Last time I began talking about what may be the most obscure of Bill Everett's work, his romance stories for Timely/Atlas. I presented 6 stories penciled and/or inked between 1949 and early 1951, with two 1951 cover dated stories possessing job numbers hailing the scripts back to the Timely period of 1949.
Having gotten romance out of his system in nearly one fell swoop, the final 4 follow, with the last 2 being the only post-code stories of the entire listing:
A poor hillbilly gal with a fantastic singing voice has a chance at success and happiness when she comes to New York for a television audition. But will her past ruin it for her as her cold, jealous hillbilly boyfriend confronts her in the big city?
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) p.2 |
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) p.3 |
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) p.4 |
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) p.5 |
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) p.6 |
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) p.7 |
Beautiful artwork! I love the multicolored splash!
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb52) [splash panel] |
The author of this tale really lays on the hillbilly slang, so much so, it gets painful after a while.
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb/52) p.6, panel 3 |
And the clinch!
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| #9479 LOVE ADVENTURES #9 (Feb/52) p.7, panel 6 |
Our third entry is probably
the Atlas romance issue for Bill Everett fans. Not one, but TWO Everett romance stories! We start with a third Al Hartley cover:
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LOVE TALES #51 (Feb/52)
(Al Hartley cover) |
Story one is a tale of two sisters, one sweet, one not so much. Once again the specter of kleptomania strikes as the sweet gal tries to cover for the crimes of her cruel sister.
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.1 |
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.2 |
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.3 |
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.4 |
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.5 |
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.6 |
A great splash and a little bit of Everett pre-code cheesecake!
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) (splash) |
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| #9480 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.2, panel 3 |
The second Everett story is scripted by Timely-Atlas scribe Hank Chapman. Chapman wrote 14 romance stories for Timely/Atlas between 1950 and 1953. 13 of them are signed and the 14th, the earliest, I'm postulating as Chapman as the main character is named Hank Chapman in the story. That story is the classic politically incorrectly titled
"No Love for a Fat Girl" in
LOVERS #29 (July/50)!
Chapman and Everett present a bit of a morality play on the destructive potential of jealousy. All I can say is that I don't blame these wives one bit!
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.1 |
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.2 |
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.3 |
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.4 |
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.5 |
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.6 |
Here's the condensed version....
The set-up...
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) (splash) |
Jealous angst... Is this a great scene, or what?? I'm surprised Roy Lichtenstein
didn't steal this panel!!
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.2, panel 1 |
The whispers...
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.4, panels 5-6 |
The secret's out...
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.5, panel 1 |
All a misunderstanding!
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| #9682 LOVE TALES #51 (Feb52) p.6, panel 5 |
The next title of note is the illustrative
GIRL CONFESSIONS, my very favorite Atlas romance title. Everett has four stories in four issues and this title is the repository for some of the best Atlas romance art of all. The title began as the famous
GIRL COMICS, running 12 issues from Oct/49 to Jan/52. It then changed to
GIRL CONFESSIONS with #13 ((Mar/52), enjoying a long run of 23 additional issues up through #35 (Aug/54).
During its storied run it featured an artistic line-up including Bill Everett (4 stories), Jerry Robinson (6 stories), Joe Maneely (2 stories), Russ Heath, Gil Kane, Fred Kida and even Harry Anderson, along with regulars like Mike Sekowsky, Al Hartley, Jay Scott Pike, Art Peddy, Alice Kirkpatrick, Sid Greene, Vern Greene, Brown & Gantz, Christopher Rule, George Klein, and at the end of the run, Vince Colletta. Most of the covers were by Al Hartley, 13 by my count. We even get 2 covers by what looks like Carmine Infantino possibly with Gil Kane, #19 (Oct/52) and #20 (Nov/52). Years ago I spent some time with Carmine Infantino at a New York show and I showed him a large collection of his work for Atlas in the 1952 period. As we paged through the stories I asked who he thought may have done the inking. He offered the suggestion that Gil Kane "may" have worked on some of the stories with him but we never could get specific or nail anything down.
