 and 1950. Consider this sumptuous example, cover and story, from Love Diary 1, dated Sept. 1949.

 

 

Also interesting is the lady on the left in panel 6 of page 2, who appears to be an exact copy of the lady on the left in the last panels, above, scanned from Diary Loves 15 and Girls in Love 46. Reappearing poses are another hallmark of Ward's work from this period.

[AtlasT]

Overstreet has long attributed the cover of Love Letters 1 to Bill Ward, but I have my doubts. I do not doubt, however, that this cover impressed at least one artist in the Atlas stable.

 

Love Letters 1 is dated Nov. 1949; True Secrets 17 is Apr. 1952.

 

[Silver]

I had posted these in the "In the shadow of the silver age" thread, but I will re-link them here for this thread ...

 

The Complete GI Sweethearts series:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ft88]

Now I'm depressed. Where are the "Happy" covers.... you know romance, flowers, candy that sort of thing.

[FlyingDonut]

[AtlasT]

Now I'm depressed. Where are the "Happy" covers.... you know romance, flowers, candy that sort of thing.

 

Not much market for that stuff. How about this one? Everybody looks pretty happy!

 

[dgillock]

Very cool to see the "before and after CCA" comparisons.

 

I have a couple of OA pages from a story that was slated to be in Great Lover Romances #23 (Toby), but the issue that was never published. The cool thing is that the art did go through code approval and you can see where corrections were made to get it through- this seemed to exclusively involve the whiting-out of cleavage. I'll get some images together at some point soon and post them.

[dgillock]

As promised:

 

 

 

[CentaurMan]

It's unusual for me to bump a thread, but I just saw this, and the before-and-after panel comparisons in the first few posts here are quite enjoyable.

[adamstrange]

It's unusual for me to bump a thread, but I just saw this, and the before-and-after panel comparisons in the first few posts here are quite enjoyable.

 

AtlasT didn't post a lot, but it was always interesting!

 

Wonder where he's been lately?