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[MarkWarner]

In my opinion (which let's be honest isn't worth too much) last week's book was scored higher by some of our members due to nostalgia rather than content. Now this week's book is certainly never going to be accused of that, and is REALLY going to shake us out of our comfort zone.

In the last few weeks, I have been quietly fretting and procrastinating about the inevitable romance book which we are duty bound to tackle. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe we have only ever read one, and that was of the medical variety.

Very recently Kracalactaka (a VERY BRIGHT new star in the scanning cosmos) uploaded Negro Romances #2. Problem solved! I have no idea what is under the cover here, so I have a lot of trepidation.

Anyway, as I said we are out of time and need to do a romance so let's bite the bullet here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=58739. The story we are concentrating on is the first one "Possessed"

[Morgus]

I think I made it to page six or so and then bailed. After that I just looked at the art and the rest of the mag. Wished there were ads. The comic ITSELF was not bad...no real difference between it and others in the genre...including that overheated dialogue that makes you snicker. TRUER THEN TRUE ROMANCE did a great job of lampooning the whole field a few years back. But it was nicely done as far as the form went...the art was okay...liked the first page of the second story the most with the hero that reminded me of Cab Calloway. The genre ITSELF bores me and reminds me of the times I would sneak into my sister's stash of romance comics and always be disappointed...(she guarded them jealously and I thought there HAD to be something to them...) Maybe it's all a good thing. There were also movies being made for a mostly black audience at the same time in the USA and aside from some surface details are pretty much the same as the B features made for the white audiences. There was probably some little brother of another big sister who was a bit older then me jealously guarding these from him as well. We all have more in common then we think.

[crashryan]

This was an interesting document. I give Fawcett credit for trying to reach a new audience but I doubt if many dealers, North or South, would have carried the title.

Except for the characters' race this is a typical 50s romance comic. I'm not sure whether it would have appealed to an African American audience more if it had reflected African American life more, in the way the comic strips appearing in Black newspapers like The Amsterdam News tried to do. Maybe, maybe not. It certainly wouldn't have helped its circulation in White markets.

Artwise the characters range from browned-up white people (a problem in the first story) to concerted effort to draw real African Americans. The second artist did the best job while the third was hit and miss. Oddly, the characters in the third story were considerably pinker than those in the earlier tales. I'm not an expert on A. C. Hollingsworth but notwithstanding that TV show I can't believe he is represented here. Hollingsworth's art was rather rudimentary at this time. His stories were characterized by exaggerated anatomy, unusual layouts, very heavy inking, and highly sexualized females. I could almost buy his being involved in the second story, but that art looks more like Rudy Palais (toned down quite a bit from his crime comics). Frankly, the I think drawing in all three stories is too solid to be Hollingsworth.

As previously stated, the stories are thoroughly generic. The writing on the first one, especially the captions, is especially lurid, but that's not rare in 50s romances (or in Bob Kanigher romances of the 60s, for that matter). I found it curious that several balloons and captions in the second story have been re-lettered, most notably page 23. Since there was no Comics Code to worry about I conjecture they are editorial changes to clarify the story. I base this upon panel 4, where one can see the cut marks of the pasteover "Doctor Martin explained everything." I can picture the editor reading the line "Why didn't you tell me all this?" and wondering how Don knew about Edith's illness.

If you want "lurid" check out that crazy back cover ad....TEENICIDE!!!

This counts as a hit for me because it's unusual and historically significant. Just boring.

[Morgus]

That was my next question, crashryan, and one I'll probably never know the answer to: Who drew these? Would it have mattered if they were black or white when you took into the account the strict rules of the format?  Would it have worked for Fawcett if they had been a bit more innovative in the story department? Did they float this issue out of market research that told them there was an emerging black middle class, or was this just a total stab in the dark? It's one of the reasons I miss the ads...

[narfstar]

First story was rather wordy for a comic. It also seemed to be more adult. I like that it did not talk down to a Black audience. Not bad for a romance tale.

[betaraybdw]

I'll weigh in at length later. But as far as ads go, this book had none, except ifc, ibc and bc.

The original scanner noted the lack of ads in his blog post where I got these images from.

Cover and Back cover scans come from a Heritage Auctions past auction listing.

