There’s something quite marvellously spooky and off-kilter about this, it looks like some 90s Vertigo title, and wouldn’t be out of place in an issue of Gaiman’s Sandman to be honest. And it’s all down to the art by Liz Berube in “Kiss Me Only in My Dreams” from Girls’ Love Stories #149, 1970, DC Comics (From Ladies Making Comics)
I have to admit complete ignorance on this one though, but her artwork really is a wonderful thing. Take this, from an issue of DC’s Young Romance #169 (Dec ’70, Jan ’71):
That’s simply beautiful.
Sequential Crush have an interview with Berube, that makes great reading, all about her times as a teen/20-something in the DC offices:
“I don’t know what you would call my “style”… it flowed. Graceful, sensual and fun. What can I say? It’s what came out, when I put pencil to paper. My mom was artistic, in many ways and some of her style (the hair) rubbed off. I was a big fan of Art Deco and Art Nouveau… Alphonse Mucha. I imagine that rubbed off, as well – as there is nothing really new, under the sun and consciously or subconsciously – we all “borrow” from each other. Art, Music, Cinema… the works. Mostly I was concerned with something looking beautiful. My first husband said I could find beauty in a sewer… I certainly tried.”
You know, there’s just not enough romance comics out there, there really aren’t. And if they could look something like Berube’s that would be very nice indeed.
February 25th, 2012 at 6:04 pm
It’s amazing that her work reproduced as well as it did considering the primitive state of comic printing in the early 70′s. I would love to see her work reprinted on quality paper and recolored (and only to match the colors of the original comics) but seeing that this was work for DC that’s unlikely. Shame…beautiful compositions and a unique style for that era, heck for any era. Liz Berube’s a real talent.
February 27th, 2012 at 4:52 am
I’d literally do that job for free. To be fair, I did tweak the colors a little in the top image, but only because the scan I found was very yellowed like the bottom one. Just a few simple tricks in Photoshop does it!
(And now I’ve done some restoration to the bottom image too! http://imgur.com/Hy0F3)
Anyway, both Marvel and DC have loads of hidden treasures like this in their back catalogues, I really hope that at the very least they one day realize the archival potential of digital comics.
February 27th, 2012 at 8:39 am
A hope many of us share Alexa!