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What are the rarest romance comics?
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6,421 posts in this topic

RE: western romance

 

Scrooge, the only thing I would add/change to your list would be to break out Cowboy Love as to Fawcett and Charlton; same with Cowgirl Romances (Fiction and Marvel); add two IW reprints; and optionally include the Dell Four Color 324, "I Met a Handsome Cowboy". Michelle Nolan considers it to be romance, and after some reflection over the years, I would agree. If only to insure some contribution on Dell's part, however slight, to the romance genre. This would be it. Talk about taking a complete pass...given Dell's footprint in the comic biz, their absence was striking. Many ran towards publishing some romance, only to run away from it, but nobody else took a pass. It was that hot at the time - 1 out of every 4 comics, I've read. See below (hat tip to nearmint for the photo).

 

I get a count of 96 western romance issues in total - 59 photocovers, 37 drawn. (Not in the photo, I'm talking the complete Western romance list). That's out of approx 6000 issues in the complete romance universe.

 

COMIC-BOOK-RACK_zps96f235d3.jpg

 

 

Edited by Dr. Love
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I'll finish my count in the next couple of days. Yes on the split publishers I had caught that. Right now, I have 70 accounted for and some I know I need to get to.

 

In fact, YOU are responsible for my passing interest in the Western Romance genre. See, a few weeks ago, you asked how many photocover Western books there are out there ... well, I am busy documenting how many Western books there are and factoring how many photocovers therein.

 

I am starting from the early '30's books and moving my way up to 1959 to run the count and I just hit that 1949 / 1950 Western Romance patch and that's why I brought it up in the other thread. Fun stuff you discover along the way ... as well as the decision on what to catalog as Western or not. The fun & frustrating part of research. Thankfully I don't have a co-writer on that so I get to decide what goes in and what doesn't. Still not as easy as it sounds.

 

Loved the burst of Fox Western XXX short series. All bloody and all.

 

FWIW, 1948 is the start of the Western genre. Late 1948 is when Westerns start to creep in the marketplace. By 1949, more than double the amount of book get published in the genre. IIRC, we go from circa 150 issues in 1948 to over 350 in 1949. Now I am puzzling as to why that particular juncture.

 

That said, given the rise of all thing Western comics; by 1949, publishers would be starved for new ideas for Western themed books, hence I believe the massive & cross-publisher attempt at the Western Love genre. When do you pinpoint the rise of the Romance genre. IIRC from the Gerber books, the two arose rather in synch, no?

 

I believe rjpb mentioned that a Western Romance book would make sense on the newsstand given how popular Range Romance was in the pulp market. If so, then the Range Romance must have catered to an older crowd that didn't gravitate to the comic market for its pulchritude. It is a puzzle why it wouldn't have worked since we know that many girls bought comics. Publishers quit very quickly on the Western Romance.

 

Anyway, I'll report back when I get the chance to comb through the next few hundred Western series :P

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The jump in '49 was probably long overdue. Western stars were hot as can be by 1948.

 

During 1947 and 1948 alone, 11 Hopalong Cassidy films, 11 Roy Rogers films and 7 Gene Autry films were released. On top of that, Roy Rogers had a Top Ten single each year from '46-'48, and Gene Autry had 9 Top Ten singles during the same time period.

 

As super heroes were on the wane and publishers were willing to try new things, it didn't seem like much of a risk to start publishing western comics with the public already infatuated with the genre in other mediums. 1949 looks like the year several publishers woke up to the potential at the same time.

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The jump in '49 was probably long overdue. Western stars were hot as can be by 1948.

 

During 1947 and 1948 alone, 11 Hopalong Cassidy films, 11 Roy Rogers films and 7 Gene Autry films were released. On top of that, Roy Rogers had a Top Ten single each year from '46-'48, and Gene Autry had 9 Top Ten singles during the same time period.

 

As super heroes were on the wane and publishers were willing to try new things, it didn't seem like much of a risk to start publishing western comics with the public already infatuated with the genre in other mediums. 1949 looks like the year several publishers woke up to the potential at the same time.

 

Good info,I didn't know that many films were put out by those three in 47/48. I always thought they were mainly in the early 40's.

It would be interesting to see the print runs on Dell's already established westerns like Red Ryder, Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy leading up to the boom in 49.

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I don't normally promote books outside of the sales forum.... but I thought I'd make an exception with you guys. An old friend recently passed away suddenly and I picked up some books that came from his estate and noticed some Romance books that I thought might interest some of you..... There are four of them :

COMPLETE LOVE V26 # 3 (4.0)

DARLING ROMANCE 1 (4.0) Betty Page look-a-like cover

SWEETHEARTS 88 (5.0) ...Looks like an Alice Kelley cover

WOMEN TO LOVE 1 (6.5) ....Scarce in OSPG

 

GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

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I don't normally promote books outside of the sales forum.... but I thought I'd make an exception with you guys. An old friend recently passed away suddenly and I picked up some books that came from his estate and noticed some Romance books that I thought might interest some of you..... There are four of them :

COMPLETE LOVE V26 # 3 (4.0)

DARLING ROMANCE 1 (4.0) Betty Page look-a-like cover

SWEETHEARTS 88 (5.0) ...Looks like an Alice Kelley cover

WOMEN TO LOVE 1 (6.5) ....Scarce in OSPG

 

GOD BLESS....

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

 

Are you listing them somewhere?

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