I met Jacque Nodell at her booth during the recent 2009 San Diego Comic Con International (SDCCI)...  

Where she shared with me the above pictured booklet that she used to teach her program 'Forgotten Romance - Artists of A Bygone Genre'.  She was presenting this program at the Comic Arts Conference (CAC), that was run in conjunction with the SDCCI.

First, if Jacque's last name sounds familar, well it should!  Jacque is the grandaughter of Martin (Marty) Nodell of Golden and Silver Age Comics fame!  Martin was an American cartoonist and commercial artist, best known as the creator of the Golden Age superhero Green Lantern!

However, it isn't superheroes that Jacque's program was about during the CAC.  Even though the artists that she names in her booklet also are known for their superheroes art, it is their work in the romance genre that is near and dear to Jacque.

And actually, to myself also!  I really enjoyed Don Heck's artwork in the romance field for DC and Atlas Comics.  Also Gene Colan's, John Romita Sr., Winslow Mortimer, and others that she names for those and other comic book companies.  Those guys really knew how to draw realistic good-looking women for comic books! 

Believe it or not, there are actually other comics genres than just superheroes, even though sometimes it is hard to tell that at your LCBS!

The reason I don't delve into Romance Comics genre much in this Blog, is that because for the most part, aside from an occasional TPB or other type of reprint, the Romance Genre has been 'dead' since the late 1970's...

Yes, I've seen some 'floppies', (single standard sized comics), on the stands, like the Marvel Redux series, but for the most part the mainstream publishers aren't publishing 'romance' comics.

Jacque picks out just a few of the artists of the 1960's - 70's for her booklet.  Some good photos of artwork from Heck, Colan, Mortimer, Alex Toth, and Jim Steranko are shown in the booklet. Yes, That Steranko!  His one and only romance story published in 'Our Love Story' #5 from June 1970 is a hard to find issue nowadays!

For You to get an idea why the "Forgotten Romance" is a genre you should at least read about, please check out Jacque's source booklet that she used at the program that most of you probably could not attend!    

If you are interested in obtaining a .pdf copy of this booklet You are in luck!  You can download it for FREE at:

http://justinbleep.com/dropbox/sequential_crush/FR_teaser_150.pdf

My thanks to Jacque Nodell for making this great source book available for reading!

For additional reading about this 'Forgotten Romance' art form, check out Jacque's blog at:

http://www.sequentialcrush.blogspot.com/

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