Romantic Story #25

Charlton's Romantic Story #25 from 1954 serves up a tension-soaked cover that draws you straight into the drama. In the foreground, a glamorous dark-haired woman clutches her wrap and whispers, "He must not find me here… I didn't know they were friends!" — while behind her, an artist's studio reveals two men conversing near an easel bearing a woman's portrait. Cover pencils by Leon Winik and inks by Ray Osrin give the scene a lush, cinematic quality perfectly suited to the issue's tantalizing story, "The Man I Love is…Poison!" This is mid-1950s romance comics at their most compellingly fraught.