Romance

ROMANCE COMICS

Romance comics are a genre of U.S. comic books that were most popular during the Golden Age of Comics. The market for comics, which had been growing rapidly throughout the 1940s, began to plummet after the end of World War II when military contracts to provide disposable reading matter to servicemen ended. This left many comic creators seeking new markets. The romance comic genre was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, who kicked off Young Romance in 1947 in an effort to tap into new adult audiences. In the next 30 years, over 200 issues of the flagship romance comic would be produced.

The comics tended to espouse traditional female gender roles and values of marriage. This was due in part to the fact that the comics were created almost entirely by men. The stories dealt with a range of complex and mature issues. The protagonist was frequently but not always a middle class woman, grappling with power struggles in the workplace between genders, economic hardship, illegitimate children, marital infidelity, and divorce. Other comics were pure escapist fantasy. The comics appealed to men as well as women and about half of the ads placed in the comics were clearly aimed at men and boys. [1]

MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_comics

Following the implementation of the Comics Code, publishers of romance comics greatly self-censored the content, which made the stories bland and innocent, reiterating themes insisting that women should pursue marriage above all. When the sexual revolution introduced an era in which the traditional values promoted in romance comics were being questioned, along with the decline in comics in general, romance comics began to fade. DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Charlton Comics carried a few romance titles into the middle 1970s, but the genre never regained the level of popularity it had enjoyed earlier.[2]

A few publishers in the 2000s began again producing romance comics. Dark Horse, in conjunction with Harlequin, published a new line of romance manga comics, which adapt previously published romance novels into manga form.[3] As well, the influx of manga into North America carried with it an interest in a wider variety of genre, including romance and erotica, aimed at a young female audience (see Shōjo manga).

In June 2005, Arrow Publications (http://www.arrowpub.com) launched a line of romance webcomics, which are similar in form to the comics of the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2006, Adhouse Books published an anthology of contemporary romance comics entitled Project: Romantic.

FROM FIRST LOVE ILLUSTRATED BY BOB POWELL:

It's the original, hand-drawn, artwork (5 pages, complete) for the story titled "I Joined A Teen-Age Sex Club" from Harvey Comics' First Love Illustrated #13.

The Powell Studio famously used a watercolor "blue wash" to indicate areas of shadow for the colorists, coloring being a process done later in the production cycle, and outside the control of the artists. The blue wash adds a nice dimension to the otherwise black and white original art.

http://www.wantedcowgirls.com/Comics.html

http://en.marveldatabase.com/Comics:Cowgirl_Romances_Vol_1

Milehighcomics

http://www.comicvine.com

www.metropoliscomics.com

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Romance_comics

UNTAMED LOVE PUBLISHED BY QUALITY COMICS:

Quality Comics was started by Everett M. "Busy" Arnold, a printer who saw the rapidly rising popularity of the comic book medium in the late 1930s. He entered the field by buying out the existing series Feature Funnies from Eastern Color Press. Initially buying features from Eisner & Iger, a prominent "packager" that produced comics on demand for publishers entering the new medium, Quality introduced such superheroes as Plastic Man and Kid Eternity, and other such characters as the aviator hero Blackhawk. Quality also published comic-book reprints of Will Eisner's "The Spirit", the seven-page lead feature in a weekly 16-page, tabloid-sized, newsprint comic book, known colloquially as "The Spirit Section", distributed through Sunday newspapers.

By the mid-1950s, with television and paperback books drawing readers away from comic books in general and superheroes in particular, interest in Quality's characters had declined considerably. After a foray into other genres such as war, humor, romance and horror, the company ceased operations with comics cover-dated December 1956. Many of its properties were sold to National Periodical Publications (now DC Comics), which chose to keep only a few titles running, such as Blackhawk and GI Combat.

Girls' Love Stories was a romantic comic book published by DC Comics in the United States. Started in 1949 as DC's first romance title, it ran for 180 issues, ending with the Nov-Dec 1973 issue. The stories covered such topics as girls worrying about getting a man, or marrying out of pressure, not love. Some of the covers were drawn by illustrators, while others showed photographs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Romance_comics

After the Sept/Oct 1947 release of Crestwood/Prize's genre-launching Young Romance comic, (arguably the first romance comic^[1]^[2]), by the prolific team of Simon & Kirby sold "millions of copies"^[1], the company (and duo) swiftly prepared a separate, spin-off title to capitalise on the success of this new genre. Launched amid imitators from (among others) Quality Comics, Fawcett Publications, Fox Features Syndicate and Timely Comics, Crestwood/Prize's companion title Young Love was released "less than a year and a half" after the debut of Young Romance, and also sold well.^[2]^[1]

Launched in February 1949, Young Love ran initially for 73 issues, until December 1956.^[3] Four months later (Apr/May 1957), Prize launched All for Love, which ran for 17 issues until Feb/Mar 1959^[4], when it went on a year's hiatus, returning the following year and retitled Young Love. This retitled series then ran for 21 issues between February 1960 and June 1963^[5], whereupon Crestwood/Prize sold this - and other - titles to DC Comics, who produced a further 88 issues between 1963 and 1977.^[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Love_(comic)

Ace Comics was a publisher of comic books during the 1940's through mid-1950's. Like many comic book publishers of the day, the earlier series included costumed superheroes. As trends in the comic book market changed, the focus shifted more to other genres, such as crime horror and romance.

Their most successful superhero series was Super-Mystery Comics featuring Magno the Magnetic Man and his boy partner Davey. Horror titles included Baffling Mysteries, Hand of Fate and Web of Mystery. Their contribution to the crime comics genre was Crime Must Pay the Penalty. Some of their longest running series were the four romance titles Glamorous Romances, Love At First Sight, Love Experiences and Real Love. These began in the late 1940's, after the superhero books faded away and continued until the company ceased publishing comic books in 1956.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Comics_(publishers)

Girls' Romances was a comic book published in the United States. It ran for 160 issues, from Feb-Mar 1950 to Oct. 1971. It covered romance topics like dating or marriage, and was published by the National Romance Group/DC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls%27_Romances