Young Romance 2: The Early Simon & Kirby Romance Comics - preview

The Best of

SIMON KIRBY &

Romance Comics

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 10 23 30 43 51 62 75 84 98 111 119 133 142 157 167 180 187 199 200

Introduction by Bill Schelly I Was a Pick-Up — Young Romance #1 (1947) Misguided Heart — Young Romance #1 (1947) Marriage Contract — Young Romance #3 (1948) Her Best Friend’s Sweetheart — Young Romance #3 (1948) Blind Date — Young Romance #4 (1948) I Fell in Love with My Star Pupil — Young Romance #5 (1948) Gold Digger — Young Romance #5 (1948) Disgrace — Young Romance #6 (1948) War Bride — Young Romance #7 (1948) I Stole for Love — Young Romance #7 (1948) Love or Pity — Young Romance #8 (1948) Love Can Strike So Suddenly — Young Romance #8 (1948) Was Love to Be My Sacrifice? — Young Romance #9 (1949) The Man I Loved Was a Woman-Hater — Young Love #1 (1949) Mama’s Boy — Young Romance #10 (1949) Unwanted — Young Romance #10 (1949) Too Wise for Romance — Young Love #2 (1949) About the Restoration Biographies

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ABOUT THE RESTORATION A

fter the release of Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics, Gary Groth and I started talking jokingly about doing a follow-up volume. I say “jokingly” because I was not seriously considering doing another huge restoration task. The first volume had taken me years to finalize and I didn’t see myself repeating the process anytime soon.

Then, I remembered an email I received when the first book was announced. Chris Fama had written to tell me how he had been restoring Simon & Kirby’s work for years and offered to help on the project. At the time, however, Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby’s Romance Comics was already completed. I thanked him for the offer and explained that no more help was needed. Thinking back to the exchange, the idea struck me that perhaps Chris would be interested in providing the restoration for a new volume. I wrote to him and explained my idea for a second tome covering Simon & Kirby’s early romance stories—a compilation featuring the birth of the genre.

About a week later, I received a package in the mail containing several samples of these stories restored by Chris. Needless to say, I was greatly impressed by his technique. A few phone calls and several emails later, we had mapped out the inside of the book, and Chris enthusiastically went to work on the restoration. Here, I asked him to explain his technique.

—Michel Gagné, Editor

Our panel in its original form . . .

. . . the blue and red ink wash away.

. . . is soaked in a special solution . . .

The page is then air dried and flattened.

The image is digitally processed and touched up manually so that a nice crisp black ink line can be obtained.

. . . and heated at a near boil until . . .

The art is scanned at high resolution.

At last, color simulating the original tones is digitally applied.

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