Of course there were "Boys' Romances" comic books; they were just called something else, like "Sgt. Rock" and "Army at War."

This is a standard cover: some mod girl in neat gear, swooning after Bradley Interchangeable III, a thought-balloon informing us that her heart is Broken Forever, usually due to some horrible mistake she made and would give anything to take back, anything! (Sob.)

As such scenarios go, this one is rather mild, if fatuous: There goes the only man I could ever love, and I’ll never see him again! Neither are supportable assertions. She’s not even looking at him, really – she’s already so far gone into her pre-broken-heart scenario that she’s feeling miserable before he even leaves the coffee shop. But that's irrelevant. The real objective of the cover is to show off her leggings and boots and total mod dress, which looks like Prince detonated a suicide belt on the "Laugh-In" set.

It can’t be that stupid, can it? Let’s look at the story. Click next.