by John | Apr 22, 2012 | Uncategorized
The original art (see below) for this gag comes from “My Secret” in First Kiss #27; It features a girl (the blonde in the panel below) who appears to be much older than her real age—14.
Things quickly spin out of control when she skips a couple of grades and ends up in a relationship which is clearly too mature for a 14-year-old!
Note for Giordano Fans:
Unfortunately, Charlton’s photostat for this panel was so poor that it was unusable. So I ended up scanning from the printed comic book.
Consequently, some of Dick Giordano’s fine line work was lost and had to be touched up here and there by my-gotta-get-it-done-now, but-definitely-not-an-artist last choice: me.
This is something I try to avoid, but sometimes happens when lines drop out and deadlines loom.
So you’re not getting pure Giordano here—which is a pity because Dick was my favorite Charlton romance artist.
↓ TranscriptSCENE: Young teen-age girl talking to two friends.
GIRL: I want to enjoy life fully! So marriage and kids will have to wait…’til I’m at least 16!
Art by Dick Giordano
by John | Apr 19, 2012 | Uncategorized
And here’s the original art from the late 1950s…
↓ TranscriptWOMAN: Something’s wrong! I ordered a drink…and I had to pay for it myself!
Art by Dick Giordano and (possibly) Vince Colletta
by John | Apr 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
The original art from FIRST KISS #25 is below. It’s the opening page from a story about a woman who’s deeply in love with a guy…or rather the guy she wants him to be someday…when she gets through fixing him.
Click on image to see enlarged image.
↓ TranscriptSCENE: Woman kissing a male carpenter outside.
WOMAN (thinking): I love handymen!
They’re so... handy!
Art by Charles Nicholas & Dick Giordano
by John | Apr 15, 2012 | Uncategorized
Below is the art the way it looked when it was published in FIRST KISS #30 in 1963. Charlton’s printing was rarely good and here it’s just plain crummy. To see how crummy keep scrolling down for a side-by-side comparison with the LAST KISS art.
When I bought the rights to FIRST KISS years ago, in the deal Charlton included black & white photostats (or negatives) of all the art. That’s what I’ve been scanning from and while the stats are sometimes dirty or of poor quality they’re usually far superior to the art as it appeared in the published comic books.
In the LAST KISS art (below left) you can still see some of artist Luis Dominguez’s fine line work. There’s plenty of detail for the eyes, the eyebrows and shoulder. But in the published FIRST KISS art (below left) that’s all disappeared or bulked up into muddy blacks. Such a shame!
↓ TranscriptSCENE: Buxom, barely dressed woman pats her hair and smiles at man.
WOMAN: If this is a mistake...let’s make sure it’s a big one!
Art by Luis Dominguez
by John | Apr 12, 2012 | Uncategorized
People really seem to enjoy seeing the original art for my Last Kiss gags. I was a bit surprised by one response, though. Recently a reader asked about seeing the art as it was actually printed in the Charlton Comics decades ago.
Hmm. Why not? Here’s a scan I did tonight from the original 1959 issue of First Kiss #9.
As you can see, I removed the woman (Ginny’s mom) in the background to focus in on Ginny in the foreground. I do occasionally crop things out. Deleting a person is somewhat rarer!
↓ TranscriptWOMAN: Tightwads are like bad eggs! They should never get laid!
Art by Vince Colletta Studio
