Number 1545: “Invitation to Surrender!”

Surrender. A word in the language of love that means giving up and giving in to intimacy and passion. No woman I’ve ever known would use the word in such a context, but Alice Hughes, dewy-eyed and romantic, insists that the man she will eventually surrender herself to sweep her off her feet, and bring her “to surrender by the slow fire of mounting passion.” That sounds like a lot of work. When I was a young guy and in active pursuit of what young guys are usually in active pursuit of I would have thought that lighting a “slow fire” was too slow a way to get to the passion part. But then, I might have had more luck if I’d considered Alice’s point of view. At this age I have to learn what I should’ve known then by reading a 64-year-old love comic.

From Love Letters #3 (1950), artist(s) not known:

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Number 1450: Waterfront girl

When I was in junior high school Big Pappy took me aside to give me the talk. You know, the one where he warned me about what girls and women to avoid. After hearing about how those girls and women would lead me down the road to sex, sin and ruin, I spent the rest of my teenage years looking for them.

He never warned me about is the subject of today’s post, the waterfront girl (probably because we lived 700 miles inland). Our story is about Sal Benson, singer in a waterfront dive. Our gal Sal has had a rough life, and is now trapped on an island entertaining a bunch of coarse roughnecks. She sees a chance to get out by stealing another woman’s fiancé.

“I Was a Waterfront Girl” is drawn by Paul Gustavson and Bill Ward, and is from Quality Comics’ Love Letters #3 (1950).

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