Romantic Secrets #15

This April issue of Charlton's Romantic Secrets delivers the heartache and longing the series promises right on its cover — a red-haired young woman swept into a passionate embrace with a dark-haired man against a billowing cloudy sky, while a tearful dark-haired woman in the foreground, roses nearby, watches the couple with unmistakable sorrow. The triangle of emotion is rendered with real feeling, making "The Hired Heart" sound like exactly the kind of bittersweet romance story this anthology does so well. At a dime a copy, this 1951 Charlton offering captures the dramatic pull of mid-century romance comics at their most tender.