Girls' Love Stories #16

This April 1952 issue of Girls' Love Stories wears its emotional heart right on its cover — a dark-haired young woman, tears welling in her eyes, sorts through an open suitcase and dresser as a vivid memory blooms behind her: a blonde woman locked in a passionate embrace with a handsome man. The cover's tag line — "Now that van belonged to someone else, would I be able to escape from the memory of our… Secret Love!" — sets up a story drenched in longing and heartache. Romance comics fans will appreciate the expressive, finely detailed linework on display here from artist Irwin Hasen, capturing all the bittersweet tension that made DC's "True to Life!" love titles so compelling in 1952.