by Blogbot

Agonizing Love is a beautifully put together compendium of strips culled from the lost genre of romance comics. According to the volume’s curator and author, Michael Barson, an avid fan of retro-pop culture and a collector of all manner of flotsam and jetsam from days past, the first examples of the form were published in 1947. At the genre’s height, there were close to 150 different romance comics in print, with titles such as Lovelorn, Romantic Marriage, Lovers’ Lane, Bride’s Secrets, Boy Meets Girl, Heart Throbs, and Love Confessions. However, as the romance of the 1950s gave way to the pervasive climate of free love in the ’60s and ’70s, their popularity waned. The end of an era came with the final 126th edition of Young Love in 1977.

Last week we posted a typical strip from Young Love, entitled “How To Increase Your Dateability,” which offered female readers – who were ever fearful of being left on the shelf – tips on how to up their popularity quotient in order to increase their chances of finding a mate. This week, we have a simple 12 question personality test from issue #2 of Boy Meets Girl (originally published in April 1950), which will tell you if you’re likely to be a bride or – horror of horrors – an old maid.

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by SG’s Team Agony feat. Friskey and Setsuka

Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.

Q: I dated this guy a little for over a year. We broke up about two months ago because we fought a lot. Well, actually, he broke up with me and turned sort of bitter towards me. Then he all of a sudden said he missed me and loved me and wanted me back, but about a week later he said he didn’t love me anymore. I really have no idea what his problem was. It’s been about two months since then and we’ve started talking, and even went on a couple of dates. I have no idea what’s going to happen, but I’m kind of scared. I don’t want to be hurt again, but I want to be with him. What do I tell him? What should I do? I’m so confused. I need advice please?!

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by Laurelin

What defines a healthy relationship? People are always judging relationships, their own and other peoples, comparing them to those we see in real life, on TV, in romantic comedy movies. Is there really such a thing as a healthy relationship? I know that as a bartender I am surrounded by unhealthy lifestyles, so by default I think any relationship I find is most likely going to be unhealthy. I have this image in my head of the 9-5 types that gather at a few bars I’ve been to downtown, young professionals with their loosened ties and top button unbuttoned, holding a beer (only one, they have work tomorrow) and living their perfect lives. These are the kind of bars I run from, but some reason I feel like “downtown” is a lifestyle, a perfection in healthy relationships that I will never have.

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by Blogbot

Agonizing Love is a beautifully put together compendium of strips culled from the lost genre of romance comics. According to the volume’s curator and author, Michael Barson, an avid fan of retro-pop culture and a collector of all manner of flotsam and jetsam from days past, the first examples of the form were published in 1947. At the genre’s height, there were close to 150 different romance comics in print, with titles such as Lovelorn, Romantic Marriage, Lovers’ Lane, Bride’s Secrets, Boy Meets Girl, Heart Throbs, and Love Confessions. However, as the romance of the 1950s gave way to the pervasive climate of free love in the ’60s and ’70s, their popularity waned. The end of an era came with the final 126th edition of Young Love in 1977.

Below is a typical strip from Vol 2, #2 of Young Love (originally published in April 1950), which offers female readers – who were ever fearful of being left on the shelf – tips on how to up their popularity quotient in order to increase their dateability.

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by SG’s Team Agony feat. Charley, Fabrizia, and Morgan

Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.

Q: I met a wonderful woman and love her very much. But, at the time of our meeting and for the first few years of our relationship, I was dealing with feelings of worthlessness, which led to a type of sexual addiction. I realize now because of all the sex addiction reality shows. I basically kept seeking sexual conquests to prove my own self worth. Never really realizing sex didn’t make you valuable to anyone. I wasn’t loyal. And she caught me in video chat mutual masturbation with an ex-girl friend during her pregnancy.

Our son is almost 3 now, and I don’t want him to be the silent victim of his messed up parents.

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by SG’s Team Agony feat. Smythe and Aadie

Let us answer life’s questions – because great advice is even better when it comes from SuicideGirls.

Q: I’m 18 and a female. I’m lesbian and I’m extremely shy. In the town I live there aren’t many lesbians or anything like that. My problem is, I don’t know how to find out whether a girl I like is lesbian, or even how to find lesbians anywhere around here. How can you tell (without making a complete ass out of myself) whether a girl is lesbian? And if I finally work up the courage to go to a lesbian bar in a different city, how do you approach other lesbians?

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by Laurelin

Heartbreak. It happens to everyone, and people deal with it in different ways. I remember the first time I ever felt it, the impossible sadness and emptiness that just washes over your body in a wave when someone decides they don’t want you anymore. I was in high school, having dinner with my family and the phone rang. He always called around that time. We talked for hours every night. That night was different.

“You didn’t see this coming?” He asked. “L, school’s over. I want to be free for the summer.” I hung up the phone, wanting to scream and cry, throw the phone through the window…but I stayed silent. I swallowed it all, and in that moment I decided that that’s how I would get by. I walked calmly back to the dinner table, smiled and carried on. My parents never even knew anything was wrong. Inside, I was crushed and angry, outside, I was calm, cool and collected.

I didn’t date anyone else for two years, but eventually high school ended and college was a new start. I met someone, and it was a fairy tale. I still consider myself lucky to have known anything like that. It ended well enough, looking back, but it took me another solid two years to get passed that one as well. After we agreed to call it quits I just wanted to give up. It couldn’t be over, but it was, and it was next to impossible to move on. But, after college, just as before, I did move on. The next guy and I dated on and off for a few years as well. He was different then the rest. He was a bit controlling, but I was all too ready to accept the roll of housewife after spending the last few years drinking my face off in dark bars. I didn’t go out, just came home after work, crawled into bed, and loved him with everything I had. My friends didn’t trust him; I thought they were crazy.

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