Secret Hearts #17

A beauty-contest drama plays out on the cover of this September 1953 DC romance anthology, where a woman wearing a "Miss Mayville" sash looks on with dismay as a man bearing a "Judge" ribbon sweeps a blonde contestant into a kiss — the tagline promising that "Love Was the Prize!" in the rivalry between Brenda and the narrator. Joe Giella's inks give the scene a polished, emotionally charged energy, with additional contestants visible in the background and bold floral accents framing the heartbroken Miss Mayville in the foreground. Also featuring Ann Martin, Counselor-at-Love, Secret Hearts #17 delivers the kind of tangled emotions and tender heartbreak that made DC's "Stories of Love and Romance" a welcome ten-cent escape in 1953.