Girls' Love Stories #97August, 1963
Story One: Belle is a conceited little snot. She's also hot as hell, though, which has led to a wildly successful modeling career. Hoping to improve upon her already high public standing, she decides to take acting lessons. And that's when she meets Jim, a hot dude. She falls in love with Jim at first sight and pretty much orders him to love her back. He tells her off in spectacular fashion, ranting for several panels about what a spoiled brat she is. She's shocked, but decides it doesn't matter, because he's just a "penniless beatnick actor." Yet, the other guys she goes out with just don't put the zap on her head. She ends up quitting acting school completely because she can't face Jim's disdain.
Well, then her dad tells her she's a coward. Belle is like, yeah... you're right. I am. So she goes back and re-enrolls in acting school. And what do you know, Jim is there waiting - waiting to tell her he's actually madly in love with her! He just didn't realize it until after he told her off. That's some pretty crappy timing, bro. But it doesn't matter, because they get it on. THE END!!
Story Two: Terry is a research assistant to, I dunno, some chick. It doesn't matter. Point is, she meets this guy named Ken Steele, and they soon fall in love and get engaged. I mean, actually fall in love through the usual process of dating and getting to know each other, not this "I saw a guy for three seconds across the room and whatever." It's all great, until is isn't. The issue? Ken gets hired by Terry's boss, and Terry soon realizes that the boss is trying to steal Ken away! No matter what the boss does, terry is sure it's all a backhanded scheme. Finally Terry puts her foot down and tells the boss off. But Terry just sounds like a lunatic to Ken, who can't seem to see the forest for the trees. Ken gives her an ultimatum: apologize to boss lady, or the wedding is off! Terry tells him to sit and spin, then she packs her bags and decides to move away. At the last second, though! Ken shows up! Turns out boss lady finally made her move once Terry was gone; now Ken realizes he was a fool, and Terry was right all along, so he quit his job and chased after her! Terry and Ken reconcile and live happily ever after, other than the fact that they are both unemployed. THE END!!
Story Three: Yikes. Okay. Where to begin. Kitty is a kindergarten teacher. There's a kid in her class named Michael who she basically loves more than any of her other students. No idea why, he seems like a knob to me. But she does. And then she meets his father, and she falls in love with him too, because he's like an adult Michael! If this sounds weird, that's because it is. It doesn't matter, though, because dad is happily married to Michael's mother.
...right up until she dies in a horrible car accident! Michael starts insisting that Kitty should become his new mommy. So dad's like, well... Michael seems to like you, so why don't you hang around with us some until he's gotten over his mom dying. Kitty is happy to do this, but she's wracked by doubts. Is dad interested in her for who she is? Or just because he needs a new mom for his orphaned son? She tosses and turns every night, hallucinating a series of increasingly creepy fantasies:
Anyway, dad eventually proposes, but Kitty says no. She's sure that once Michael moves on to first grade, dad will fall in love with the first grade teacher instead and marry her. This does not happen. Instead, Dad finally convinces Kitty that she's teetering on the edge of madness, and the only way to fix it is to just marry him already. She agrees, thrilled to have a new son and husband. And they all live happily ever after, except the real mom who had to die for everyone else to find true joy in life. THE END!!!
Story Four: Hey, whaddya know! Another story told from the dude's point of view! Bill is in the Army. He dreams night and day about the awesome honeymoon he's going to have with his fiancee, Carol. All around him, his Army buddies get one Dear John letter after another, but not Bill. He knows his Carol is true. Finally, he's discharged from the service. He heads back home to find Carol and get hitched.
Instead, it's Carol's sister Eve waiting for him. Turns out Carol has run off and gotten married to some other guy, but didn't even have the balls to send him a letter. Instead, it's left to Eve to deliver the news. Bill is infuriated, and devastated, and he reams out Eve. Later, though, he apologizes over dinner and suddenly realizes, hey! Eve looks a lot like Carol! So naturally, this makes her a perfect stand-in. Because Real Dolls had not yet been invented.
Eventually, they get engaged. All Eve wants is a fantastic honeymoon... to the same place Bill was planning to take Carol. This sends Bill flying over the edge. He insanely decides he has to dump Eve and go on this honeymoon by himself in order to get over Carol. So, you guessed it, he sends Eve a Dear John letter! What's that line from The Dark Knight? You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the douchenozzle? Eve gets the letter just as Bill's train is leaving the station. She misses it. But Bill suddenly has seller's remorse. After a while, he changes his mind; he gets on a train going to other way and speeds back to town. Luckily, Eve is still just standing there on the platform, like a poleaxed steer. They wordlessly embrace, both content in the knowledge that Bill is a moron. THE END!!!
Notes: A couple of issues ago we got our first house ad for something other than romance comics. In that case it was an issue of Wonder Woman, but this time, we get an ad for both Lois Lane and Superman.
We get full credits again for this issue, thanks to DC's archives and the fine folks at the GCD:
Story One: script by Bob Bernstein, art by Jay Scott Pike
Story Two: script by Larry Nadle, art by Frank Giacoia and Mike Peppe
Story Three: script by Phyllis Reed, art by Mike Sekowsky and Barnard Sachs
Story Four: script by Bob Kanigher, art by Werner Roth and John Romita
Cover by John Romita
Is it just me, or does Mike Sekowsky get a lot of the really crazy stories? That seems kind of fitting, to be honest. I don't think it's a coincidence. Also, Kanigher writing the story from the guy's perspective also makes way too much sense.
My Grade: C+. Just very solid work all around, with some really good art. But not quite crazy enough for my tastes. And a couple really, really unlikely happy endings tacked on.
