Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: lev gleason, romance

The Romance of Lev Gleason's Boy Loves Girl, Up for Auction

One of comic history's most notorious publishers, Lev Gleason's romance Boy Loves Girl is an overlooked title from the publisher.

Best remembered for what is arguably the most notorious comic book title in American comic book history, Crime Does Not Pay, publisher Lev Gleason also put out material ranging from superhero titles like Daredevil to westerns like Black Diamond Western. Unsurprisingly, the publisher had a few succesful romance titles during the boom era of that genre, such as Lovers' Lane and Boy Meets Girl.  The latter title would be rebooted into the somewhat more suggestive Boy Loves Girl, as Lev Gleason tried to find his niche in the romance genre.

Acquiring Silver Streak Comics and Daredevil Comics outright from Your Guide's Dan Gilmor, Gleason shifted the focus to crime comics with the successful launch of Crime Does Not Pay. The series became enormously influential, sparking a wave of imitators. Amid growing criticism of comic books' influence, Gleason helped found the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers in 1948, a precursor to the Comics Code Authority, established to self-regulate the industry.

When Gleason launched his first romance title Lovers' Lane a short time later, it appears he intended to play it somewhat conservatively.  The title soon featured a run of beautiful painted covers by Bob Fujitani, which were all charming and occasionally just a little suggestive.  But after a run of relatively mild photo covers, Gleason made a significant shift into more salacious material, both covers and stories, and with traditional comic art covers in early 1953.

Gleason's second romance title, Boy Meets Girl, was retitled Boy Loves Girl and underwent a similar editorial shift at this same time.  As noted in the book Love On the Racks: A History of American Romance Comics, "The title changed to Boy Loves Girl with # 25 (July 1952), and it sometimes got much racier. Issue # 28 featured 'Phone Call on My Wedding Night,' with a girl in bed, in lingerie, talking into a phone. Many publishers, especially National, consistently avoided such extreme suggestiveness, even in pre-Code days, but others apparently couldn't resist the commercial value of sensationalism.  Gleason tried hard for variety in its sensationalism. Boy Loves Girl # 30 (Jan. 1953) cover featured the type of period piece collectors love, 'Romance at the Roller Derby.' [which] featured physical conflict between females–something not generally allowed when the Comics Code took effect two years later."

The two issues singled out there among others feature covers by Fred Kida, and issue #28's lead story is by Ruth Atkinson.  Those issues and more are available in the Boy Loves Girl Group of 9 (Lev Gleason, 1952-55) Condition: Average GD/VG up for auction in the 2024 June 23-25 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122426 at Heritage Auctions.

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