(3)
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GIRL CONFESSIONS #19 (Oct/52)
(Infantino? & Kane? cover) |
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GIRL CONFESSIONS #20 (Nov/52)
(Infantino? & Kane? cover) |
Let's begin the Everett work with the very first issue, #13 (Mar/52), and our 4th straight Al Hartley cover:
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GIRL CONFESSIONS #31 (#1) (Mar/52)
(Al Hartley cover) |
"Fatal Error" tells the story of a young beautiful model made famous by a photographer who is madly in love with her. When she leaves him in the lurch, going to Hollywood with a handsome male model to make it in the movie industry, she ultimately learns her
fatal error as he dumps her as soon it's determined she's not "photogenic", which is kind of silly since she was already a successful model in New York. Maybe she just couldn't act!
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.1 |
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.2 |
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.3 |
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.4 |
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.5 |
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.6 |
Again, the condensed version...
The splash depicting the climax to the story:
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) splash |
The hard work...
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.2, panel 1 |
In love with the man who made it all possible, the photographer...
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#9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52)
p.2, panel 6 |
Success!!
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.3, panel 1 |
The betrayal! Beware of male models!
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.3, panel 5 |
The splash scene! The rival! Violence!
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.4, panel 5 |
In Hollywood, the girl doesn't "have it"...
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| #9712 GIRL CONFESSIONS #13 (Mar52) p.5, panel 4 |
Dumped! "What a fool I've been!"
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| #9712 p.5, panel 7 |
Return to New York... He still loves me!
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| #9712 p.6, panel 6 |
Al Hartley graces the cover of our 5th straight issue,
GIRL CONFESSIONS once again. Everett has the lead story this issue and this is one of the weaker entries story-wise as a young singer's hopes are dashed by strained vocal chords. Taking on a protege`, she drives the young woman very hard, hoping to achieve success through her, and in the process almost loses her fiancée, who she has repeatedly put off marrying.
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GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52)
(Al Hartley cover) |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.1 |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.2 |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.3 |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.4 |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.5 |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.6 |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July/52) p.7 |
Another colorful splash displaying the story climax:
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July52) p.1 splash |
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July52) p.2, panel 6 |
Everett headlights! Well it is
pre-code!
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July52) p.5, panel 1 |
Isn't love grand??
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| #A-650 GIRL CONFESSIONS #16 (July52) p.7, panel 1 |
The next title featuring Bill Everett Atlas romance stories is another classic issue featuring
two Everett tales! The issue is
LOVERS #41 (Sept/52).
LOVERS was another of the 4 longest running Timely/Atlas romance titles (we've already seen
LOVE TALES above), lasting 64 issues from, #36 (May/49) through #86 (Aug/57). (The other 2 long-running titles were
LOVE ROMANCES and
MY OWN ROMANCE/TEEN-AGE ROMANCE).
Like
LOVE TALES above, the first 7 issues were photo covers. Here is the debut issue:
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| LOVERS #23 (#1) (May/49) |
The lead story in the debut issue was penciled by Mike Sekowsky, but that's material for another blog post. Below is the cover to issue #41. Finally we have a cover artist I cannot identify. The man gives a hint that Al Hartley may have had a hand but overall it's one of many from this period, all similar, without an artist's name attached to it.
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| LOVERS #41 (Sept/52) |
In addition to Bill Everett, there is a gorgeous Werner Roth story (with a full-page splash) .....
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| #A-778 Werner Roth |
.....and a story by the team of Brown & Gantz, Ben Brown and Timely alumnus David Gantz. Gantz at Timely hails back to the earliest years of the humor staff on titles like
COMEDY COMICS,
KRAZY KOMICS,
TERRYTOONS and
JOKER COMICS, where he took over
Squat Car Squad from his friend Al Jaffee.
For more background on the Timely humor books, click here:
Timely funny-animal department
Gantz later contributed to the hero books as well as the teen titles post-war. The Brown & Gantz team did a lot of work in the early 1950's for Atlas, Toby (including the
PURPLE CLAW), and even their own creator owned property
BEANBAGS. The team worked in this manner; David Gantz would lay out the stories, Ben Brown would pencil and then Gantz would come back and ink.
The first of two Bill Everett stories this issue is a short 4-pager, "I Was An Artist's Model!" The one question I have as I read this is... did people really act in the manner these people act? Has young courtship changed so much? The premise to this story is ridiculous! A gorgeous gal won't accept a marriage proposal from a great guy because she believes, no she "wonders", if he only loves her beauty, not
her. She's not even sure and he's done nothing to to make her think otherwise. Now how silly is this? And the short 4-page format this time means no further development of the plot, it just comes to a grinding halt as she realizes he really does love her for
her. Wow... smitten guys sure offered marriage proposals quickly in these stories.
