Falling in Love romance comics - 1966

Look what I found while packing this week: Falling in Love comics from 1966. I bought this in NYC sometime in the 80s before the Internet, when irony was street-level in nature and generally affordable. This is one of my all-time favorite comic books EVER. It's beyond a comic book and in the realm of alternate reality, involving overblown emotions, freak-outs, and perfect hair.

It's literally falling apart when I read it now and little crumbles of its pages got left behind on my scanner. Oh "Falling in Love," don't disintegrate our precious love!!! Let's have a look-see.

Here's the cover. Is it any wonder I couldn't resist this at $2.50 at the used comics store? It's very difficult to find vintage romance comics these days and most of them aren't even this good, meaning: entertaining and surreal.
What's up with that palm frond going across his powder-blue business suit? Kind of S&M-y.

Here's an ad. I like the idea of raising sea monkeys while wearing your 10 Way Hairpiece with 10 glamour styles. No sense in not looking your best while feeding your krill.

Our first story: Hold Back the Stars. Whoo! Way to start us off, mystery editors, whoever you are/were.

So this lady, Nina, is so neurotic, that falling in love to her is like getting hooked on crack cocaine. She MUST RESIST the temptation, to the point where she's actually fleeing from a man she just saw a second ago in a crowded restaurant, turning her into fire...into ashes...into water. I know people weren't THIS fucked up in 1966, were they?

Her love fantasies begin to resemble a trip through time and space, which would be a little scary, I admit.
Let's check out the details here.
How can you stop a dream from kissing you until you drown in a cloudburst of stars? I don't know. I don't wanna know.

So she throws herself into her work as a typist, clacking away furiously to drown out the hallucinations, all the while pushing her little sister, Kitten, into some fantasy of financial security by making her attend secretarial school. Oh perchance to dream!

Meanwhile "the Kitten" has been making a little love connection herself--with the man Nina fled from, way back on page 1!!!

The AGONY!
I shut my eyes tightly when his mouth met hers... But the kiss burned right through my closed eyelids...
This image always makes me queasy. It has the power to induce nausea! That's why I love this comic so much. It's very powerful. I mean, that's some kiss.

Don't worry--it all comes out in the wash. Nina and the guy realize that they truly love each other, based on that one-second meeting/fleeing from the restaurant, and the Kitten understands because she's very conveniently docile as her older sister makes out with her new boyfriend moments after stumbling upon them during their romantic dock-side date. It makes no sense, but neither does...love.

Oh, another ad.
You know you want these art puppies.

Say, what's in next issue of "Falling in Love"? Looks like lots and lots of hand-drawn fonts are in store for you.
I count at least 14 fonts in this ad. Impressive.

Our cover story is a doozy. Our girl, who shall remain nameless because I already packed the comic book and can't refer to it at the moment, has been groomed by her spinster aunt to attract men. All men, but especially financially secure men. It's not what you think. Oh well, I guess it is. Hey, it was 1966.

The men fall for her bag of tricks like the easily manipulated saps that they are, all except ONE man. THE one, of course; some doctor. She can't get his attention. He'd rather hold his hand up as a force field than even LOOK her way.
This of course fucks with her head big-time. She even starts hallucinating and begs her late aunt to help her get this guy to fall for her like he's SUPPOSED TO. I like how in the last panel, the aunt in her thought bubble gives her a "bitch, please" look just before she fades away forever. Hey, if you grow up with the brains of a bag of grass seed, even your manipulators will shun you eventually. Especially if they're dead.

But does she learn anything about her true feelings and how to express them? No, she's actually so upset by the doctor's implied rejection that she FAINTS at a swanky shindig, causing him to, of course, fall in love with her.
Doctor Colby explains his feelings thus, So you CAN feel...and cry...and faint. Was any love expressed so sweetly? I like how he compares her man-grabbing techniques to collecting scalps. Gruesome! And that's the way love is.

I like this early network-marketing ad because the people in the top-left corner remind me of walking around Oregon.