Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: Ace Periodicals, Romance Comics

Alice Kirkpatrick's "So Good it's Discouraging" Ace Romance at Auction

Considered "one of the finest romance illustrators in the business" by a contemporary, Alice Kirkpatrick is an underappricated Golden Age artist.

Published Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:17:07 -0600

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Fri, 01 Mar 2024 06:38:28 -0600

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Article Summary

Alice Kirkpatrick was a renowned illustrator in the Golden Age of comic books.
Her realistic art decorated the covers of several Ace Magazine comic book titles.
A set of Kirkpatrick's Ace romance issues are up for auction at Heritage Auctions.
Despite being a key player during the Golden Age, Kirkpatrick remains an underappreciated artist.

Alice Kirkpatrick (1912-1997) got into the romance magazine illustration field around 1937 with Ace Magazines title Love Fiction Monthly and likely other Ace romance pulps which included Ten-Story Love and Complete Love Magazine at that time. Kirkpatrick had branched out into the comic book field by the late 1940s, with work for publishers including Ace, Quality Comics, Marvel, and Ziff Davis among others. Her realistically rendered linework graced the covers of several Ace Magazine comic book titles, and there are several Ace romance issues featuring Alice Kirkpatrick covers up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L. B. Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions.

Complete Love Magazine V27#3 (Ace, 1952) cover by Alice Kirkpatrick.

About Kirkpatrick, fellow artist Lou Cameron has been quoted as saying, "Alice Kirkpatrick was one of the finest romance illustrators in the business. She was the mainstay at Ace Romances during the Golden Age. Her girls were the prettiest ones. Alice was something in her own right. She looked like a cross between Deborah Kerr and Katherine Hepburn. Alice Kirkpatrick was so good it's discouraging. She worked with a semi-dry brush, or maybe a well-chewed toothpick, and could get the affect of a human eye, or the notch in a man's lapel, with a glob of half-dried goo. She blocked out her compositions with a couple of pencil lines and worked entirely free-hand. The results were Liz Taylor and Lizbeth Scott playing opposite Gregory Peck with Westchester County in the background."

Alice Kirkpatrick's comic book covers for Ace Magazines have a readily identifiable style that seems drawn from real life, perhaps referenced with the modeling assistance of her roommate, actress and model Jacqueline Franc. Although romance dominated Kirkpatrick's output, she worked in a number of genres in comics. For Quality Comics, she contributed to a variety of adventure features for National Comics, Police Comics, Feature Comics, and a number of other titles. Later in her career, she did a handful of war-themed covers for publisher Stanley Morse. An underappreciated artist from comics' classic romance era, there are several Ace romance issues featuring Alice Kirkpatrick covers up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L. B. Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions.