Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: l.b. cole, Star Publications

Highest-Graded L.B. Cole: Popular Teen-Agers #11, Up for Auction

Highest-Graded L.B. Cole copies are always in demand, and this issue also included the bizarre romance "The Dream Lover."

Star Publications' Popular Teen-Agers is an unlikely suspect for that publisher's second most long-lived title out of the nearly 50 series the publisher produced 1949-1954. The series continued its numbering from the similarly-themed School-Day Romances beginning with issue #5. Perhaps publisher and cover artist L.B. Cole opted to go with a title that was much more on the nose — in other words, the original concept of the title was to be a teen humor series like the incredibly popular Archie Comics. However, by issue #9, the series had reverted to the typical Star Publications model, using reprinted material, often from the Fox Feature Syndicate romance line in this case, with new L.B. Cole covers. Additionally, the Popular Teen-Agers title was shrunk on the cover in favor of more obvious romance titling like "Love" and "Romance."

Such is the case for Popular Teen-Agers #11, which prominently features "Love" in the printed title and has what appears to be an assortment of Fox romance reprints inside. However, the lead "The Dream Lover" feature does not seem to be a Fox reprint, and it's the most interesting one of the bunch. In this story, Julie Trent is lonely and desperate for romance, and as she drifts off to sleep one night, she is visited by a romantic apparition in her dreams. The dream was so real that she basically just kind of rolled with it after she woke up, telling her friends that she had a new boyfriend.

Shockingly, she then meets the man from her dreams in real life. At this man's suggestion, Julie visits a psychiatrist to help her unravel what's going on here. In a romance story cliche, the doctor prescribes a makeover for Julie, but the story gets weirder from there. The real-life man of her dreams turns out to be a childhood classmate who is now married and has a family. And just when Julie thinks that puts her back at square one in her desire for romance, her psychiatrist approaches her and confesses his love for his patient, while admitting that this is highly unprofessional. The final panel is literally a happily ever after moment, as Julie breaks the fourth wall to explain that she and her psychiatrist are now married.

Of course, the cover by L.B. Cole is the star of the show here, along with the fact that this is a CGC Census-topping CGC 7.0 copy. Highest-graded Cole covers are always in demand, and this Popular Teen-Agers #11 (Star Publications, 1952) CGC FN/VF 7.0 White pages copy is up for auction in the July 9 – 11 Comic Books Signature Auction #7467 at Heritage Auctions.

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