While visiting England earlier this year I was lucky enough to purchase a few of the digest-size British romance comics. The ten I found were from the 1960s and early 70s, and most of them belonged to the
Love Story Picture Library series published by Fleetway. What was great about these finds was that some of them contained some very nice artwork that looked like it was by Spanish artists. Here's one.
Love Story Picture Library # 1336 has, unlike many of these comics, one long story and a shorter story at the end (usually there's just one longer story filling the book). The total page count is 68 pages, starting at the outside front cover, so stories typically start on page 3. "Tell Me Why" is a 9-page short story at the end of the book, and as you can see it is not the cover story for this issue. This issue is from 1976, but it says inside that it was originally published in 1970, and I'd guess it probably had a different cover then. Eight new issues were published by Fleetway on the first Monday of every month, according to an ad inside. When I was a kid and buying comics in the 1960s, my main go-to was Aladins Book Shop up the top of Hornsey Road in Islington in London. It was run by Shirley and her husband Alan, and I remember that they had a huge selection of these romance books along with all the other second-hand comics, pulps, and paperbacks. Of course, at the time I was buying
The Flash and
Mystery in Space, but those rows and rows of British romance comics are far harder to find nowadays than their more well-known American counterparts, and contain some surprising gems. Anyway, here's the 9-page story in its entirety. Any guesses on the artist? It's fairly roughly hewn, but it looks kind of familiar!
Look out for another example in my next post - it's a beauty!
Thank you for sharing, KB! I always love seeing international counterparts to the American comics. I guess I never really connected it before now -- but you grew up in London? Do you have a preference for the American comics or the British ones, or are they equal in your heart?
ReplyDeleteHi Jacque - I like some of both. My favorite British comics are the classic weekly funny papers, especially The Beano and the Dandy when the great Leo Baxendale and Dudley Watkins were working on them, on strips like The Bash Street Kids, Minnie the Minx, and Lord Snooty. Their humor is totally surreal and unlike anything you'll find in American comics. As far as romance comics, I think I enjoy both British and American equally - they are kind of different even though they both fit the same genre. I love American Silver Age comics of pretty much any kind, but I have my favorites. My grandmother started me off reading comics in 1959 - she paid for weekly copies of the Beano, Dandy, and later the Beezer and Topper. But she also started me reading American comics. She used to take me to and from school, and we'd pass Aladins Book Shop. She'd take me in there and she bought me all kinds of Harvey comics, plus The Atom, The Flash, Justice League, Green Lantern, Hawkman, and all the DC line, ACG, Charlton, and Atlas (Marvel) fantasy books like Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds, Forbidden Worlds, and Strange Tales! Eventually I got into Marvel superheroes as well, and that's when I started collecting comics instead of just reading them and trading them back in. My greatest prizes in my first collection were perhaps X-Men 1-3, Avengers 4, Daredevil 1, Tales of Suspense 1, and everything by Jim Steranko, the pinnacle being Nick Fury #s 1-3, and #5, and his Captain America issues. They were just a total mind blow! But when Jack Kirby left Marvel, my world turned upside down!!!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing how people got into comics and what they read as a kid! Thank you for sharing, KB!
ReplyDeleteFantastic share! Thanks! Wish I could find more British romance comics.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in buying some, you can find them on eBay UK, and with a bit of searching find a seller that will mail to the USA.
DeleteThe artist on "Tell me why" Seems to be Jose Pepe Gonzales also famous Vampirella's artist.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be right, Anonymous. Very quickly sketched and inked, looks like.
DeleteIt's definitely Gonzalez- bt bear in mind it's reprinted and resized from Valentine. It looked pretty fabulous the first time round
ReplyDeleteThank you, David. Interesting that it was re-sized from Valentine. That explains a lot.
DeleteGoose bumps on steroids. Member or is like crazy!! If I could get into a time machine back to d early 70s I'd go, just for all these british national treasures. I absolutely love these and trying so hard to collect. There were also the war comics, and at d back of these love stories used to also have paper dolls. IPC magazines. If i had serious cash boy would i be going all over the globe in search.
ReplyDeleteAlways preferred d British black and whites to d us coloured ones. The artwork was always amazing. If i had money and access to the thousands of these I would recreate n reintroduce to a whole new generation. Serious goose bumps on steroids right now
I have quite a few of these old Love Story comics - British from around the 60s and was hoping to sell these. How would I go about this?
ReplyDeleteBest is to put them one eBay, where there will likely be more people who are looking for them.
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ReplyDeleteI used to buy these as a teenager in the UK in the mid 70's. The one I remember was about a girl in love with a pop star the title of which was Chart Break Heart Break
ReplyDeleteSounds like a classic! Where did you used to buy these comics? Newsagent? Second hand book shop? What did you like about them at the time? What was your reading experience like with these comics?
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