If mentioned names like John Romita, Don Heck, and Gene Colan you would quite logically think I'm about to discuss the wonders produced at the "House of Ideas", the domain of Stan "The Man" Lee who built Marvel Comics in part thanks to the talents I mentioned earlier. But I'm not.
Rather I'm going to discuss DC Comics which employed all of these talented and highly professional artists, but used them mostly on their successful romance comics.
I've been in a romantic mood lately. It must be true since I've been buying romance comics all over the place. I used some store credit to get a Showcase volume I've been looking at for quite a while since its publication in 2012. It's the volume dedicated to the earliest issues of DC's Young Love, a series they inherited from Prize Comics.
These are some handsome comics indeed. The stories aside, the art is lush and showcases truly professional storytellers, confident artists, but not yet having been mutated by demands to become more like Jack "King" Kirby. I'm far from an expert on romance comics, very far. But I do like looking at pretty dames and John Romita is expert at rendering those.
It's clear that Romita was the star artist of this series. He does almost all the covers seen below. Those he didn't do I've indicated. His artwork dominates the contents of most issues which feature the work of Heck early on and Colan a bit later. Also on hand are DC vets Mike Sekowsky and Jay Scott Pike among others.
I cannot share the lovely interiors of these comics, perhaps even more starkly beautiful in black and white. But I can share the covers. Enjoy.
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| Gene Colan and Dick Giordano |
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| Jay Scott Pike |
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| Mike Sekowsky and Bernard Sachs |
Good stuff!! I'm a a big fan of romance books. These comics don't get enough credit for the wonderful art. I probably have about 25 or 30 books in my collection, basically about 4 or 5 issues each of the various DC titles. They are not easy to find, believe it not in any condition. When I find them and the budget allows I snap them up.
ReplyDeleteBack in the olden days when comics were hard to come by, I relished everyone I could snatch hold of. I remember quietly sliding my sister's romance comics into my own collection after she lost interest. Later I sampled Marvel's new tries at romance, but mostly I've veered away. I missed a lot of great art, it's a place a lot of talents got their starts.
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