Love Diary #45

A snapshot of mid-1960s romance comics at their most dramatically charged, this September 1966 Charlton issue puts heartbreak front and center — a young woman in a red dress pleading with a guitar-strumming performer named Ritchie, who coolly looks away beneath the stage lights. The cover teaser for "Hootenanny Heel" sets the emotional stakes perfectly, promising the kind of folk-music heartache that defined the era, while the interior story "I Must Be True" features writing by Joe Gill with inks by Vince Colletta. Cover pencils by Pat Masulli and inks by Dick Giordano give the scene a polished, expressive energy that draws you right into the drama.