Mark had a brilliant idea suggesting comparing these comics. Let's start with the more tantalizing title (and cover): Teen-Age Temptations.
First I will rave about the cover. Matt Baker was at his best drawing St. John covers, and this is one of the best of the best. Everything about it is so good! Given a bus full of people with lots of kids milling around, this could have been a crowded mess. Instead the main figures pop right out and despite the crowd the story is instantly clear. Baker has thought everything through. He cuts no corners. Each background character is drawn as an individual, each doing something: carrying a drum, pulling on a jacket, calling to a friend on the bus. As for those main figures...sure, Linda is super cute and deliciously sexy, but that's only the beginning. Look at the posing and drawing of the hands. Check out the folds on her sleeve where it bunches up at the shoulder. And the folds on her skirt as it rides up just enough to reveal a hint of underwear. If you can take your eyes off Linda, look at Lothario's shirt and trousers. This is drawing, folks!
*Sigh* End of diatribe. This wonderful cover is typical of St. John romances. It shouts out a promise of lots of sex--lots of young sex!--and the insides deliver nothing of the sort. The stories have nothing to do with either teenagers or temptations. They aren't bad for what they are, though. The plot of "Fighting for My Love" has some substance. The three- and four-pagers aren't satisfying because they move too fast. The artwork is pretty good (though pale compared to the cover). Bernard Sachs is perfect for romances. His DC-style inking is crisp and classy. I really like the "rubes" in "Carnival Come-On Girl." The gags in "Comedy Column" are so lame. Reading the small print I discover they were cribbed from an old joke book.
Just as exciting as the Teen-Age Temptations cover is, so is the New Romances cover boring. Did a cute couple blowing dandelions really attract readers? The art is the star of this comic, beginning with a great Alex Toth story and finishing with solid jobs by Art Saaf and, especially, Mike Sekowsky. Sekowsky is wasted on superheroes. He really shines on real-world stuff like this. I'm a huge Toth fan. His clean design and interesting compositions appeal to me. For this story, though, he must have been crowding a deadline. First look at the care he puts into the background orchestra on page 7, panel 3. Then look at the first panel on page 12. This is the climactic scene, but not only does he omit the background, he doesn't even draw the two most important characters. When Dan makes his heart-breaking speech in the next panel we get a random close-up of his hand! Shame, Alex, shame. The script for this story is the best in the book, however. It delivers a nice bittersweet ending. Although at my age I wish the old guy would win once in a while! The other stories are standard fare. The treacle in "Love My Dogs" is a bit overwhelming.
New Romances reminds me how many 50s romance stories deliver moral messages. A girl deviates from accepted norms, then circumstances show her the error of her ways. Having sex, when mentioned, is the most common sin. Rowdy behavior is next. Girls party too heavily or run around with the Bad Sort of boys. Other girls are tripped up by romanticism, selfishness, greed, snobbery, or social climbing. Many 50s romance stories have character-driven plots, like the Toth story. However the majority seem to caution girls that the world is dangerous and only cleaving to traditional values will protect them. The odd thing is that 50s boys' comics hardly ever present a message at all, unless it's "might makes right."
As we know, the majority of romance comics were written by men. Did they feel a duty to school their daughters when they wrote romances--a duty they didn't feel when writing adventures for their sons?
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Topic: Week 109 - Saint Valentine's Romance Comparison (Read 3312 times)
