Young Romance
Young Romance | |
---|---|
Publication information | |
Publisher | Crestwood/Prize DC Comics |
Schedule | Monthly/Bimonthly |
Publication date | (vol. 1): 1947–1963 (vol. 2) (DC): 1963–1975 |
No. of issues | (vol. 1): 124 (#1–124) (vol. 2) (DC): 84 (#125–208) |
Creative team | |
Created by | Joe Simon & Jack Kirby |
Written by | various, including Joe Simon |
Artist(s) | various, including Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Jerry Robinson, Mort Meskin, Bruno Premiani, Bill Draut, Ann Brewster, John Prentice and Leonard Starr |
Young Romance is a romantic
Background
In his introduction to
Working for Hillman Periodicals, the two created a "teen-humor comic book called My Date", cover-dated March 1947, which contained within its pages "ground-breaking" stories concerned with "comparatively faithful depictions of teenage life, centering especially on romantic experiences and aspirations".[5] Arguably itself the first "romance comic", positive reaction to My Date allowed Simon to negotiate a deal with Crestwood publishers Teddy Epstein and Paul Blyer (or "Bleier") "before the four-issue run of My Date had run more than half its course",[5] and to receive an unheard of 50% share of profits in return for producing their follow-up for that company.[3]
History
Launched with a September
Within a year and a half, Simon & Kirby were launching companion titles for Crestwood to capitalize on the success of this new genre. The first issue of
The slew of imitators caused Crestwood to adopt the "Prize Group" seal on the covers of the Simon & Kirby produced titles as "the easiest means for readers to tell the S&K-produced love comics from the legions of imitators".[5]
Creators
"For the first five years", Simon and Kirby produced "at least one story (usually a lengthy lead feature) per issue", but the increased output of the Crestwood/Prize romance titles meant that in many cases they merely oversaw production.[5] They remained "involved with every story", despite not writing or drawing them all, and "maintained a high standard of quality" by employing artists including "Jerry Robinson, Mort Meskin, Bruno Premiani, Bill Draut, Ann Brewster, John Prentice, and Leonard Starr" to work on the title(s).[5] Many of the other artists' output, according to Howell "show the distinctive S&K layout style, and it was not uncommon for a newer artist's work to show signs of S&K retouching".[5]
Lettering duties were initially handled almost entirely by Howard Fergeson, while Bill Draut occasionally lettered his own work. After the death of Fergeson, Ben Oda took on "the same herculean task".[5]
Covers
As with most contemporary romance comics, and the
Publication history
Launched in September 1947, Young Romance ran for 124 issues, until June 1967.[7] Initially bimonthly, strong sales and demand inspired an increased production schedule, and from issue #13 (Sept. 1949) the title became monthly. Continuing to be released monthly for the next five years, the title reverted to bimonthly with status issue #73 (Oct. 1954), and continuing on this schedule for 17 years, missing only one month (August 1963) – when the title switched publishers from Crestwood/Prize to DC Comics, alongside sister publication Young Love.[7] With issue #172 (Aug. 1971), the title returned to monthly release for 20 issues, and between issue #192 (March 1973) and the final issue, #208 (Dec. 1975), the title was again bimonthly.[7]
DC Comics
Following Crestwood/Prize's Young Romance #124 (June 1963), the Arleigh Publishing division of
Reprints
Some Simon & Kirby romance-comics stories, predominantly from Young Romance were reprinted in 1988 by Eclipse Books under the title Real Love (edited, and with an introduction by Richard Howell).
Kirby biographer Greg Theakston has also reprinted some Simon & Kirby romance comics and pages in a number of books on Jack Kirby, while John Morrow's TwoMorrows Publishing has also featured occasional artwork from romance titles in issues of The Jack Kirby Collector.
In
Notes
- ^ Grand Comics Database: Young Romance
- ^ Grand Comics Database: Young Romance #1 (Sept. 1947)
- ^ a b c d e Ro, Ronin. Tales to Astonish: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and the American Comic Book Revolution (Bloomsbury, 2004)
- ^ a b c d Young Romance, at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Accessed May 27, 2008
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Howell, Richard, "Introduction" to Real Love - The Best of the Simon and Kirby Romance Comics" 1940s-1950s (Eclipse Books, 1988)
- ^ a b Ro, p. 46
- ^ a b c d e f Miller, J. J., Thompson, Maggie, Bickford, Peter & Frankenhoff, Brent, The Comic Buyer's Guide Standard Catalog of Comic Books, 4th Edition (KP Books, 2005) - "Young Romance", pp. 1599-1601
- ^ a b Superman Artists: Hughes, Bob. "DC Timeline 1960-1965"
- ^ Eury, Michael (July 2015). "A Look at DC's Super Specs". Back Issue! (81). TwoMorrows Publishing: 31.
- ^ "Young Romance". Mike's Amazing World of Comics. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
- ^ Grand Comics Database: Young Romance (1963 series)
- ^ Grey, Melissa (February 6, 2013). "Looking for love in almost all the wrong places". uk.ign.com. Retrieved May 1, 2015.
- ^ Grand Comics Database: Millennium Edition: Young Romance Comics #1 (2000 series)
References
- Young Romance at the Big Comic Book DataBase
- Young Romance (Crestwood) at the Grand Comics Database
- Young Romance (Crestwood) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Young Romance (DC) at the Grand Comics Database
- Young Romance (DC) at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
External links
- Young Romance at Cover Browser
- Young Romance at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
- "Jack Kirby: A by-the-month Chronology" compiled by Ray Owens and TwoMorrows