Even if you don’t like romance comics, you’ll want to check out western romance titles of the 1949-52 era. I have never known anyone who was trying to obtain every western comic ever published, but I have met collectors of western comics who felt they needed to include at least some western romance issues on their want lists.

In contrast to the hundreds of western romance pulps published, for more than four decades, only 85 western romance comics were published during this four-year period, plus Chariton’s Cowboy Love #28-31 in 1955, reprinting Fawcett’s 1949-51stories.

Fiction House collectors, of course, will want Cowgirl Romances #1-12 (1950-52), which I covered in a previous “Nolan’s Niche” about short-run Fiction House titles. That was, however, the longest-running western romance title, and most issues eventually can be found at conventions.  It’s also not too hard to find most of the issues of Fawcett’s Cowboy Love #1-11 (1949-51), some of which are worth paging through for the art and the colorful photo covers. Fawcett’s short-lived companion title, Romantic Western #1-3 (1949-50), features three similar but seldom-seen issues.

EC’s Saddle Romances #9-11 (1949-50) are generally considered the most collectible of western romances, if only because they’re ECs and they contain the usual cool art from Graham “Ghastly” Ingels, the artist famed for his work on horror stories. Saddle Romances, though, will set you back more than any other western romance title. Try finding an issue for less than $50, even in “good.” It’s a real tough chore, ponder.

There are two other western romance issues sought after by collectors who love obscure oddities: Avon’s Frontier Romances #1 (Dec. 1949), the first of a two-issue series, and Target’s Flaming Western Romances #3 (April 1950), which continued from the two issues of Target Western Romances #106-107.

For years, collectors scrambled to find the comic book used by Fredric Wertham in “Seduction of the Innocent” in 1954 to illustrate what he called “erotic spanking in a western comic book.” This has long since been identified as Frontier Romances #1 and the story, “Tangled Love,” which ironically was reprinted during the post-Comics Code era by IW Publications as Frontier Romances #9, circa 1958. It was typical of the single-minded Wertham, of course, to use a long-defunct title in his book. No doubt Wertham was also appalled by the blurb on the cover of Frontier Romances #1: “She learned to ride and shoot, and kissing came natural...” in capital letters. I considered it a stroke of great luck when I located this issue in a miscellaneous oldies box at a convention, with no reference to Wertham.

Aside from a title that seems even odder today, Flaming Western Romances #3 features one of the multitude of covers that L.B. Cole drew when he ran the second-tier company Star Publications from 1949-54. This just might be the scarcest of all western romance comics. For many years, collectors thought there was also a #1-2 until the title change became apparent. The Gerber Photo-Journal lists this as a six, but I’d say it’s at least a seven. You just never see this issue, especially at affordable prices. If you can find both Flaming Western Romances #3 and Frontier Romances #1, consider yourself a superior comic book hunter!

Every now and then, a western romance title would come up with a truly offbeat story, such as Marvel’s Western Life Romances #2 (March 1950). This contains the story “I Was a Lady Bandit!” — a tale that epitomizes everything that is fun about old comic books. In this knockoff of the Batman legend, Belle Chance sees her father murdered by a corrupt lawman and wreaks vengeance. She becomes The Vixen, whose only appearance in comics is complicated by two men, one good and the other bad, and her troubles with the law. I can’t begin to do this wild story justice in a few lines, but trust me — this one is worth grabbing even if you collect neither romance nor western comics. You will, well, “Marvel” at the imagination needed to write and illustrate this truly bizarre epic.

As part of Marvel’s flood of mostly unsuccessful romance titles in 1949-50, the first released six western romance titles — and none lasted more than three issues, despite house ads that illustrated all six.  There were Cowboy Romances #1-3, Romances of the Western #1-2, Love Trails #1, Rangeland Love #1-2, Western Life Romances #1-3 and Cowgirl Romances #28. Never before and never again would Marvel release six titles covering a total of 12 issues in any genre. Because these are from Marvel (or Timely, as some collectors still call that period), they tend to be overpriced.

The first western romance comic, Crestwood’s Real West Romance #1 (April-May 1949), is a must for Simon & Kirby completists and usually can be found at affordable prices because it’s not especially scarce. The title ran seven issues, all with hearts-and-flowers photo covers, and was accompanied by an identical sister title, Western Love #1-5.

What haven’t we covered? Well, the tiny Kirby company (no connection to S&K) produced Golden West Love #1-3 in 1949-50 before changing the title to Golden Love Stories with #4, a mainstream romance comic. Kirby produced a mish-mash of western romances set both in modem times and the past, often with downbeat themes. These can be difficult to find, but they’re worth checking out because they’re so different from the relentlessly upbeat stories in DC’s Romance Trail #1-6 (1949-50). Romance Trail offers a handful of splendid art from the young Everett Raymond Kinstler and Alex Toth, plus others, so every issue is worth checking out, especially #1 with both Kinstler and Toth. The same can be said of Quality’s Rangeland Romances #1-5 (1949-50), which had several nicely illustrated and well-told stories.

On the other hand, Standard’s Western Hearts #1-10 (1949-52) features nice photo covers but not much inside. This title is for western romance completists only. Slightly better is Ace’s Western Love Trails #7-9, a continuation of the mainstream Western Adventures. Neither title offers anything really distinctive.

Finally, there is the odd “I Met a Handsome Cowboy” in Dell’s Four Color #324 (March 1951). This full-length story, adapted from a tale in the Ranch Romances pulp, may have originally been produced for a paperback digest instead of a comic book. At any rate, it’s one of the more obscure Four Color issues and can be tough to find, though not expensive.

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.