A Comic A Day: Marvel Romance Redux: I Should Have Been A Blonde

Published by Marvel
Written by Peter David, Matthew K. Manning, Jeff Parker, John Lustig
Art by Sol Brodsky, Dick Giordano, Vinnie Colletta, Gene Colan

A fool and his money! That's the story of how I got wrapped up in collecting these Marvel Romance Redux one-shots a few years back. They let some of today's snarkiest writers take a crack at "dubbing over" some classic romance comics originally scripted by the likes of Stan Lee and Gary Friedrich.

This particular issue features a Patsy Walker story re-written by the amazing Peter David. David plays with the idea of her later Hellcat persona and her romance with Damon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan. The whole thing makkes a mockery of the rebranding that many Golden and Silver age characters would go through as Marvel would mine their own back issues in later eras.

There are also these neat paper doll kit pages with words by Jeff Parker. His hilarious descriptions of Patsy's "arsenal" of clothing and ladies items almost make me not regret shelling out cover price for these in back issue bins.

The original artwork from legends like gene Colan and Vince Colletta is gorgeous to look at as well. Even when they weren't drawing spandex types throwing down with one another, their art could really suck you in. It's amazing that these guys cut their teeth on romance comics and the quality of the work defies anyone to compare this stuff to Archie.