Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: charlton, Matt Baker, Romance Comics

The Mystery of the Matt Baker Art in Sweethearts #27, Up for Auction

With his interior work at St. John halted, romance comics legend Matt Baker tried out a number of other publishers including Charlton.

As we've recently noted, 1953's Sweethearts #119, with its Marilyn Monroe cover, is the most sought-after issue of that title from the Fawcett era of the series.  By the end of that year, Fawcett had sold all its comic book titles "except the Marvels" to Charlton, where Sweethearts and others continued.  Through a series of other comics industry circumstances, this soon gave rise to a story from the most famous romance artist in American comics history, Matt Baker, in Sweethearts #27 at the end of 1954.

Why did Baker produce a single story for this popular romance series during this period? It would appear that he was testing the market in reaction to St. John cutting off his interior story assignments in early 1954.  As can be seen via an examination of numerous points of the St. John publishing timeline, it's clear that Archer St. John was extremely risk-averse regarding his horror, crime, and romance comic books, and it's apparent that the 1954 Senate Subcommittee hearings made him extremely cautious about moving forward in those areas.  Baker's interior work from St. John dried up in early 1954, as many of those series went to reprints with new Baker covers.  Baker's regular inker Ray Osrin immediately started getting work at Charlton via then-editor/packager Al Fago, but it appears that Baker decided to play the field while continuing to get cover assignments from St. John.  Over the next few months, Baker's work appeared in comics from publishers including DC Comics, Marvel, Dell, Quality Comics, and Charlton.  He reunited with his regular inker Ray Osrin for that Charlton story in Sweethearts #27 in late 1954.

On August 13, 1955, St. John Publications owner Archer St. John was found dead in the apartment of a former Powers model, with the NY Daily News proclaiming, "A couple of shadowy West Side characters, a man and a woman, suspected of feeding dope pills to magazine publisher Archer St. John, were being hunted last night by detectives investigating St. John's mysterious death in the penthouse apartment of a former Powers model."

The company came under the control of Archer's son, Michael St. John, with the help of St. John Publications general manager Richard E. Decker. But the publishing timeline indicates that Archer St. John had decided to wind down the St. John romance line entirely prior to his death. The last issues of Diary Secrets, Cinderella Love, and Going Steady all hit the newsstand before Archer St. John died.  Teen-Age Romances #45, the title's final issue with a copyright / on-sale date of October 1, 1955 had a cover that was almost certainly assigned to Baker before Archer St. John's death. The entire romance line contents had consisted of reprints with new covers since June 1954, as did Authentic Police Cases and at least some of the rest of the non-humor line. It's pretty clear that in the wake of the 1954 Senate Subcommittee hearings that covered the comic book industry, St. John decided to proceed with caution.

With his St. John cover assignments now gone in addition the previous demise of his interior assignments, it's clear that Baker made his choices. After testing the market over the prior few months, Baker would go on to produce most of his comics work for Quality Comics and Marvel during much of this later part of his career, though he would again do significant work for Charlton via Vince Colletta shortly before his death in 1959.  But Sweethearts #27, with a cover that Charlton seems to have acquired from Victor Fox or perhaps Jerry Iger, symbolizes a turning point in the career of American comics' most important comic book romance artist.  There's a copy of this underappreciated Matt Baker gem up for auction in the 2024 February 29 – March 1 Golden Age Romance Featuring Fox Comics & Comic Art Showcase Auction #40258.

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