Everett does a wonderful job with a limited story. A nice splash and even though most of the story is "talking heads", the heads sure are pretty!
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| #A-688 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.1 |
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| #A-688 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.2 |
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| #A-688 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.3 |
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| #A-688 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.6 |
The splash sets up the conflict at its climax:
And in 4 quick panels the silly problem is solved on page 4!
The second Everett story this issue was scripted by Carl Wessler. Wessler was incredibly prolific for Timely/Atlas from 1951 to 1957 in every genre, but primarily pre-code crime and horror/fantasy. I've attributed almost 500 Atlas stories to him so far with the help of Robin Snyder, who has access to Wessler's record books. Many of the late 1951, early 1952 Atlas crime books were entirely scripted by Wessler!
In this story the anguish meter is pushed into the red zone! A handicapped young woman (the spitting image of Namorita!) falls in love with a young man while her jealous sister tries to convince her he only feels sorry for her. Lots of emotional turmoil lushly rendered by Everett.
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| #A-693 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.1 |
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| #A-693 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.2 |
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| #A-693 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.3 |
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| #A-693 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.4 |
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| #A-693 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.5 |
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| #A-693 LOVERS #41 (Sept52) p.6 |
Love can conquer all adversity!
Happily ever after!
Our next two stories take us back to the great Atlas romance title
GIRL CONFESSIONS. The first story,
"Bitter Victory", is a 6-pager and comes from issue #17 (Aug/52).
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| GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug/52) |
The cover artist to both issues is the same nondescript artist we saw on the cover to
LOVERS #41 above, namely "I don't know". The issue contains stories by Al Hartley, Jay Scott Pike, Brown & Gantz, and bringing up the rear, Bill Everett....
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| #A-821 GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug52) p.1 |
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| #A-821 GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug52) p.2 |
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#A-821 GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug52) p.3
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#A-821 GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug52) p.4
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#A-821 GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug52) p.5
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#A-821 GIRL CONFESSIONS #17 (Aug52) p.6
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Two young women plan their lives out in ways they
"think" they want. Both are successful in achieving their goals, rejecting love for ambition, but..... it doesn't guarantee happiness!
Next is issue #18 (September/52):
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| GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) |
Without a doubt, this is the stinker of the bunch. A silly story with stereotyped characterizations and situations. Nothing is believable in this story. I'm astonished how many men and women in these stories fall in love instantaneously and immediately want to marry someone they've known a day or two. Everett's artwork also drops down to match this lesser story. The pictures are still pretty but stiff and uninspired.
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| #A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.1 |
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| #A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.2 |
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| #A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.3 |
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| #A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.4 |
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#A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.5
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| #A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.6 |
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| #A-907 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept/52) p.7 |
This issue is also special to me for the fact that it contains what may be the only actual
"signed" solo romance story by one of my favorite Timely artists, Christopher Rule! You can find Rule's name accompanying text illustrations in
JUNIOR MISS #25 (July/47) and
MISS AMERICA Vol 7, #1 (Aug/47), his initials on a Wendy Parker story in
WENDY PARKER #3 (Sept/53) and the cover of
WENDY PARKER #4 (Oct/53), his last name on the cover to
PATSY AND HER PALS #12 (Mar/55), and even his initials again (with Stan Lee's) on "Patsy's Fashion Parade" in
PATSY WALKER #80 (Dec/58), but this may well be the only solo romance story (among scores) bearing a cursive signature
"C. Rule"!
I won't go into a big Rule discussion here because I intend to devote an entire blog post to him in the future, but I'll reveal a teaser sample...
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#A-808 GIRL CONFESSIONS #18 (Sept52) [SPLASH]
signed Christopher Rule!
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| Whoo-Hoo!! |
It's the little things that make me happy!
We close out cover date 1952 with
MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52), a big, thick 52 page issue. The cover artist is the same unknown, nondescript artist we saw thrice previously, hinting at Al Hartley but not likely him.
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| MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) |
Al Hartley
does have the lead story inside, followed by Mike Sekowsky, Ogden Whitney, 2 stories by Christopher Rule (the 1st perhaps only inked by him) and Bill Everett ending the issue....
