Young Love (comics)
Young Love is one of the earliest romance comics titles, and was published by Crestwood/Prize and later sold to DC Comics.
History
After the Sept./Oct. 1947 release of Crestwood/Prize's genre-launching Young Romance comic by the prolific team of Simon & Kirby sold "millions of copies", the company swiftly prepared a separate spin-off title to capitalise on the success of this new genre. Launched amid imitators from Quality Comics, Fawcett Publications, Fox Features Syndicate and Timely Comics, Crestwood/Prize's companion title Young Love was released "less than a year and a half" after the debut of Young Romance, and it also sold well.Publication history
Launched in February 1949, Young Love ran initially for 73 issues, until December 1956. Four months later, Prize launched All for Love, which ran for 17 issues until Feb/Mar 1959, when it went on a year's hiatus, returning the following year and retitled Young Love. This retitled series then ran for 21 issues between February 1960 and June 1963, whereupon Crestwood/Prize sold this and other titles to DC Comics, who produced a further 88 issues between 1963 and 1977.Declining sales
Criticised somewhat during the mid-1950s Seduction of the Innocent-inspired Comic Book Hearings, "love" or "romance" comics began to sell less well, and by 1963, Crestwood/Prize "got out of the comic book business", selling many of their titles to DC Comics.DC Comics
DC gained Crestwood/Prize's titles when Crestwood Publications stopped producing comics in 1963, and they continued publishing their romance comics as "part of a reasonably popular romance line aimed at young girls" for nearly 15 years.Taking over publication of Young Love after 17 issues of All for Love and 21 of Young Love vol. 2, DC continued the original numbering, launching the newly branded title with Sept.-Oct. 1963's issue #39. Issues #107 to #114 of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format. The revised series ran for almost 15 years, finally ceasing publication with July 1977's issue #126.