When romance comics were more mature than usual.

[strannik01]

Well, fellow scans_daily members, you have voted. In accordance with the wishes of the majority, I will now post an unusual 1953 story (not 1948 story as I originally thought - I really should check the dates beforehand)  where a 16-year-old girl marries a 19-year-old guy, sleeps with him, has second thoughts about the whole marriage thing and runs off to enlist in the army when her brush with marriage becomes fodder for town gossip. And that's just the first three pages.



A bit of background is necessary. The story originally appeared in a comic punished by St. John Publishing company. St. John's romance comics were known for being a bit more risque (by the standards of the time) than other romance comics, and for *gasp* having female writers every once in a while. While it would be a stretch to call those comics lost masterpieces, they stick out because they often sidestep or outright avoid the many cliches that plagued romance comics.

Another important note is that, at the time this comic was published, women weren't allowed to enlist in the regular army. Instead, they had to enlist in Women's Army Corps. Originally introduced during World War II. While WAC's creation was controversial, it proved to be effective enough to survive through three wars until 1978, when women were integrated into regular military.

And now, with the background out of the way, lets get on with the show.

The following story originally appeared in Teen-Age Temptation #3. Writing by Dana Dutch, art by Matt Baker (which, interestingly, means that the story had an all-minority creative team).











And, as a bonus - some 1940s jokes (from the same issue):


Tune in next time as we delve behind the meme and take a look at the totally heterosexual adventures of Toni Gay and her boyfriend, Butch Dykeman.

Comments

[aaron_bourque]

I would rather be tight than be President.

. . . what?

No, really. What?

There's obviously some kind of slang meaning for at least one of those words, but . . . I can't think of any that make sense. I'd rather be tight than be President.

What.

[icon_uk]

I did wonder about that, but a bit of google-fu leads me to this; The quotation "I'd rather be right than President" is by Larry Clay, a three time US Presidential nominee, zero time winner.

"Tight" can also mean drunk (as in "He's tight"), so in this case, the person is suggesting that unlike Clay, they'd rather be inebriated than President.

Oh my aching sides...

[bradhanon]

I dunno, I'd definitely rather be drunk than president. For one thing, I can do one of those right now...

[icon_uk]

Mr Obama? Is that you?

[arilou_skiff]

Those jokes.... Oh god, those jokes...

[icon_uk]

I dunno, I smiled at the "he won't have a relative left by the end of the week"

That last one is more like a Zen koan than a joke though.

[ejne7]

I have been trying to figure that last one out and I can't.

[whitesycamore]

College women! They're slutty, you know.

[pseudo_tsuga]

I love the ending! Really unexpected.

[meatwhichdreams]

I know, I expected them to be back together by the end but I didn't expect such a measured and compassionate sort of let's-see-what-happens sort of thing.

ps Haruhi icon! <3 <3 <3

[pseudo_tsuga]

An ambiguous ending that says, "You shouldn't marry someone right away; you should get to know them for a while " is rare even today. How many romance novels end with the heroine marrying the dude after they've known each other for a week? And it was written in the 40's too! I really do think we've backslid on things.

Haruhi ♥

[kamino_neko]

It's difficult to backslide when you never advance past it....

[thelazyreader]

It's a nice story. Pretty realistic and well-done.

[freezer]

Realistic if you ignore the whole "had married sex = shameful slut" thing.

[strannik01]

She wasn't a shameful slut because she got married and had sex. She was a shameful slut because she was a 16-year-old who got married *gasp* to an older man *scandal!* and had sex *shock!* and didn't stay married to him *bigger scandal!*

[ajremix.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's so much the married sex thing that was the cause of the rumors but the divorce itself. It wasn't too long ago that getting a divorce was considered the Worst Thing Possible, regardless of what the marriage itself was like.

[halloweenjack]

Being a divorcee used to be a lot more scandalous than it is now, unless you were the one that sued on the grounds of adultery or mental cruelty or something. (Even though they technically had the marriage annulled, it still amounts to the same thing, more or less.)

[crabby_lioness]

That was the case through the early-mid 60s. Always keep the time frame in mind. Also remember this was a 16yo girl, and teenagers are far more susceptible to public abuse in any era.

[greenmask]

But it was annulled right after, so people would have got the idea that it was a Bella/Edward kind of marriage, "we just HAD to DO IT, so the only thing was to get hitched!"

Which in ye olden dayes = slut shaming.

