Number 1380: Hated by an unfaithful wife

This issue of All True Romance (#2, from 1951), is notable for the stories being told from the man’s point of view. It’s no big secret that most love comics were written by guys, but this is the first one I’ve seen that appears to have been aimed at males. My theory, told several times in this blog, is that love comics could not have enjoyed the huge success they had in their first couple of years (late forties into the fifties) without having males buying them along with the target female audience.

This is a tale of adultery and divorce. Charlie, the husband, knows his wife, Gwen, is cheating, and she knows he knows. Everyone acts very civilized about the situation, but you can tell the wife’s lover is a cad because he wears a pencil-thin mustache. (His name, Dick, is also a clue to what he is.)

Beware of men wearing pencil-thin mustaches. They are wife-stealers and bounders.

Luckily there is Janet, a sweet young beauty contestant to ease Charlie’s suffering. And when the drama is finished, you can tell in the last panel they are in love because of all the little hearts swirling about their heads.

This looks like an Iger shop job, with some panels, especially of Gwen, that look to have been drawn either by Matt Baker or someone using his style. The quick-and-dirty print job is by some indifferent pressmen on a giant web press of the era. I have done my best to fix the scans.

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Although I hate to dissuade any Pappy's readers of the notion that in younger days I was a great lover, contrary to popular belief this is not a memoir of my affairs. For one thing, I was only seven-years-old when it was published.