Posted By Dan Greenfield on Sep 1, 2022 | 2 comments

The softer side of one of comics’ great superhero and horror artists…

By PETER BOSCH

The late Gene Colan was born 96 years ago on Sept. 1, 1926. While previous 13th Dimension tributes have been devoted to his work on superhero and horror titles, he also spent several years drawing romance comic books and some of his work on them was quite amazing. He had worked in the genre first for (pre-)Marvel as far back as 1949, but it was in the dozens of stories he drew for DC’s love comics in the early 1960s that the artistic flair that would become the Gene Colan of Iron Man, Daredevil, Dr. Strange, and others can be seen. And when Stan Lee started up a new line of Marvel romance comics in 1970, Colan was one of the artists he called upon to illustrate them.

Here are 13 of Colan’s covers (and interior pages) from both the DC and Marvel periods. Enjoy! (Inkers are listed when known.)

1. Secret Hearts #98 (Sept. 1964, DC)

—

2. Falling in Love #73 (Feb. 1965, DC)

“The Battle of Love!” story page

—

3. Girls’ Romances #108 (Apr. 1965, DC)

—

4. Falling in Love #75 (May 1965, DC)

“The Girl Who Won the Young America Miss Contest” splash page

—

5. Girls’ Romances #109 (June 1965)

—

6. Heart Throbs #96 (June-July 1965, DC)

—

7. Girls’ Love Stories #115 (Nov. 1965, DC)

—

8. My Love #4 (Mar. 1970)

“The Boy Who Got Away” story page – inks by Jim Mooney

—

9. Our Love Story #4 (Apr. 1970)

“How Do We Know When It’s Really Love?” splash page – inks by Sal Buscema

—

10. Our Love Story #4 (Apr. 1970)

“You Can’t Love Again” splash page – inks by Frank Giacoia

—

11. Our Love Story #8 (Dec. 1970)

“A Boy to Marry!” splash page – inks by Dick Ayers

—

12. My Love #13 (Sept. 1971)

“How Do I Make Him Love Me?” splash page – inks by Bill Everett

—

13. Our Love Story #19 (Oct. 1972)

—

MORE

— A Nifty Page Turn and the Quiet Genius of GENE COLAN. Click here.

— 13 SPLASH PAGES: A GENE COLAN Birthday Celebration. Click here.

—

PETER BOSCH’s first book, American TV Comic Books: 1940s-1980s – From the Small Screen to the Printed Page, has just been published by TwoMorrows. He has written articles and conducted celebrity interviews for various magazines and newspapers. Peter lives in Hollywood.