Review by Win Wiacek

As the escapist popularity of flamboyant superheroes waned after World War II, newer genres such as romance and horror came to the fore and older forms regained their audiences. Some, like westerns and funny animal comics, had hardly changed at all, but crime and detective tales were utterly radicalised by the temperament of the times.

Concurrent to the demise of masked mystery-men, industry giants Joe Simon and Jack Kirby famously invented the romance genre for comics. Their mature, beguiling, explosively contemporary social dramas equally focussed on the changing cultural scene and adult themed relationships. They began with semi-comedic prototype My Date in early 1947 before plunging into the torrid real deal with Young Romance in September of that year.

Not since the invention of Superman had a single comic generated such a frantic rush of imitation and flagrant cashing-in. It was a monumental hit and the team quickly expanded: releasing their own spin-offs, including Young Love in 1949. Simon and Kirby presaged and ushered in the first American age of mature comics with challenging modern tales of real people in extraordinary situations – before seeing it all disappear again in less than eight years. Publishers Crestwood sold their titles to DC, and this quirky mammoth monochrome compilation encompasses their initial revival encompassing 1963 to 1966.

Although beautiful to look upon, it is sadly plagued with twin tragedies. The first is the stories quickly becoming fearfully formulaic – although flashes of narrative brilliance do crop up with comforting regularity – whilst the second is an appallingly inaccurate listing of creator credits. Other than the unmistakable, declamatorily florid flavour of Robert Kanigher, no-one is certain just who was responsible for the scripting of these amatory sagas, although the Grand Comic Database are constantly fixing history.

Here, likely contenders include Barbara Friedlander, Dorothy Woolfolk, George Kashdan, Jack Miller, Phyllis Reed, E. Nelson Bridwell and Morris Waldinger, but we may never really know. However, the artistry is elegant, charming and identifiable. The staggering beauty of John Romita is evident on the opening story, and his art is the most regularly featured (sample page). Gene Colan only draws a couple of stories, and many other artists are relatively obscure despite long careers, and their work here is a treat.

The tales themselves are dated, outlandish and frequently borderline offensive in their treatment of women, as were the times in which they were created, but that’s not an excuse.

However, there are moments of true narrative brilliance to equal the astonishing quality of the artwork. By the end of this titanic torrid tome the tone of the turbulent times was definitely beginning to change as the Swinging part of the Sixties began and hippies, free love, flower power and female emancipation began scaring the pants off the old guard and reactionary traditionalists.

Not for wimps or sissies but certainly an unmissable temptation for all lovers of great comic art.