Interior page scans by the nice gentleman who posts on the Out of this World Blog:

http://kb-outofthisworld.blogspot.com/search/label/Negro%20Romance 

there is lots of good info about this comic on there besides the page scans

[betaraybdw]

1st off, Thanks to Mark for the compliment above.

Now to get on with it.

I feel you have to look at this book in different ways.

1st of all is, regardless of the quality of the stories and art and who you believe did or did not create them, this is a historically significant work and that cannot be downplayed. Fawcett went out on a limb with this series. The lack of ads show that. Heck the one ad available to us at the moment is a Fawcett house ad, on the bc where normally a real paying ad would be. It only lasted 3 issues. Charlton made a stab continuing the series by producing a 4th issue, but then the series died. I'm guessing lack of sales in the larger comic audience killed this. This was a niche comic targeted for a small percentage of the population. Even today Blacks make up less than 13% of the US population. These days with modern communications it is easier for niche products to make a profit. Applause to Fawcett (and Charlton) for trying, but they had to make a business decision based on sales. Unfortunately most of the copies of these books that are out there seem to be encased in CGC plastic prisons and unless the owners can be convinced to pop them open and photograph/scan the contents, no one will ever get to see the contents of the other books. This copy was purchased coverless on ebay.

Now on to the merits of the issue itself. 1st off, I hate photo covers. to me they are a cheap cop out by the publisher. I want to see ART! not a stock photo. I'd bet this photo came from some sort of fashion advertising photoshoot or some such. The young lady has adopted a classic modeling pose/expression and the young man could not look any more stiff and unnatural. He looks pained.

I think the art is okay-ish throughout the book, but I'd have to agree with others that It seems drawn by different hands and in some cases and that sometimes it looks like the artist just drew Caucasian people and colored the skintone darker than usual.

The stories all follow the standard 1950's romance comics tropes. No surprises there. The female protagonist being the source of the problems, but everything ends up ok at the end when she realizes her mistake(s) and is forgiven. Not all, but most of these 50's & 60's romance stories seem to follow this basic path. Overall I give this issue a thumbs up and definitely think it was a good idea for Mark to add it to the reading group list.

(Now to address romance comics in general)

There are some romance comics that are different. They either follow the trope to such an extreme that they are laughably ridiculous (particularly by today's social norms) or they go off on a different path entirely, even forgoing the "happy ending".

Below are some examples for further reading to illustrate my point.

Romantic Adventures 49, ACG 1954, https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=17950 read the 1st story, Jailbird's Romance. Not your standard romance comic story, they got this one in before the code mucked thing up.

My Romantic Adventures 131, ACG 1963, https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=58827&b=i read the 1st story, Return to Romance, an example of following the standard trope in an over the top way.  Also in this issue, read the last story, Good Natured Schnook where our protagonist is a less than attractive guy.

Teen-Age Confidential Confessions 9, Charlton 1961, https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=58805&b=i read the last story, Love is a Serenade, not your standard happy ending. Pretty sad actually.

Love Diary 47, Charlton 1967, https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=58780&b=i read the 1st story, Too fat to Frug, Charlton manages to follow the trope but go off the beaten path at the same time. (also has a panel that will be familiar to you Spider-Man fans)


In conclusion, before I found this site I never read romance books, but I have been sucked in by the art, particularly by the 1960's books. A lot of these artists went on to draw the Bronze Age comics that I am so fond of.

[Morgus]

Hey, Kracalactaka, what do you want to make book that the photo used for the cover was from a stock collection and probably also used for mouth wash? He looks nervous after the first date fell through because he had bad breath, but NOW he's kissing fresh...

Was thinking about what you wrote and also have to thank you for the earlier post that featured that fine data on the comic...(looks like you were right in the first place, Crashryan...Hollingsworth...) Anyway, I was over at GOODWILL bottom feeding for bargains when an idea hit me...brought on by a NAT KING COLE LP beside the detective fiction...and I remembered how Earl Derr Biggers had created Charlie Chan to update the image of Asians in America...at the time, it was mostly Fu Manchu stuff.
Of course, it turned into a hit...a gold mine..
And that was where Nat King Cole came in.
They used to say that the Capitol records building in L.A. was 'the house that Nat built' and I have to wonder if maybe Fawcett wasn't trying to do a little bit of both...jazz up a 'by the numbers' comic format with a new view point..maybe they thought with Nat King Cole selling a lot of records to a lot of different people, it would work. Times were changing...the old barriers were starting to break down...
This is NOT to belittle what they did. Kracalactaka is right, it took real guts to go with NEGRO ROMANCE.  But I have to wonder if they thought both whites and blacks would be interested in the product, and I think in a way they were on to something...Harry Belafonte was only a few years away...a black movie star that all the girls sighed over...and what guy didn't already light up over Lena Horne?

