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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By SG’s Team Agony feat. Noir

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

Q: I have been married for almost four years now. I love my wife very much, but there is very little excitement in our marriage. At first I thought it was me, but no matter how much I try it doesn’t seem to change. Divorce seems to be the last thing on my mind. There are strip clubs that I think about going to, but have yet to make the trip.

I don’t know if she’s just clueless and has moved on, or if she’s flirting with me. I sometimes want to ask her, but then think if she moved on it could cause a big stink. Should I take a chance at excitement? And, if do, should it be a one time thing, or every so often? Or should I count my blessings and thank god we didn’t get caught in the past and move on?

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by SG’s Team Agony feat. Squee

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

Q: I’m in a bind. I’ve been with this girl for about 3 years now, living together for around half of that, and we’re in our mid-twenties. The only thing unusual about that part is she moved across the country after graduating college to live with me.

Thanks,
Wasting Time in Denver

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by Laurelin

When I first came up with the idea for this column, the name “Life Beyond the Bar Scene” just seemed perfect. The life I lead is so immersed in the service industry that I really can’t see past it right now; everyone I know in Boston I met at a bar. Literally, everyone. Everywhere I turn, it’s bartenders, servers, bouncers, barbacks, nightlife, my life. It wasn’t always this way.

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