ROMITA, JOHN, JR 527
(September and October 1968) entitled “My Time to Love.” Th e heroine tells the hippie
fellow, “Oh, Kip... I do love you... but you know how my parents feel about you... and
that crazie, hippie life you lead!”
Black faces began to appear in a few stories of the 1970s, and editor/writer Robert
Kanigher penned a 13-page story of interracial romance, “Full Hands, Empty Heart,”
for Young Romance #194 ( July–August 1973). Kanigher, an innovator on several fronts
and an outstanding editor and writer for DCs fi rst-rate war comics since the 1950s,
showed courage with this eff ort. In this story of the romance of a black female nurse and
white male doctor — a twist on most interracial stories of the time, in which the black
person was usually male — the doctor dies while saving the nurse from a drug-addled
patient. “If we don’t learn to love each other, the world will always be a jungle,” the nurse
says, holding the dead doctor. She fi nishes the tale saying wistfully, “In some worlds
there’s no color, only people.”
Joe Simon briefl y returned to romance as a DC editor in the 1970s, creating stories
like “Daughter of Women’s Lib” in Young Love #106 (October–November 1973); but
neither images of Th e Beatles nor updated fashions, or even stories dealing with inter-
racial love, hippies and women’s liberation, could save DCs romance comics from falling
circulation. Likewise, Marvel’s experiment in bringing the genre back with two titles on
a bi-monthly basis as the 1970s dawned ended six years later with Our Love Story #38
(February 1976) and My L ove #39 (March 1976). Meanwhile, other than a few reprint
issues, Charlton’s extensive romance line ended in 1976.
By that time, DC had already dispatched Secret Hearts with #153 and Girls’ Romances
with #160, both in 1971. Girls’ Love Stories disappeared with #180 and Falling in
Love with #143, both in 1973; and Love Stories died with #152 in 1973 (the new title
continued from Heart Th robs after #146). Finally, the pioneering Young Romance ended
with #208 in 1975 — the record for a romance comic — and Young Love vanished with
#126 in 1977, with a last gasp of six issues after the title seemed to have been killed with
#120 in 1975 along with Young Romance. Romance comics had thus come full circle, and
romance in popular culture was left for movies, television, and paperback books.
Selected Bibliography: Nolan, Michelle. Love on the Racks: A History of American
Romance Comics. Jeff erson, NC: McFarland, 2008; Scott, Naomi, ed. Heart Th robs: Th e
Best of DC Romance Comics. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979; Simon, Joe. Joe
Simon: Th e Comic Book Makers. New York: Crestwood, 1990.
Michelle Nolan
ROMITA, JOHN, JR. (1956–). An artist noted for his professionalism, consistency,
and speed, Romita Jr. has spent nearly the entirety of his career detailing the Marvel
universe and its characters. Since the late 1970s, he has styled every major fi gure in
Marvel Comics, enjoying extended runs on titles such as Th e Amazing Spider-Man ,
Iron Man , Th e Uncanny X-Men , Daredevil , Th e Punisher , Th e Incredible Hulk , Th or ,
and Wo l v e r i n e. Despite this extensive resume, much like his father, John Romita Sr. ,