[paw broon]

The first story was difficult to read because it was far too wordy and Miss Conan is not a particularly appealing character. After a few pages, I skimmed the rest. 
The second story did have characters who at times looked to me more like African Americans, but the tale didn't appeal to me and Edith's actions seemed very selfish. 
But I found the whole experience unpleasant.  It seemed that the publishers were trying to monetise what at the time was a second class population.  In the first story, I'm sure the figures were simply standard white with a bit of colour added in the vain hope of making them look African American.
I can't shake the feeling that this was a cynical attempt to cash in on what seems to have been a second class group in American society. 
Perhaps a photo cover was used because the publishers were aware that their artists weren't that good, nevermind having to depict genuine African Americans.
Sorry to be so negative but this was a negative experience.

[betaraybdw]

paw broon,

Interesting how you interpret the intent of the publisher's making of this comic as an attempt at evil exploitation, yet others (including me) see them as at least a bit courageous for taking a chance to publish a book that definitely went against the norms of the industry.

The art could have been better, and you may be on to something when you point out that maybe Fawcett knew that they didn't have an artist available to pull off an attractive realistically drawn cover, hence the photo covers for this series. At least they didn't draw the characters like how Blacks were drawn in a lot of the 40's comics.

[paw broon]

Only my opinion, so I hope I'm not upsetting or annoying anyone.  I feel we should always be healthily suspicious, or at least wary, of the aims and agendas of business - publishers included.  They are only there to make a profit, first and last, despite all those grand and laudable sounding mission statements.  No profit, no business.  And while many will consider that a good thing, it does mean that companies can look for more and more dubious ways of increasing income and profit. Any number of examples exist here in the UK - banks, supermarkets - and, I'm sure the same is the case in N. America.
So with this comic.  It's only my feeling when reading it but perhaps I'm looking at it with today's eyes and had I picked it from a newsstand in 1950, my reaction might have been different.  After all, we didn't really know all the dodgy stuff businesses got up to back then. 
Yes, Fawcett took a chance, but that chance was to try and make money, so for me, in this instance it does seem distasteful.

[betaraybdw]

You make it sound like trying to make money by selling product that you hope someone will buy is a bad thing.

So Harley Quinn is one of the most popular characters in all of comics at the moment and DC puts her in and on every comic they can and sells a ton of merchandise to boot. Is DC being distasteful? Nobody is having a gun put to their head being told they have to buy it. I don't see how coming up with a product that is meant to mainly appeal to a small niche of consumers is distasteful. There were (and still are) plenty of products that are targeted to certain parts of the population. and lets face it, profit margins on 10 cent comics were not much so trying anything new was risky. I've read blogs and such written by Black authors who are glad these comics were made.

Anyhow, I'm shutting up now. I think points of view are skewed not only by looking at things through today's eyes, but by our societal/social differences. As much much countries like the U.S., UK, Canada, NZ and Australia seem similar there are still far more things that make us different. Divided by a common language I like to say.

[paw broon]

In some cases it is, I'm afraid.  But, like you, I'll leave this alone now.

[bowers]

I almost hesitate to comment on this one, but put me firmly in the "They were just trying to make a quick buck" group. This was also the time of the Negro baseball League, Black western films, Black theater circuits, etc. These were partly to exploit an untapped market, but also because in many places Blacks were simply not welcome in the same entertainment facilities as whites. Sad and shameful, but true. I grew up in this era and I saw some stuff that was just plain terrible.

This book was quite awful- substandard art and terrible writing. Not very much effort to even try to portray Blacks as Blacks- in some drawings they looked almost oriental.

I'd like to say that this is an historical piece that is a product of it's time, but it's not. Just a really bad effort all around. Cheers, Bowers

[SuperScrounge]

Possessed - I found myself wondering, if this story were printed without color would it be obvious that the main characters were black? Nothing in the story I noticed gives them an ethnicity. The hairstyles and facial features are generic enough that I wonder if anyone would have noticed if the colorist had colored their skin pink instead of brown? On the other hand, you could argue that that's the point, people are people. As for the story, man Gloria's a bitch. I'm not sure she deserved a happy ending.