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| #B-117 MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) p.1 |
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| #B-117 MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) p.2 |
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| #B-117 MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) p.3 |
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| #B-117 MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) p.4 |
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| #B-117 MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) p.5 |
A war widow with a young son falls in love with a man who is rejected by her son, pining for his late war hero father. While the story builds interestingly for 4 pages, it comes to a rapid denouement on page 5. Not a very believable depiction of the man holding off a shark with his bare hands in panel 4.
This issue also sports a surprise, an actual letter page edited by Stan Lee! During the Timely romance glut of 1949-50, many romance issues sported pseudo letter pages that were fictional advice columns and not true letter pages at all. Starting cover date Aug/52, editor-in-chief Stan Lee began an experiment to impart a club house feel to the Atlas titles under his direction, perhaps even trying to emulate what Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein were doing over at E.C. and elicit real reader feedback. The very first was
Suspense Sanctuary in the pre-code horror title
SUSPENSE.
Suspense Sanctuary ran in issues #21,22,23,25,26,27 and 28 (Mar/53). Concurrently, this was also tried for two issues in
MY OWN ROMANCE as
Heart to Heart Talk, issues #24 (Sept/52) and #25 (Nov/52). A letter page,
Battlefield Bivouac, was even tried for a single time in
BATTLEFIELD #4 (Oct/52). When
SUSPENSE was replaced by
MENACE, Stan once again asked readers to write in with comments on the early issues but no letter page ever materialized there.
Look below for a planted letter from Stan Lee's own wife Joan, asking for a reader's poll for favorite stories.
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| #A774 MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov/52) [Letter Page] |
With the publication above of
MY OWN ROMANCE #25 (Nov52), Bill Everett gets romance out of his system. For the entire cover year of 1952 he had drawn 11 romance stories in 5 different titles and a single romance cover (that I will show in the cover section at the end of this post). He will only draw 4 more romance stories for Atlas over the next 5 years.
For the next full year (until his first of final four Atlas romance stories starting cover month Nov/53) Everett will, in addition to freelancing elsewhere in the industry, draw exclusively war and horror stories for Atlas. The war stories were in the titles
BATTLE ACTION,
BATTLEFIELD,
COMBAT CASEY,
MAN COMICS,
WAR COMICS and
YOUNG MEN. The horror stories were in titles like
MENACE,
MEN'S ADVENTURES (during its horror run),
MYSTIC,
SUSPENSE and
UNCANNY TALES.
He will also contribute over 30 covers to the line in this same time period, almost exclusively pre-code horror covers, including the first 6 covers for
MENACE.
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| Yow!!! Is this cover great or what?? MENACE #1 (Mar/53) |
Cover date Nov/53, Atlas launched a new romance title out of the blue,
SECRET STORY ROMANCES. Besides the continuation of
TRUE SECRETS with #22 (Feb/54) after an 18 month hiatus, this would be the only new romance title until
STORIES OF ROMANCE (Mar/56) and
MY LOVE STORY (Apr/56). (
TRUE SECRETS would become
T
RUE TALES OF LOVE, also cover dated April, 1956.)
The debut issue of
SECRET STORY ROMANCES had Bill Everett's only romance story of cover date 1953, the 6-page
"Mary Parker's Man!". The cover was drawn by Jay Scott Pike, one of Atlas' most prolific romance artists and the artist who would take over
Jann of the Jungle from Art Peddy in 1954, as well as
Lorna the Jungle Girl from Werner Roth and Bob Brown in 1955, making both features his own and stamping the female jungle characters with his unmistakable good-girl/romance style.
Pike would draw approximately 16 Atlas romance covers, 9 of them in 1954.
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SECRET STORY ROMANCES #1 (Nov/53)
(Jay Scott Pike cover art) |
After stories by John Tartaglione (written by Paul S. Newman), Jay Scott Pike, a stylized artist I cannot identify (written by Paul S. Newman) and Al Hartley, the gem of the issue (well, at least visually) is the final story by Bill Everett,
"Mary Parker's Man!"
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| #D-69 Secret Story Romances #1 (Nov/53) p.1 |
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| #D-69 Secret Story Romances #1 (Nov/53) p.2 |
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| #D-69 Secret Story Romances #1 (Nov/53) p.3 |
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| #D-69 Secret Story Romances #1 (Nov/53) p.4 |
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| #D-69 Secret Story Romances #1 (Nov/53) p.5 |
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| #D-69 Secret Story Romances #1 (Nov/53) p.6 |
So let's see..... Frank and Danny return from Korea to Danny's small town and his girl Mary Parker (May Parker's cousin?).
