ROMANCE COMICS 523
four titles to two. Marvel killed 25 of 30 romance titles that appeared early in 1950,
most of which did not make it beyond a second or third issue. Likewise, Fox aban-
doned all 21 of its short-lived love titles; soon, the entire fi rm disappeared. Major
league publisher Fawcett killed or suspended 13 of 17 titles in 1950, and fi rst-tier
comic producer Quality concurrently purged or suspended 22 of its 30 titles in all
genres, including all 14 romance types.
In all, only 30 of 147 romance titles, including Simon and Kirby’s ever-popular Yo u n g
Romance and Young Love , survived the Love Glut of 1950 unscathed. Several other
titles were resumed in 1951 and 1952, when romance rallied strongly on the comic
book racks before enduring a steady but slow decline, in large part because of the infl u-
ence of television. Never again, however, would there be the likes of the romance craze
of 1949 –50.
EC Comics, best known for the horror and fantasy titles that helped precipitate
the Comics Code Authority, killed its three short-lived romance titles, but not before
producing the parody of all parodies. “Th e Love Story to End All Love Stories” in
Modern Love #8 (August–September 1950), the company’s fi nal romance issue, featured
satirical murders and the suicide of publisher T. Tot, a victim of the glut. (Th ere really
was a Tony Tot Comics sub-publishing company at EC.) “Put out anything... even...
horror!” shouts the distraught Mr. Tot. Just before the luckless comic book tycoon’s
demise, respected creators Jack Lyman and Joe Curry sadly announce they are fi nancially
ruined and leap from Mr. Tot’s penthouse window (ironically, at this time Joe Simon and
Jack Kirby were among the few successful romance creators and were not suff ering from
the glut). Th is manic story would not have been out of place when editor Harvey Kurtz-
man began Mad as an EC comic book in 1952, though by then the romance market had
stabilized.
In 1951, this stability permitted numerous titles to return, allowing for a market of
403 romance issues across 28 companies, including nine fi rms with but a single love
title. Th ere was, however, no genuinely new ground to be covered in the world of four-
color love, other than St. John’s introduction of Wartime Romances #1 ( July 1951) one
year into the Korean War. Romance went on to a single-year high of 522 issues in
1952, or one of every six of the record of 3,164 comic book issues —give or take a few
sometimes listed issues that may or may not exist. Th e fi rst wave of the baby boomers,
born 1946 – 50, helped off set the negative infl uence of early commercial television on
comic book circulation in the 1950s. Even so — until the late 1980s explosion of inde-
pendent publishers and fan artists, along with the fl ooding of the market by Marvel
and DC — corporate comics began a long, slow decline in circulation and title numbers
following the highs of 1952.
Romance comics gradually lost out with all the rest, incrementally declining in num-
bers almost every year. Th e Comics Code Authority, which began placing its stamp in
the upper-right hand corner of comics dated variously February, March, and April of
1955, would no longer allow cleavage, lingerie, or titles like “I Was a Pick-Up!” Cen-
sorship, of course, resulted in the death of horror and most crime titles, but romance
