[Johnny L. Wilson]

This was my first time reading First Love Illustrated. I read it as part of the Random 12 Project, but I picked it because I remember having to sort past titles like this when I was a very little kid in the '50s. Naturally, this first issue was published before I was born, but it was still nostalgia to see a comic like this.

Strangely, I had very low expectations, but found it surprisingly interesting. Where I was just expecting teen-aged fantasizing, I found stories with mistaken identities and hidden identities. I didn't realize that there were actual comedy stories like "Winnie the Waitress" and had no idea that this was by Vic Herman who drew "Winnie the WAC" which I had seen in a few spots and Reddi Kilowatt (PG&E used to give us a free comic every year) and Elsie the Borden Milk Products cow (bought lots of those when I was little). The "Dan Cupid" story was silly, but I loved the "poetic justice" angle.

I don't know if this is typical, but most of the stories seemed to have some idealistic theme of poetic justice. That was nice and it even showed the value of sticking to one's principles.

Link to the book: First Love Illustrated 01