Ripping Yarns

Browsing a country swap meet we acquired this classic example of late 1960s romance comic books.

Cheaply printed (despite the publisher's name, Colour Comics Pty Ltd, only the front cover is in colour) for magazine distributors Gordon and Gotch, Magic Romances is not exactly the finest of the pen and ink artist's craft, but it's a delight in what it reveals about the tastes and expectations of Nora's mum's generation.

As for the cover story, it's classic Cinderella stuff, Karen Wilder Sommers breaks the heart of her one true love, Dr Greg Marsh, to pursue her dream of being a Hollywood star (like you do). She returns home just as Rita Phillips whom we're reliably informed is... aw, forget it, let us draw you a picture:

So, how does it end? Dunno, it's to be continued and this is the only edition we have.

Another fun find with this comic book is the fashion feature spread which we'll share in future updates.

So what happened to the romance comic. On first appearance it would seem that it outgrew its audience who were having real romances of their own and also moved on to the Mills and Boon type of fiction.

But you'd be wrong. The art of the romance comic book isn't dead, it just moved to the Internet.