Secret Hearts #139

Secret Hearts #139 (On Sale: August 19, 1969) has a cover by Dick Giordano and another great example of a through-the-legs shot, which I gotta say, I find sexy.

We began with "Not That Kind of Girl" by Joe Gill, Winslow Mortimer and Vince Colletta. Following her mother's advice, Rosalie is not very popular; she does not want to be known as that kind of girl. However, it is her aunt who helps her to loosen up a little and have some fun.

This is Joe Gill's first full writing credit at DC; he would have 15 more in a DC career that for the most part, paralleled the editorship of Dick Giordano. Joe came to DC with Giordano and had so far been relegated to writing the scripts based on E. Nelson Bridwell's plots for The Secret Six and a Marv Wolfman's plot for the Showcase #78 issue, featuring Johnny Double.

Joseph P. Gill was born July 13, 1919.  He came to do comics work through the prodding of his brother, Ray Gill, an editor at Funnies, Inc., which supplied comics publishers with stories and artwork. His work in the early days for Timely (now Marvel), was mainly uncredited, and is said to have started in the early forties, where he was one of the writers to work on Captain America after the departure of Simon and Kirby. In the late forties, Timely switched from super-heroes to teen comics and westerns, and Joe became one of their busiest writers. The work at Timely began to dry up when he fell out of favor with Stan Lee and by the early fifties, was working for Charlton, writing just about everything they published.

Besides writing 100 to 120 pages a week, Joe worked as a colorist as well. In fact, his final recorded credit is as one of the colorists on the small-press superhero comic Ebony Warrior #2 (June–July 1993), published by Ania. At Charlton Joe Gill co-created the superheroes Captain Atom, Peacemaker, and Judomaster. In 1975, Gill and artist John Byrne co-created the post-apocalyptic series Doomsday + 1, the first series-creator credit for Byrne.

Gill retired from comics for the most part in 1986 when Charlton finally collapsed for the final time. He passed away on December 17, 2006.

That is followed by "How Can I Tell Him the Truth?" by Jack Miller, Winslow Mortimer and Mike Esposito. Childhood sweethearts, Wendy and Richy, have always assumed that they will be married, but when Richy has to go away for a few months, Wendy falls in love with Peter.

We end with the 13-pager, "Hide from Love" penciled by John Rosenberger. Tom is pressured by his girlfriend, Gwen,  to give her roommate, Freya, a job. Things go badly when Freya falls in love with Tom herself.

Edited by Dick Giordano.