Jack Kirby and Joe Simon kicked off the romance comics trend with Young Romance (Sept.–Oct. 1947). The first issue sold 92 percent of its print run.
The Prize Comics title was shortly selling a million copies a month, a figure guaranteed to inspire a whole genre devoted to the themes of “…romantic love and its attendant complications such as jealousy, marriage, divorce, betrayal and heartache,” Wikipedia noted.
The swiftness of the shift in the combat-weary public’s tastes is illustrated by a single EC Comics title. Moon Girl and the Prince, starring a Wonder Woman-ish super heroine, debuted in the fall of 1947. By the 9th issue, in October 1949, the comic book was retitled A Moon, A Girl … Romance.
“Teen comedy series like Archie had been around for a few years and occasionally had romantic story lines and subplots,” observed University of South Carolina librarian Michael Weisenburg.
“Romance pulps and true confession magazines had been around for decades. But a comic dedicated to telling romantic stories hadn’t been done before.
“With the phrase ‘Designed for the More Adult Readers of Comics’ printed on the cover, Simon and Kirby signaled a deliberate shift in expectations of what a comic could be.”
“Grounded in artistic and narrative realism, romance comics were remarkably different from their superhero and sci-fi peers. While the post-war popularity of romance comics only lasted a few years, these love stories ended up actually having a strong influence on other genres.”
“Even after romance comics largely fell out of fashion, the genre’s visual tropes and narrative themes became more prevalent during what’s known as the ‘Silver Age,’ a superhero revival that lasted from 1956 to 1970. Titles such as Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane often borrowed heavily from romance for their plots.”
I always keep a few DC romance comics on my spinner rack, just to mimic the effect of what the experience of visiting a newsstand was really like in the 1960s.
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