Nothing is as romantic as a stalker love story!

"To Walk Alone"
Romantic Stories
Charlton Comics
Cover Art by Art Cappello
Story Art by Charles Nicholas & Vince Alascia
Number 126
1973

Okay, so I hadn't actually planned to do this story when I grabbed this particular Romantic Story this morning. I had actually planned to do the cover story but PLEASE passing up a stalker story is just too much to ask. They just make me so happy.

Before you worry yourself about what nightmare inducing images might be found in this stalker story you should know that there are actually three kinds of stalkers, and not all scenarios end with you chained in a disused bomb shelter secreted under an above ground swimming pool.

Type One: The kind that creepily watch you, stages accidental run ins and eventually kills you or tries to kill someone to impress you.

Type Two: The kind that creepily watches you, stages accidental run ins and eventually is found in your closet trying on your clothes and you are forced to call the police.

Type Three: The kind that creepily watches you, stages accidental run ins and you inexplicably end up spending the weekend dancing with them in a gay club in Southern Ohio, crashing in the same hotel room with a little voice in your head telling you that it probably isn't the best idea to share the same same bed with them no matter how casual or numerous her offers, so instead stay awake as long as you can by watching People Under the Stairs a little concerned that you might be awoken in a previously unplanned manner.

I am most intimately familiar with type three and feel secure in saying that this story falls safely somewhere between the last two.

Before we begin I just have to say that I totally want this first outfit. If that yellow raincoat and those boots are shiny plastic or patent leather (my personal kryptonite) I am SO there.

Anyway, with To Walk Alone we meet Tracy Rankin a recently jilted city girl with a fab scents of style and the legs to pull of a killer pair of boots. We can only guess that Arther, her previous fiance, realized he was gay. I mean look at her. Assuming she isn't stupid even I'd hit that!

Rule number one: When you think you are being followed please don't take the time to ask. So maybe she is kind of stupid but still you can't have everything.

After questioning the large man behind her, she discovers it is actually her upstairs neighbor and that he was following her. But he was following her to keep her safe. Which, of course, is what all stalkers say.

But even though Dennis tells her she is beautiful, a compliment she soaks up like a Bounty Paper Towel, the following evening she heads out alone again.

Like any stalker worth his salt, Dennis is waiting for her outside.

And, even though Dennis is obviously a TOTAL stalker, Tracy agrees to go out with him. I guess we shouldn't be too hard on her. Dennis is a red head, and, as a fake red head (most days) since I was seventeen, I can assure you we are irresistible.

Dennis takes Tracy to a nice restaurant and the dates goes wonderfully. In fact in goes better than all the dates he had ever fantasized about while weaving potholders from the hair he secretly collected from her hair brush.

Okay, Jonnie Love leads me to believe that in 1973 steaks could only be afforded by the very rich. Does Tracy think money grows on trees? I don't know how much this stalker gig pays, but I don't think she should assume it pays steak money.

Dinner at Tracy's house seems to go even better. It goes well enough that Dennis feels it is time to tell Tracy that he loves her. Oddly Tracy's tears are not because she is afraid he is going to kill her and wear her skin as a suit.

Wow, Dennis's timing could not have been better. Rebound girl is CRAZY!

Wow, that relationship moved even faster than the relationship between me and my husband. I may have been the stalker in that scenario but he was first with the I love you.

First Impressions - Comics I just had to buy.

With my husband working nights again I decided to do a quick search through my ever growing romance comic collection for something to post and quite frankly I just couldn't decide. There were just way too many covers that sold me on the book before I even opened its pages.

First impressions are everything. And that is doubly true for romance.

It. Is. Everything. I can not stress that enough.

I remember once meeting the mother of a man I was dating only to have her eyes rake me from tights to t-shirt and say "So, how old is she?" A question she didn't even both to direct to me. Perhaps I should have upgraded my jean cut offs for a skirt or something because she, obviously, was not impressed. And I'm awesome!

My husband once threw-up on a first date. Yep, and he wasn't even drunk! Did he get a second date? I don't remember for sure, but I am guessing no.

Then of course, coming at it from the other side, I once had a guy try to pick me up at a club who had, no more than three weeks early, tried for 20 minutes to grope me in a mosh pit and was saved only by the fact that eventually some gigantic would-be-viking man decided that I fell under his protection. Was I not supposed to remember that? Well I did. Woman remember EVERYTHING.

Good or bad, you only have one shot at a first impressions. Just like in life, a comic also has only moments to sell you on it value. In my opinion, the following did their job. And did it well.

(Time For Love #20, 1972. Cover artist unknown)

I'm not sure what the misunderstanding is but if it involves cage dancing, I'm in!

(Just Married # 86, 1972. Cover artist unknown)

I like how her husband's thrown out arm, with its pushed up sleeve, imply that the guy must shoot up with heroine or something. I'll let you in on a little secret ... it's LSD.

