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[personal profile] full_metal_ox
Okay; this one has been causing me a nagging itch in the brain. I recall having seen—probably on some incarnation of Scans Daily on another platform—a U.S. romance comic from the 1940’s or 1950’s that had an anthology host—something more characteristic of horror comics. He was a Zorroesque Masked Lover who narrated love stories throughout history (and may have been an immortal or time-traveler who’d personally witnessed/taken part in them); the specific story featured a girl who was concealing her blindness—which she felt made her unfit to marry.

Even after specifying romance, the sheer number of masquerade balls, highway robbers, masked vigilantes, and tragic disfigurements in the genre has made this a royal pain in the kazoo to Google.

ETA: FOUND: Jon Juan #1, with the help of [personal profile] superfangirl1 on [community profile] scans_daily, who directed me to https://comicbookplus.com/, an online archive of public domain comics; there I found Great Lover Romances #1 (Toby/Minoan, 1951)—an anthology including a story starring a character called Jon Juan: https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=41459

That, in turn, gave me the search term I needed to track down Jon Juan’s own comic (under One Shots rather than Romance):
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=1829

Shout-out as well to the helpful folks at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books: https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2023/08/habo-vintage-comic-search/#comments

Jon Juan was an immortal from Atlantis who went swashbuckling through history, dallying with history’s legendary beauties and rescuing damsels from Durance Vile, only to ride off into the sunset as wandering adventurers are wont to do; this didn’t stop him from archiving cherished memories of all his paramours (housed in his own Inner Sanctum, the Secret Archives of Love.)

The story I remembered was “Lady in the Dark”, pp. 27-35; the setting is (19th-century?) Spain, and Jon Juan is dressing and comporting himself very much as a capa y espada adventurer—but it’s the titular Lady who wears a mask/veil, to disguise her condition; the Reveal, coming abruptly from her duenna, has the air of an ableist punch line: sorry, Carmelita has a ding in her, and that’s that.

It’s easy to see what doomed Jon Juan to be a one-off experiment: Spicy Adventure is a genre that Siegel and Schomberg couldn’t do justice to under the restrictions of 1950’s US comics, and romance readers tend to want commitment as a payoff. It’s still an exercise in delightful cracktacular weirditude, much like The Continental or Korla Pandit's Adventures In Music.

And here’s the [community profile] scans_daily post, from 14 January 2011: https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/2691288.html#cutid1
[personal profile] bagginsmyfrodo
I read this book somewhere between 2005 and 2012. I don’t know if it was published before this time period but definitely not after.

The book is a duopoly. It is a historical fiction with a romantic plot central to the storyline. The setting is not modern and felt more medieval. The main female character was the daughter of a nobleman and the love interest was of more common birth. They fell in love but for some reason couldn’t be together. That’s all I remember from book one unfortunately.

Book 2 starts with the main guy character (having felt betrayed by the female love interest) leaving and going back to Ireland or Scotland (I always get those confused in stories). The main female character follows him and tries to win back his love and while in Ireland/Scotland she stays with his family. They fall in love
With her and welcome her but it takes the whole second book to win back the affection of the male love interest as he is pretty cold to her.

I just remember the romantic plot line of these two books being amazing! I know it’s not much to go on but I have hope. Thank you!

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