Romancing the Comic Book

This  story  follows  the  perspective  of  a  tomboyish  teenage  girl.  As  seen  on  the  cover,  this causes  her  to  be  the  subject  of  teasing  from  her  peers  and  concern  from  her  parents,  most  of whom  consider  her  to  be  strange.  The  comic  page  itself  even  labels  the  panel  “Strange  Girl!”  The struggles  the  girl  faces  and  her  arguments  with  her  parents  are  genuinely  relatable,  though  the story  ultimately  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  all  she  needed  to  solve  her  problems  was  the  love of  a  boy,  once  again  reflecting  the  pattern  of  any  deviance  from  the  patriarchal  image  of  a  young woman  being  cured  by  a  man’s  love.

In this story, we follow the perspective of a man who finds himself inextricably attracted to a mysterious woman. She is, however, disillusioned about love, and despite his (overly assertive) advances, she stands firm in her belief that “there’s no such thing as love.” This conflict gets reflected in the cover art through a physical smack. The man finds her lack of interest in a relationship “weird," and goes to the lengths of digging up her address and questioning her mother to ultimately try to find an explanation. Ultimately, her stance is attributed to past trauma, and she is suddenly involved in a car accident, thereby transforming her character from a “weird,” mysterious woman to a damsel in distress both physically and emotionally.

This  cover  art  fully  reflects  the  heroine’s  Women’s  Lib-based  beliefs  as  well  as  her outright  professional  success.  The  low  angle  shot  portrays  power,  her  arms  are  folded,  and  light shines  on  her  from  above,  casting  a  shadow  down  to  where  we  see  a  man,  drawn  to  not  even one  fourth  her  size.  In  the  story,  she  finds  herself  forced  to  choose  between  becoming editor-in-chief  or  maintaining  her  potential  relationship.  Ultimately,  she  chooses  love  over  the personal  goal  she’d  been  working  so  hard  for,  and  then  as  a  plot  twist,  it’s  revealed  that  she  only got  the  job  offer  because  the  man  turned  it  down  first  for  her  sake,  undercutting  the  achievement somewhat  and  signing  off  with  a  reiteration  of  the  idea  that  the  relationship  is  paramount.

This  cover  art  reflects  a  relationship  where  the  woman, the serialized character Lisa St. Clair,  is  in  a  position  of  power.  She beckons  the man  with  her  finger  and  gives  him  a  command,  whereas  the  man  looks  relatively  unsure with  his  eyebrows  slightly  raised  and  palms  facing  up.  Relative  to  other  romance  comics,  this  is fairly  rare.  It  could,  perhaps,  even  have  been  considered weird at  the  time.  However,  this  story doesn’t  follow  the  same  strangeness-gets-cured  arc  that  the  other  examples  have.  In  fact,  it never  explicitly  calls  the  relationship  weird,  and  for  at  least  this  chapter of the story,  nothing  in  particular changes  about  their  power  dynamic.  Notably,  the  woman  is  still  otherwise  very  feminine,  and becomes  quickly  interested  in  a  relationship,  so  it  seems  that  those  two  criteria  being adequately  filled,  no  strangeness-cure  is  needed.

This  cover  art  shows  a  scene  that’s  seen  quite  often  in  romance  comics,  except  the woman  and  man  have  switched  positions.  The  man  has  his  head  back  as  the  woman  holds  and kisses  him.  This  is  not  a  display  of  power  as  in  Young  Love  No.  77,  but  more  so  one  of enthusiasm  and  desire.  However,  it  is  also  not  called  weird,  despite  being  so  rarely  depicted,  as the  woman  is  both  feminine  and  in  search  of  a  man to call her own.