Number 1111


For badder or worse


Ruth, a nanny who seems like a perfectly nice girl, falls for Artie, who turns out to be bad...then she falls for Carl, who is badder.

Some girls do dumb things like that. She got clobbered in two panels because she fell in love. That's really dumb, and any woman who puts up with that should be advised that the abuse will only get worse. (Apologies to readers who are offended, and rightfully so, by such panels.)

This is a love story that is also a crime story. There must be conflict, and in this case it involves bank robbery, domestic violence and shootings. Bob Powell and his staff drew the story, and as always it's a solid illustration job. I've mentioned several times that I love Powell, and love to show his work. In this case I found scans of five of the six original art pages of "Past Dishonor" at Heritage Auctions.

(There is something that bugs me about Harvey comics of this era. The use of !! double and !!! triple exclamation points. One ! is always sufficient, and should be used sparingly, if at all!!!!!!)

From First Romance #10 (1951):

PAGE 4 MISSING.