Unfortunately Danny returns with all the immaturity intact that he left with. Mary is endlessly charmed by his boyish charm though, and can't resist his kisses:
When Danny reverts to type, irresponsible and unable to hold a job, including stealing from Frank after being given a 2nd chance, Frank makes his move.....
Mary finally sees Danny for the loser he is and ends up with Frank Masters (Alicia Master's uncle?)
Bill Everett's final pre-code romance story for Atlas was also drawn and published in 1953, although the cover date will say Feb/54. The book is
TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54).
TRUE SECRETS had a strange life. We already saw this title in the previous blog post on Bill Everett's Timely romance stories. I'll re-hash for those (all 2 of you) who abstained. It began with #3 (Mar/50, possibly continuing the numbering from
OUR LOVE #2, Jan/50) at the tail-end of the romance glut......
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| TRUE SECRETS #3 (#1) Mar/50 |
..... and was immediately cancelled with all the rest of the one, two and three issue glut titles. But like Lazarus rising from the dead, it gained a reprieve 11 months later (along with
LOVE ADVENTURES), publishing issues #4 through #21 (Aug/52), before getting the ax for a second time. It again cheated the reaper 18 months later when #22 (Feb/54) appeared, and continued unabated until #40 (Sept/56).
So here is issue #22:
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| TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) |
The cover is unsigned but I see a hodge-podge of possible discernible styles. The gentleman on the right could be drawn by Al Hartley. The young lady on the left has the hair inks and head shape of Christopher Rule's women.
... and the cross-eyes of Ann Brewster.
Do I think three artists jammed on this cover? No. I have no idea who drew it, I'm just telling you what my eyes see.
Inside, besides the Bill Everett story, the other highlight is a very nice tale by Paul Reinman, who was doing the finest work of his career in the early 1950's:
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| #D-530 (Paul Reinman art) |
So on to
"A Moment's Happiness":
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| #D-514 TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) p.1 |
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| #D-514 TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) p.2 |
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| #D-514 TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) p.3 |
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| #D-514 TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) p.4 |
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| #D-514 TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) p.5 |
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| #D-514 TRUE SECRETS #22 (Feb/54) p.6 |
The story is kind of silly as a woman has to decide between a nice man she doesn't love and a man she does love who happens to engage in high-risk behavior, namely is a test pilot. The splash montage is nice but the rest of the pages are mostly talking heads. I'm still baffled by how quickly young couples fall in love and want to immediately marry in these stories. The young women of the generation depicted here had a completely different outlook of what they wanted to do with their lives. They rarely went on to higher education and their own career paths, instead they looked for a husband who would care and provide for them. It's a different world.
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| #D-514 splash |
Personally, I don't know how Jake survived his plane crash! He should have been incinerated and instead survives with only a band-aid on his forehead.
I guess love saved the day!
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| #D-514 p.6, panel 6 |
Following the above story, Everett takes his leave of romance and spends the next two years focusing on his signature character, the revived Sub-Mariner appearing in Y
OUNG MEN,
MEN'S ADVENTURES,
HUMAN TORCH and a long 10 issue run in his own revived title
SUB-MARINER COMICS.
Everett also draws several humor parodies in
CRAZY and
WILD, before joining the post-code fantasy expansion with a score of stories and covers. From a trickle of less than 10 covers in 1954 and 1955, in 1956 alone Everett responded with almost 60 covers!
In 1956 Everett also returns to the romance genre in this post-code period with his two final romance stories for Atlas. They appear in back-to-back months. The first is a short 4-pager in
LOVE TALES #69 (June/56),
"The Lonely Nights".
The cover is by Vince Colletta but since I don't see a signature, it's possible it could have been penciled by someone else. At this time Colletta was the dean of the Atlas romance department, drawing 2 stories every issue and about 95% of all the covers in the recently expanded post-code romance line that featured 8 different romance titles at the time of this issue's publication. The 8 titles were the long standing
LOVE TALES,
MY OWN ROMANCE,
LOVE ROMANCES,
LOVERS and
TRUE SECRETS (which was subsequently cancelled), along with new additions to the line like T
RUE TALES OF LOVE,
STORIES OF ROMANCE and
MY LOVE STORY.
