Teen-Age Love #40

This January 1965 Charlton romance issue wears its heart on its sleeve — the cover, penciled by Sal Gentile and inked by Dick Giordano, captures a dark-haired young woman in a red dress touching her face with quiet vulnerability while a group of young men in a convertible call out to her in speech bubbles. A second vignette at the bottom shows her alone, wishing she were dead, underscoring the emotional weight promised by the lead feature's title, "I Wasn't Pretty Enough." Beyond that central story, the issue also teases "Band Singer" — written by Joe Gill with art by Hal Grauer and inks by Vince Colletta — along with "Without Love, Without Hope," making this a full package of the heartfelt, melodramatic romance storytelling that made Charlton's teen titles a genuine comfort read in the mid-sixties.