[crabby_lioness]

To answer your question more fully, something similar happened to my mother around 1957. She married young, regretted it, got an annulment, and had to leave town over the shame. That shame stayed with her all her life until her death last year, and played a big part in a series of spectacularly bad decisions she made that set up and maintained abusive relationships with her second husband and her children. HOPEFULLY the toxic consequences will end with me and not get passed on to my own children, although the fact that I named the abuse and sought therapy for it permanently soured her relationship with me.

So, realistic? Yeah. The only thing here I see as the least bit remarkable is the protagonists' maturity at the end. Mom never had that much.

[bradhanon]

My reading was that the marriage was understood to be strictly a narrative convention inserted so it could get published. Like how Frank Miller put those winking little captions all through The Dark Knight Returns that basically said "But I'm not killing anyone, honest to gosh. No, really."

"I got a bad reputation because of my hastily-annulled-but-legal marriage" can be read, and I believe was read at the time, to be code for "I got a bad reputation because I banged him like a screen door in a high wind."

[whitesycamore]

"I got a bad reputation because of my hastily-annulled-but-legal marriage" can be read, and I believe was read at the time, to be code for "I got a bad reputation because I banged him like a screen door in a high wind."

Good point! A lot of stuff from the '40's/50's reads weirdly today, because we just don't understand the routine use of the "polite fiction."

It's like those old adverts for Lysol douche that are always circulating the internet. They get horrified laughs nowadays because people take them at face value and think you were supposed to use them as a cure for "unfeminine" vaginal odours, but if you read the ad copy carefully they were clearly marketed as a spermicide/abortifacient.

[junipepper]

Realistic if you ignore the whole "didn't need any ID to get married or join the Army" thing.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Reading between the lines, she could probably have gotten a fake ID. It's not said outright, of course, but she seems like the sort of person who'd know where to get one if she had to.

[whitesycamore]

Hey, you said this story was about an under age girl who got married to a guy and then left him 'cause he sucked in bed! But THIS is actually a fairly sensible story about a under age girl who marries a guy - who's "glorious" in bed, apparently - and then leaves him when she realises that impulse weddings are a bad idea.

You misled us, strannik01! However this was actually pretty good, so I forgive you.

Yeah... About that.

[strannik01]

For what it's worth, I didn't intentionally mislead you. When I wrote my last post, I tried to recall the story from memory, but when I reread it while putting up the scans I realized that, oops, that wasn't quite what happened.

Still, I figured that the story was still interesting enough, so people would forgive me - and I was right :)

Re: Yeah... About that.

[icon_uk]

She also would not be underage in the UK where the age for marriage is 16 and has been for a long time now. (In England and Wales you need parental consent if under 18, but in Scotland I believe it's not required)

Re: Yeah... About that.

[arilou_skiff]

Scotland has always been a bit looser in the who-can-marry-who department no?

Re: Yeah... About that.

[icon_uk]

Not as much as you might think, but somewhat

Re: Yeah... About that.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Not to mention in various parts of the US, as well. 18 is only the age of consent in some areas.

[proteus_lives]

Wow, surprisingly good.

Go 40s.

[greenmask]

I really like the "Sure, you're about to run out of gas" line. That's saucy!

Neat comic, too.

[calvision]

I oh so very badly want an excuse to use those jokes. Can you imagine my next awkward social?

Also this was a much better story than I expected, thanks for sharing!

[ejne7]

Most stuff I've read from this era I've enjoyed kind of in spite of itself; this was just straight-up good.

[meatwhichdreams]

I know that feeling exactly and I agree on both counts!

[ametti]

You know, that was really well done.

[morgana006]

Thanks for posting this!

That is all.

[wasabi.livejournal.com]

"...blow a bugle in the Boy Scouts..."

o_O

Good story. By page two I was already thinking, "No Janice! Don't be a fool! Hal's the right one!"

[sadoeuphemist]

Man, the army seems fun. All you do is go on dates all the time.

Also, it is now my life's goal to somehow work each and every one of those jokes into conversation.

[kenn_el]

"My story starts with a dare and ends with a discharge." Story of my life.

[psychopathicus_rex]

This... actually seems like something that could HAPPEN. Huh. How 'bout dat?
Also - is that bugle joke a reference to french kissing? I know that for at least some types of horn, playing them involves sticking out your tongue.

[strannik01]

Also - is that bugle joke a reference to french kissing?

Most likely. Anything else would be too suggestive for a joke book of the period.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Sounds pretty suggestive to me - but then, maybe just how bugle-blowing worked was not well-known to the general public back then.

[pseudo_tsuga]

Really? Which horns? I thought all brass instruments you play by buzzing your lips.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, the French horn, for one. Thanks to the comedian Anna Russell, I know that to play it, one must make (as she puts it) "a raspberry or Bronx cheer" into the mouthpiece.