Just Married #105
Charlton Comics Published 1975


I love romance stories, be it in movies, TV shows or comics form. Which is why you see me reviewing so many manga books that are about relationships, love and the like. Call me weird but that kind of stuff interests me more than who will beat up who or "how big the explosions" genre of stories.

So when I found a number of old romance comics at a local craft mall really cheap, I decided to give them a look to see what they were like. This issue of Just Married, is just the first of what will be at least three such reviews ove the weekend.

The first story is about a couple who fall madly for each other on their very first date, but hold off a WHOLE 6 weeks before getting married. I think the idea of love at first sight is sort of sweet, but from the way the panels are drawn I have to wonder if it wasn't more "lust" at first sight instead.

Still things go well for them the first month, until he dares agree with her that her cooking isn't wonderful. --Good thing he didn't mention how ugly the color of her dress was I guess.-- Which causes her to leave him to head to Haiti for a quick divorce.

In Haiti she quickly becomes involved with another guy, I began thinking at this point that her husband up north might be well rid of her. The new guy takes her snorkeling, and impresses her by scaring away a shark. (probably because sharks don't eat their own kind)

The new guy proves to be a con artist who is only interested in the woman for her money. When she refuses to give him any more he grabs her to force it out of her, but then like a "true hero" her husband shows up and punches the guy out.

She is thrilled to see him, but before she can say another word he grabs her and puts her over his knee and starts spanking her. Promising to continue doing so until she calls off the divorce.

At which point I took away my initial thoughts of him being lucky to be rid of her, because it is obvious these two truly loony love birds are perfect for each other!

The second story stars a newly married couple, with the husband a pilot caught by his wife dating stewardesses while he's out of town. This story is peculiar because instead of feeling her outrage at seemingly being betrayed. We are instead shown mostly his perspective, with him thinking how foolish it is of her to be jealous because nothing happened on the dates and they didn't mean anything.

Yes that's right, we're supposed to feel for HIM because his wife just won't trust him dating other women! Still they do make up, got to have a happy ending I suppose, with him showing her letters from the women talking about how nothing happened when he was with him. Yeah I'm going to trust LETTERS from people I suspect my spouse is cheating with, telling me they are not.

Still weirdest of all may have been the third, with the new husband being an insurance seller. When his wife expresses her displeasure at his "making out", they call it flirting in the story but kissing and hugging is NOT flirting by my definition, he tells her to basically butt out because it is how he does business.

Still this one has a stronger female character, because she decides to turn the tables on him by "flirting" with his male customers "in order to help him sell more insurance." When he feels what she has been going through, he vows to turn over a new leaf and do business in another way.

The other parts were interesting as well, like ads like for a suit that you wear when you exercise. That apparently contracts as you move, and thus squeezes you into shape. The drawing of the woman in it had a waist that looked like someone had tied a rope around it and pulled as hard as they could.

Letter pages were odd as well, with teenage(14 years old mostly) girls writing in to ask for advice with their 26 years old or older boyfriends. Apparently there were no statutory rape laws back then?

This was a really fun and wacky book to read, in order to see the way some ideas and trends have thankfully changed, plus to just see what was popular back then.