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| LOVE TALES #69 (Aug/56) |
The book's artistic line-up is standard post-code Atlas romance fare: Vince Colletta, Al Hartley, Jay Scott Pike, and a weird sketchy artist I cannot identify. He/she may have just been passing through as I don't believe I've ever seen the like before. As expected, the gem of the issue is Bill Everett, although the art is stripped down of its usual lushness. In fact, while the Everett signature is blatantly obvious in the first panel, the figure work looks decidedly Al Hartley-ish to me, especially the thick, black eyebrows. But I cannot say for certain. It could very well be all Everett in a stripped down, more simplistic post-code mode.
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| #J-613 LOVE TALES #69 (Aug56) p.1 |
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#J-613 LOVE TALES #69 (Aug56) p.2
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| #J-613 LOVE TALES #69 (Aug56) p.3 |
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| #J-613 LOVE TALES #69 (Aug56) p.4 |
Ok, let's face it, the story is silly. Holly feels sorry for herself because she's so short and feels a guy will never give her a second look. The way the story is drawn, Holly isn't
that short! If the average girl is about 5'4" in these stories, Holly comes in at about 5'. That's short? My wife is 4'11" and it never gave
me pause. Hmm.. but it does explain the high heels.
Let's look at the artwork. As I mentioned, there's something funny about this. All you folks reading this have already seen 13 purely Bill Everett stories above. Do these panels from this story look like all Bill Everett?
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| Almost looks like Dan DeCarlo! |
Now compare to this and add Everett inks:
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| Al Hartley MY OWN ROMANCE #53, Aug/56 |
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| Al Hartley LOVE TALES #69 (Aug/56) |
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| Al Hartley LOVE TALES #69 (Aug/56) |
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| Al Hartley LOVE TALES #70 (Oct/56) |
And finally, the very last Bill Everett Atlas romance story. "Love Letter" from
TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July/56). Another unsigned Vince Colletta cover
possibly penciled by someone else.
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| TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July/56) |
The issue features stories by Vince Colletta (2), Ann Bewster, Tom Scheuer and Bill Everett. Look closely at this final story. Unlike the previous, in spite of simpler drawing, this is all Everett. Storywise? Post-code slop with no real story at all, minimal conflict and a syrupy resolution.
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| #J-439 TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July56) p.1 |
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| #J-439 TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July56) p.2 |
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| #J-439 TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July56) p.3 |
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| #J-439 TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July56) p.4 |
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| #J-439 TRUE TALES OF LOVE #25 (July56) p.5 |
A nice splash...
The famous Everett pants suit!
The anguish...
The end!
I'm going to finish with a collection of all Bill Everett's romance covers, 5 total by my count.
BILL EVERETT : THE TIMELY/ATLAS ROMANCE COVERS
1) We start with a nice, signed, pre-code romance cover from Everett's prime romance year, 1952.
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| TRUE SECRETS #20 (July/52) |
2) The next cover is an anomaly, one of only 3 grey-tone Atlas covers I know of. This cover looks like Jay Scott Pike may have drawn it and Bill Everett then did the tones and finishes. This is 1954.
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| SECRET STORY ROMANCES #5 (Mar/54) |
3) Skipping two more years again into 1956, the next cover is also an anomaly. The main figures in the foreground are by Vince Colletta, but take a look at the 3 background women. Bill Everett!
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| STORIES OF ROMANCE #8 (Sept/56) |
4) In 1957, another hybrid cover. The man looks like Vince Colletta but all three nurses, especially those in the background, are by Bill Everett. Colletta may have penciled both foreground figures.
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| MY OWN ROMANCE #58 (July/57) |
5) And lastly, the final Bill Everett romance work right at the cusp of the Atlas implosion,
LOVE ROMANCES #70 (Aug/57). Note the full, beautiful Everett signature.
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| LOVE ROMANCES #70 (Aug/57) |
FOOTNOTES / SOURCES:
- Vassallo, Michael J.. Every scan and iota of Timely-Atlas data above sourced from my own collection and research.
- Nolan, Michelle. Love on the Racks - A History of American Romance Comics, McFarland & Company, Inc. 2008, (referencing Dr. Michael J. Vassallo p.5, 106.)
- Infantino, Carmine. Conversation with author, approx. 2002.
An interesting look at vintage graphic romance books. Thanks.
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