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darwination:
Teen-Age Temptations 003 (1953) (St. John) (JVJ-Two-Dar)

http://i25.tinypic.com/xb050m.jpg
Thanks to JVJ for letting us scan his fantastic collection and to Twobyfour for the raws, it is such a treat to read these comics!  All the stories deal with the choices teen-age girls make on the cusp of adulthood, usually between two men.  The first story with Mort Drucker art, "I Wanted Life Long Thrills," involves a girl going steady with a pilot who's away for long periods of time.  Enter an old beau who had left town without so much as a word.  They begin to fool around, cue the emotional rollercoaster.  An interesting ending, perhaps opposite of a typical resolution.  The second story, "The Kisses I Couldn't Forget," features some nice art from Ric Estrada and involves a crafty girl with the key to making men interested, learning their hobbies!  She works with a boy she's interested in on a new machine, but he's more interested in the machine than the girl, so she turns to some darkroom fun developing into a love triangle.  But the photographer's not getting played, he's the one doing the playing!  Thirdly, the gem of the bunch,  with story attributed to Dutch Dana by John Benson with art from Matt Baker, a somewhat scandalous ditty, I suppose, in which a girl lies about her age to marry her long-time beau who's headed for the service.  They marry and spend a night together, but the girl instantly confesses to her mother and the marriage is annulled. Her new reputation as a bad girl drives our heroine to lie about her age again, this time to enlist in the armed services and escape town.  A story of maturation and growth, I do have to agree that Dutch's stories really break the mold - I imagine teenage girls loved them.  And lastly, "To Young To Wed," in which a conniving lass behaves badly and is forgiven by her adoring man, you have to wonder where they found all these pushovers.  Great fun!  Again, thanks to JVJ for sharing these fine St. John romances with us.


At the FTP

or

http://www.mediafire.com/?gvzuaj45s6jq4gm

Yoc:
Thanks Darwin.
That Baker story looked a bit 'off' to me as well.
Say, I don't see JVJ's index card in this one or the one before.  Were they missed?

darwination:
Hey Yoc, I believe Jim's index cards for the St. John Romance were the basis for the excellent index that is available here (and hence the reason Jim probably didn't include them for scanning):

http://www.fantagraphics.com/downloads/stjohnchecklist.xls

It lists:
TEEN-AGE TEMPTATIONS 3, August 1953. Cover: BAKER. Daring cover.
308A 8 S Drucker I Wanted Life-Long Thrills
308B 6 N ESTRADA The Kisses I Couldn't Forget
308C 8 D BAKER Without a Conscience
308D 7 S PEDDY/? Too Young to Wed

D would be a story that Benson associates with Dana Dutch, S would be stories with some elements of his style, and N are stories that Benson's categorized as generic and probably not from his pen.  This story looks like pure Baker to me, but I've been wrong on that count before and probably will be again.  I find his St. John stuff to be more distinctive and easier to identify than some of his earlier work, but, like I say, I've been wrong before....

JVJ (RIP):
I'm not certain that I even sent cards on all of those St. John books, darwination, simply because of the on-line Fantagraphics list (which is basically my work). No need to repeat all that effort, I felt.

As for finding Baker's St. John "more distinctive and easier to identify" - that's simply because you've been lied to for decades as to what Baker's art looked like. Baker has always been better than most of the crud that has been attributed to him by unscrupulous dealers who would rather be rich than right.

You should trust yourself and your eyes, darwination, and you should not listen so hard to the "experts", Yoc.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

John C:
Maybe it's because I'm less interested in the artists than most fans, but even where they're somehow redundant, I have to admit that I enjoy seeing the cards.  In a process that often starts with an editor trying to weed out individual tendencies, moves through an unfeeling printing and distribution system, and then through scanners who try to extract themsevles from the process as much as possible (most of which, by the way, is to be applauded at how well it happens), the cards are an added human touch.

They're sort of the adult's version of a comic where someone has drawn a mustache on the female lead, I guess.

By the way, I love the cover's concern.  Makes the debate over the Arizona immigration law seem trivial, in a world where women need to prove they're married to wear a wedding ring.  Or maybe that's a railroad-themed singles bar, and those are two of the most aggressive drunks you're likely to meet--they'll shtare at her until she produches her papersh, or something...

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