Friday, May 11, 2012

Latino/Spanish Artists at Charlton: Demetrio (7) - Secret Romance 31

Charlton romance comics cannot be discussed without mentioning Demetrio. Demetrio Sanchez Gomez produced a fair body of work for Charlton, mostly war stories but at least 25 romance stories, as well as a few examples from other genres. Like other Hispanic artists working in American romance comics, his panels and pages have a kind of European flavor that distinguishes them from material produced by other mainstream comic artists. Charlton's romance line was a little more off-beat than DC or Marvel, not always in a weird way - the Spanish artists were part of something interesting that was going on at Charlton at the time. The following list of Demetrio's Charlton romance stories is compiled from the Grand Comics Database but includes additional stories not there identified but which I have in my collection. There are also several that I have not included here which look like Demetrio's artwork but on which I cannot find a signature. Note that there are very few Demetrio romance comic covers, and that the period during which his romance work was published by Charlton extends over three years, from late 1973 through late 1976. Some of the earliest posts on this blog presented six examples of Demetrio's romance stories, so I will update those in the next few weeks as Out Of This World gets into the Latino/Spanish artists working at Charlton from the late 60s through the mid-1970s.


Date
Title
#
Story
#pages
Cover
11/73
Love Diary
87
A Cause of Love
9
Y
9/74
Teen Confessions
85
Perfect Date!
9

10/74
Just Married
102
A Good Fight Is Fun
9
Y
11/74
Teen Confessions
86
Marry Me Soon, Darling
9

11/74
Love and Romance
19
Sweet Victory
9
Y
1/75
I Love You
110
From The Shadows
6

1/75
Secret Romance
30
Ring Twice
9
Y
2/75
Teen Confessions
87
Fabulous Fifties
15
Y
2/75
Time For Love
40
If You Love Him – Let Him Go
9
Y
3/75
Secret Romance
31
They Talk About Me
6

6/75
For Lovers Only
79
The Big Break
9

6/75
Teen Confessions
89
Running Wild!
9

7/75
I Love You
113
Discovered Love
7

7/75
Love and Romance
23
Don’t Pity Me!
6

7/75
Secret Romance
33
The Love Goddess
8

8/75
For Lovers Only
80
Love Above All
7

8/75
Teen Confessions
90
I Remember You
6

8/75
Time For Love
43
Romeo and Who?
6

9/75
Love and Romance
24
A Perfect Catch
6

12/75
Teen Confessions
92
A Night to Remember
12

1/76
My Only Love
4
I Learned My Lesson
6

2/76
Teen Confessions
93
Fast Cars and Faster Women
10

3/76
Secret Romance
37
Bus Ride Blues
6

6/76
I Love You
118
Choose Your Partner
8

9/76
Teen Confessions
96
Bulldog’s Grip
8


Demetrio's work looks different depending on the quality of the inking, just like everyone else's. The example presented below, "They Talk About Me" from Secret Romance 31 (March 1975) is short (6 pages) but with some sweet artwork. I wonder if Elizabeth Berube did the inking and/or coloring on these better Demetrio pieces - there's certainly some commonalities when these are compared with her own work. "They Talk About Me" below is a standard high school romance scenario, with the ex-boyfriend spreading bad rumors about the girl, and Prince Charming putting him in his place. Simple story but definitely cute. Note that the second panel on the splash page represents partial re-use of the art from Demetrio's cover of Love and Romance 19.







Next on Out Of This World, another Demetrio story of similar quality from the pages of Charlton's Secret Romance. As for what Demetrio is doing these days... check this out:

http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/demetrio-sanchez.html

Examples of his non-romance work:

http://ilustradoresehistorietistasespaol.blogspot.com/2009/11/demetrio.html

3 comments: