Lovers #23

A young couple shares a milkshake through twin straws in this charming 1949 photo-cover from Marvel's romance anthology, their closeness making the banner headline — "The Love That Failed!" — all the more bittersweet. Lovers was part of the postwar boom in romance comics that spoke directly to readers navigating matters of the heart, and this issue promises the kind of emotionally honest storytelling the series billed as "True-to-Life Stories." At just ten cents, it's a snapshot of an era when comics wore their feelings openly and unabashedly.