Sweethearts #74

Charlton's Sweethearts #74 from November 1963 serves up a starlit moment of romantic tension, with a young woman leaning close to a guitar-toting young man — her speech bubble pleading "I love you, Cal… please, take me with you!" — while the cover copy warns that Cal Colby's heart "spoke with an insincere voice." With cover art penciled and inked by Dick Giordano, the image captures that bittersweet pull between glamour and heartache that made romance comics so compelling in the early '60s. Joe Gill's writing and a lineup that includes "The Girl with Everything" round out an issue that delivers the full emotional sweep of the genre at a crisp twelve cents.