Goodbye, Sweet Romance

Last evening was again a scorcher in Chicago, so instead of fishing out some good painted covers, I'm going to start what will be an off-and-on "feature" where I suggest reasons why romance comics died, why they did it when they did, and why they never have come back.

The last romance comic DC published was Young Love #126, cover dated July 1977 (so it was likely on the stands in May). Young Romance, the first ongoing romance comic title and the longest-lasting, had been cancelled a year-and-a-half earlier, and Charlton's last 7 titles all ended with either the November or December 1976 cover date (a few titles re-appeared in late '79 into '80, but they featured no new material and were very sparsely -- even for Charlton -- distributed).

By the mid-to-late 70s, the comic book industry had changed. Much of the variety was gone, and titles and genres that had either dominated the scene in decades past were quickly being cancelled, all replaced with either super-hero titles or more of the same from niche publishers (Archie, for example, was publishing just that -- Archie and his gang -- and even a short-lived entrance into super-heroes was a "safe" bet).

Why was this?

The obvious answer that many people would give you is "sales"; romance comics, never a great seller since their early-50s heyday, were selling less than nearly all of the other titles at Marvel and DC (and elsewhere). But while I think that certainly was a part of it (and it's something I'll talk about in a later post), I really think the main reason why romance comics (and war and Western and humor) were leaving the scene was this: the people who were writing, drawing, and editing comic books weren't fans of genres other than super-heroes, sci-fi, or horror.

The early-70s saw, for the first time in a decade, an influx of new creators. Artist/writers like Jim Starlin, Walt Simonson, Barry Smith, and others came in and changed turned the industry on its head. But, unlike many of the creators of the past whose influences and role-models were often comic strip and fine artists, these young guns looked not to Milton Caniff or Noel Sickles, but to Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Neal Adams, Gil Kane, and other artists of the Silver Age.

These guys were fans and, unless I've completely missed something from one of their bios, none of them were fans of romance comics.

When Roy Thomas took over the editorial chores from Stan Lee in 1972, he was likely the first fan to head a major comic book company. At the time, Marvel was publishing 2 romance titles, My Love and Our Love. By '72, they featured one new story and 3 or 4 reprints from comics of the 50s and 60s (the earliest issues were mostly new content). By end of the titles' runs (they lasted 39 and 38 issues, respectively), the only thing new was the cover.

(This wasn't unsimilar to other genre titles; after leaving a restrictive distribution deal that limited the number of titles they published, Marvel began numerous titles in the late-60s featuring horror, sci-fi, and humor, things they had for the most part abandoned a decade before. As with the romance titles, the first few issues had new stories in most of the comic, but by the end, it was all reprints -- and not great reprints at that. Many stories were heavily edited, sometimes with 2 pages being lopped off.)

My question is this: would the new guys coming into the industry want to write and draw romance comics? The newer stories in Marvel's 70s romance titles were done by long-time industry veterans like John Romita and John Buscema, artists who had done romance comics in the past and were more likely to do another because comics were a job for them -- as opposed to a passion. Would Jim Starlin, having a choice between Captain Marvel and My Love, take a romance title? Not likely. And it seems like new artists weren't even being forced into those situations; they were going to the more established artists.

At Marvel, and increasingly at DC, where the suit-and-tie atmosphere was slowly losing its grip, the inmates were running the asylum, and those who were committed to the nuthouse of comics certainly didn't want to draw anything about that mushy stuff like love or heartache (unless it involved spandex and a bolts shooting out of your hands).

(I feature the cover to Romantic Hearts #12 not for anything to do with today's post, but more because a) I like it, and b) the "Too Old For My Man" blurb made me think of how I old I am. Birthday's are a bitch.)