Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,942
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Post by Crimebuster on Feb 9, 2016 1:11:26 GMT -5
Hey guys, let's talk about design! ...After 117 issues and 17 years worth of conservative design that had begun to look a little outdated, DC abruptly revamped the design of the title - and all their romance titles - to correspond with the new Go-Go Checks design that their entire line of comics adopted with the February, 1966 issues. The first Go-Go Checks issue is #117, and the new logo debuts with #118.... And it's not just the checks here, or even the brand new, bold logo. Out go the muted color schemes and pastels of the previous era, in come bold, sharp colors. Eye-popping black and yellow start appearing a lot on these new look covers, along with more dramatic and less static poses and scenes. Just like that, the series suddenly looks modern, new, bold. It's like a sudden bucket of cold water to the face. Here's a look, from the next issue I'll be reviewing, #119. What a difference a couple issues can make: I find the new logo pretty dull and angular for a romance comic. Quick look at the GDC shows it only lasted six months to be replaced by one that's not much better. I rather like it, if only as a change of pace. They went to similar logos on some of their other books around this time, specifically Young Love, which kept its blocky logo for much longer than Girl's Love Stories did. From this point in the mid 60's, DC began screwing with their romance logos pretty regularly after a good 16-17 years of static logos. I assume sales had started to slide, and they were trying whatever they could think of, but for the most part the ended up with a lot of ugly or weird logos as a result.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Feb 9, 2016 7:57:56 GMT -5
I can only imagine the $#!% storm that would happen today if something like that ever hit print.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2016 8:23:23 GMT -5
Slam_Bradley, see how much you need this book? This one especially made me laugh:
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Post by MDG on Feb 9, 2016 8:53:14 GMT -5
One could make the argument that the Code hit romance books as hard as they did horror. I'd love to know what the average age for DC's 60s-70s romance books was, and how long they read them.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2016 9:43:03 GMT -5
One could make the argument that the Code hit romance books as hard as they did horror. I'd love to know what the average age for DC's 60s-70s romance books was, and how long they read them. Code rules sure indicate that they did. But, every single pre-code romance comic I have read, has NEVER had anything naughtier than a kiss in it, implied or otherwise. Not that I have read a ton of romance comics, but Simon and Kirby surely didn't put any super heavy petting in their books, not in the collection I have. I'd love to find out the answer to your question, too. I do think that they were mostly teenage girls, though, because in the letters/advice columns, the girls usually state their ages, and most (from what I can remember) stated to be between 15 and 17 years of age. Maybe younger sisters of older brothers who read comics? Or older sisters of younger brothers? Or? It would be cool to find out.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 9, 2016 14:58:27 GMT -5
(I just read about this)..
There were some changes because of the code, but it wasn't like EC. Love on the Racks shows some stories that were published pre-code and reprinted post-code, and most of the changes were to the text, not the art. The PICTURES would be okay, but "My Secret Husband" was not gonna fly post-code, ferinstance.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 9, 2016 15:23:42 GMT -5
(I just read about this).. There were some changes because of the code, but it wasn't like EC. Love on the Racks shows some stories that were published pre-code and reprinted post-code, and most of the changes were to the text, not the art. The PICTURES would be okay, but "My Secret Husband" was not gonna fly post-code, ferinstance. Huh. I had no idea, and I never would have thought about them reprinting stories, and simply changing things.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2016 20:33:58 GMT -5
I've read a handful of the Weird Romance comics, I liked them. They're not what I expected, but they're kind of EC style suspense/dramas, usually without gangsters or ghouls.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2016 21:01:24 GMT -5
Golden age romance comics typically have one thing in common (well, one truly stand-out thing): They all shame women in some way. Very similar themes.
The stories do not seem to vary much until maybe late silver/early bronze age.
And, man, why does everyone want to marry three weeks into their relationships?!
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 10, 2016 21:13:24 GMT -5
Golden age romance comics typically have one thing in common (well, one truly stand-out thing): They all shame women in some way. Very similar themes. The stories do not seem to vary much until maybe late silver/early bronze age. And, man, why does everyone want to marry three weeks into their relationships?! Pshaw. What a silly question. You just don't understand teenage girls. If Romance Comics have taught me anything, you have to be a 57 year old Jewish dude to understand teenage girls.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2016 21:16:35 GMT -5
Golden age romance comics typically have one thing in common (well, one truly stand-out thing): They all shame women in some way. Very similar themes. The stories do not seem to vary much until maybe late silver/early bronze age. And, man, why does everyone want to marry three weeks into their relationships?! Pshaw. What a silly question. You just don't understand teenage girls. If Romance Comics have taught me anything, you have to be a 57 year old Jewish dude to understand teenage girls. But the men want to marry just as fast to secure that...er... And get those women to quit being career ladies. They gotta be GOOD wives, you know. Can't have those nasty careers getting in the way of being able to shower your husband with whatever he needs whenever he needs it.
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 10, 2016 21:17:25 GMT -5
More serious answer: I think comics of most stripes were trying to import some kind of moral lesson - A little bit in the superhero books (Don't do a bunch of Crime) but very definitely in the EC books. (Don't commit adultery or steal or you will get eaten by zombies.)
I suspect the romance comics guys thought shame was the most useful teaching tool in molding their young readers into proper moral young ladies, whatever the hell that meant at any given time.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2016 8:10:45 GMT -5
I suspect the romance comics guys thought shame was the most useful teaching tool in molding their young readers into proper moral young ladies, whatever the hell that meant at any given time. It meant molding their ladies into good breeders, shit-takers, and man-pleasers. Seriously. It's in every story. Because every woman's goal in life should be to drop everything she might want to do with her own life, and fall in love with a man in three weeks, marry, and REPRODUCE. It obviously worked well at the time, but I'm kind of glad we have seemed to, mostly, move away from that "place" for women in society. Not that there is anything wrong with a woman who is a housewife, but I'm glad she has more of a choice now-a-days.
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Post by MDG on Feb 11, 2016 14:41:37 GMT -5
And, man, why does everyone want to marry three weeks into their relationships?! 'Cause they only have 10 pages! Sequential Crush probably has some info on this, but I'd guess that most romance comics were written and edited by men--and this group probably had an increase in age after the code. Molding the ladies of tomorrow into "good breeders, shit-takers, and man-pleasers" likely seemed like a sweet gig. But reading more of these stories, it seems like they could've gotten just as good advice from Archie books. That's why I wondered about the reader turnover was on these books--I can't imagine many girls reading them for too long.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,942
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Post by Crimebuster on Feb 11, 2016 14:46:51 GMT -5
And, man, why does everyone want to marry three weeks into their relationships?! 'Cause they only have 10 pages! Sequential Crush probably has some info on this, but I'd guess that most romance comics were written and edited by men--and this group probably had an increase in age after the code. Molding the ladies of tomorrow into "good breeders, shit-takers, and man-pleasers" likely seemed like a sweet gig. But reading more of these stories, it seems like they could've gotten just as good advice from Archie books. That's why I wondered about the reader turnover was on these books--I can't imagine many girls reading them for too long. The advice in the Archie books is significantly better than the romance books.
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