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Author:
Title: TEEN-AGE ROMANCES No. 34
Place Published:
Publisher:St. John [Indicia: St. John Publishing Co.]
Date Published: November, 1953
Description:

G/VG (3.0). Light spine stress, cover loose at top staple, bottom staple severely pulled but still hanging in there, center crease to covers and pages, a few nicks to spine, nicks and shallow chips to top edge of covers, bottom right corner of front cover creased and with tiny dogear, some fading to red logo backdrop. Cream pages, light tan edges. Cover: Matt Baker. Art: Matt Baker (14 pages), Cal Massey, Mike Sekowsky. CGC Census: 13 slabbed copies, top grade = 5.0. GPAnalysis: Only two reported sales in any grade: A 1.8 sold for $280 in August 2021, and a 3.0 sold for $382 in May 2018.

There's no crime or horror in this romance rag, but somehow it evokes '50s anxieties about out-of-control juvenile delinquents better than most horror mags could ever do. Matt Baker's 14-page opus, "Asking for Trouble," features "reckless, thrill-seeking teen-ager" Hilda, who leaves New York City to live in a small town with her big brother and his wife after the death of her mother. Hilda soon earns a rep for her beer-drinking, cigarette-smoking, "cheap-looking" outfits, and party-girl morals. Before long, Hilda's influence leads her classmates astray, and a couple of them get busted by the fuzz for drunk driving. When one of Hilda's beaux gets soused on the booze she provides and robs a store, the school board gives her the boot and she leaves town to try and mend her ways so that she can eventually be fit to associate with "decent American citizens." The story seems calculated to play on small-town fears of big city degeneracy — just imagine the exploding heads if '50s parents had known that their kids were reading racy romance rags drawn by a black man rumored to be gay!

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2022 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art, vintage comic-related photos and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.