Ditko's Daring Love!

The debut issue of Daring Love from Gillmor Magazines (a brand under the Stanley Morse operation) hit the stands sometime in the summer of 1953. The cover by Bernard Bailey is a nifty enough item, two healthy people hanging out in the hayloft mere moments from amorous activity probably sold a few copies. But that's not what makes this comic book important. What makes this comic book a humdinger is that it features Steve Ditko's first published comic book work.

Now to be clear, "Paper Romance" was not his first assigned job, but due to circumstances of the somewhat haphazard nature of comic book publishing those pre-code days, this story hit the stands before his first story, a horror yarn that didn't get published until later in a book dated 1954, As it turns out there's little remarkable about this story, and when you read it, I'm pretty sure you're going to guess how it ends. But give it a try at this link. You won't see many romance stories from Steve Ditko. 

Unless you count those fetish pieces he did in conjunction with his longtime studio partner Eric Stanton. Love is a many splendored thing indeed. 

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