Heart Throbs #108

Heart Throbs #108 (On Sale: April 20, 1967) has a very nice cover by Jay Scott Pike, doing his best Stan Drake impersonation (it's a month too early to be doing his best Neal Adams impersonation).

Information on romance comics is always sketchy at best. Most collectors are guys and guys didn't buy romance comics (though I have to say looking at the art on some of these covers, we all may have missed out). Jay Scott Pike was a staple of the DC romance books for most of the 1960s. He employed a number of styles, but this one, his Stan Drake, is one of my favorites.

Inside we begin with "How Do You Say, 'I Don't Love You Anymore'?" drawn by Manny Stallman, followed by "A Kiss from a Stranger" penciled by Jay Scott Pike and reprinted from Heart Throbs #54. Lastly is our cover story "3 Girls -- Their Lives...Their Loves, Episode 7" another strip drawn by Jay Scott Pike.

The "3 Girls" strip was part of a 25-part story that followed the love lives of three Manhattan ladies sharing an apartment (and men), one of the "soap opera" continuation strips that were added to two of the DC romance books in the mid 1960s in an attempt to boost sales. The other, "Reach for Happiness" ran in the pages of Secret Hearts. They all lasted about two years and since they were never tried again, I would guess that the sales were not very impacted by the "soaps"

Edited by Barbara Friedlander.