Love Diary #79

Charlton's Love Diary #79 (1972) wears its heartache right on its cover, where a young woman tends to a bandaged, sightless man in bed — he declares his love while her thought bubble reveals a painful secret she's keeping from him. Sal Gentile's cover art captures that bittersweet tension perfectly, with fresh white flowers at the bedside and the story title "Please Don't Love Me!" spelling out the emotional stakes at a glance. Inside, David Mangiarotti brings the art for "No Future In It!" — all for just twenty cents, a genuine slice of early-'70s romance comics at their most earnest.