Forever Yours - Now this story you could tell if they were given a different skin color... The story itself, meh. Unnamed disease that'll kill her in two years, yadda tadda yadda, I'm just surprised the ending didn't have a revelation that she's going to live now that she's realized the value of love.

Come Home, My Heart - Eh.

Love's Decoy - Okay.

[SuperScrounge]

paw broon,

Interesting how you interpret the intent of the publisher's making of this comic as an attempt at evil exploitation, yet others (including me) see them as at least a bit courageous for taking a chance to publish a book that definitely went against the norms of the industry.

I wonder why it has to be considered one or the other?

Just because someone is a capitalist doesn't mean that they see people as walking piles of cash to exploit. That would be politicians. *buh dum bump*

I was reading a while back about a Gold Key comic which had a black protagonist (Lobo?) and apparently the editors of Gold Key were shocked & surprised to learn that newsstands didn't want to carry this book because the lead was black.

Some people who worked in publishing had ideas that would be seen now as progressive or liberal.

[crashryan]

I don't want to pass judgement on whether Negro Romances was an earnest effort or a calculated money-making stunt. Frankly I can't make up my mind. A white publisher putting out an all-black magazine was a gutsy move regardless of the motive. Previous media aimed at African American audiences, like Herb Jeffries' "Bronze Buckaroo" movies, were largely produced by African Americans and made no effort to cross over into the mass market. I have no idea if Fawcett figured the book would appeal only to African Americans or if they imagined it could find a mass audience. Interesting question.

[crashryan]

You're right, Super Scrounge, it was Lobo, but Dell, not Gold Key, was the publisher. Here's a link to a Wikipedia essay on the book. Tony Tallarico claims credit for creating the character, with editor D. J. Arneson writing the script. Arneson asserts that he created the character and Tallarico only drew it. Arneson also disputes Tallarico's statement that retailers refused to display the book.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobo_%28Dell_Comics%29

A lot of quirky, fascinating books (both good and bad) came out of Dell's dying years following Western Publishing's decision to produce their own comics line.

[Morgus]

What SuperScrounge said made me curious...WERE there romance comics where the gal was sent home empty handed for being too big a bitch? Or did they always have to have a happy ending?

[crashryan]

Morgus, I've read a lot of romance comics and have run across a number--a small number--of stories where the heroine winds up without the guy.  In most of those stories either the woman connives to steal another girl's man, or else she wins a competition for a guy using underhanded techniques. Almost always the heroine ends up sadder but wiser, vowing through her tears that next time she'll play fair.

I must admit that in the romance comics I've read, I've seldom seen the heroine act quite as badly as the one here in Negro Romances. Unless you count the ex-con girl who murders her gangster ex-boyfriend when he messes up her romance with a "good" guy.

But if you want some truly weird romance stories, check out this blog post:

http://smurfswacker.blogspot.com/2013/09/comic-media-romances.html

[MarkWarner]

I see there is a really good conversation going on here so I'll just quietly slip in my few words

PHEW!!! I really did open these digital pages with GREAT deal of trepidation. But thankfully(?) it is standard fair, and everyone could quite as easily have been white or asian. Maybe this is not actually a good thing though!

One line caught my eye, so it's not just me and the missus who lead wild late night lives:

"Whew! It's 10:30 all ready! Kind of late for us, Edith!"

Following on: second story standard cheesy, two page text story is sugary but readable, last story is the best of the bunch.

Verdict: A hit. I got through it all OK!! That's romance ticked for a bit and we've certainly had less enjoyable reads than this one. Could have been a LOT worse!

[Morgus]

Wow. Just wow. Crashryan I read those examples and was AMAZED...the last panel with the little family gathered around the crippled husband must have made abstinence only seem like a pleasure at the time..and do I detect a smirk on the Old Battle Axe Now that everybody has been reduced to her level of misery?

I remember WEIRD ROMANCE put out by Eclipse as part of their SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT series BUT those just left those in the dust...thanks for the look.

[betaraybdw]

IDW is currently publishing a re-print title called Weird Love with Lots of stories from the books we have here.











I'll leave you with this splash page from Dear Lonely Heart #1