(Sweethearts # 123, 1972. Cover artist unknown)

We all know how much woman hate a man who has an island! This cover makes me what to buy it AND feed that woman a sandwich.

(Young Love # 119, Dec./Jan 1975, 76'. Cover artist Art Saaf?)

I hope when one of my sons goes to prison (because there's no doubt really) that they have a good woman to love them.

(Secret Romance # 29, 1974. Cover artist Art Cappello)

I'm just plain drawn to the gentleman with graying hair who seems to be having a rather elaborate internal dialog about that couple making out in public. What does he know that we don't?

(Secret Romance # 23, Dec./Jan 1973. Cover artist Art Cappello)

I think the blind, even the temporarily blind, should be more often represented in comics.

(Time For Love # 23, 1971. Cover artist by Art Cappello)

Like a dream come true. Another blind guy. Apparently women with low self-esteem love to score with the visually impaired.

(Romantic Story # 126, 1973. Cover artist by Art Cappello)

If he can't be blind, he can at least be dead. She seems more upset that she already paid for the honeymoon than she does that her man is dead. Just to prove that I'm right, I'll let you know she hooks up before the end of the trip.

Now, aren't you just dying for me to post these stories? I thought so.

Statistically speaking flying is still the safest way to travel.

"No Other Women For Miles"
Charlton Comics
Pencil/Ink by: Art Cappello
Romantic Story
Number 125
1973

I know what you are thinking. You have been burned too many times before. Surely, surely this story could not be as awesome as this cover would lead you to believe.

But oh yes it is! Yes! Finally a fabulous comic book cover that is lame in comparison to the complete awesomeness inside. So let's not delay any longer.

What would you do if you found yourself stranded after the private plane you were flying in crashed? How would you spend those days as you waited to be rescue? Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

In "No Other Women For Miles" June Walton is a secretary for the Big 'Z' Corporation. One of several secretaries to the "Genius" behind the company's success.

But Perry McKay knew exactly who she was and he told her breasts as much. Heck, I would have problems not addressing that chest.

But in the whirlwind that IS big business, June is swept way on an impromptu business trip to New York City.

But the unthinkable happens.

In the crash June and Perry come out without a scratch, but the pilot's leg is broken. What a lucky break for our would be lovers! (pun intended) Now they have all the time in the world to wander off together without that stick-in-the-mud Jennings cramping their style. And wandering off is far preferable to listening to Jennings crying "the pain is too much" and "oh God, I can't feel my leg anymore."

So again, we come to our earlier questions. What would you do if you survived a plane crash? How would you spend your days as you waited to be rescue?

Would it include anything like ... long walks?

Skinny dipping?

How about heavy petting?

Of course, leave it to Jennings to try and ruin everyone else's good time.

I'd have a good mind not to answer those pleading cries for help. Of course then our story wouldn't get even greater.

Greater you ask? Yes with a BEAR ATTACK!

Could this be the same bear from "Non' but a Brave" still bitter at having missed his chance to eat two hamburgers and a milkshake, if only secondhand? Well, the same bear or not, we have to assume that bears are to Charlton what buggery is to Vertigo.

But we Charlton readers are here for the romance, so, despite all of Jennings' drama, we still get our happy ending.

l

If only more marriage proposals could be so groovy.

In the interest of equal time

Non' But a Brave
Charlton Comics
Illustrated By: Fred Himes (?)
Romantic Story
Number 119
1972

Okay, so last week I posted a story from Charlton's Cowboy Love. I think it was a good example of the bright spots in the art and story telling that came out of the Charlton camp. Well, in the interest of equal time, I thought it might be nice to enjoy a little bit of the very plentiful other extreme. Now it's time for a little Indian Love.

In Non' But a Brave we meet Jan, an apparently very popular Southern California girl taking a bus trip with friends to see the wilds of Yellowstone National Park.

The bus trip is apparently not all she had hoped it would be. And a charming Kenneth notices her change in mood.

In fact, the very angry and apparently very hungry Jan, just wants her space.

Once Jan finishes eating the large meal in hopes of dulling her pain, she decides to head back to the others. But she runs into trouble.

But, with the speed that only two hamburgers and a milkshake can give you, she escapes the bear unharmed.

But to her dismay, in the process she becomse terribly lost. After wandering for hours she seems to just be moving further and further from the camp. Then, just as darkness starts to fall, she runs into a man with a bow, headband and vest and jumps to the conclusion anybody visiting Yellowstone National Park in 1972 would jump to.

.

Despite her limited "Indian" and the fact that she seems to fight all his efforts, the Native American gets her meaning and manages to get her back to camp before she is eaten by wolves or something.

Once they arrive back at camp, the language barrier again seems to get in the way.

But can romance really bloom between two people from two different worlds that don't even speak the same language?

Oh, that' s right. This is 1972!