Falling In Love #99

As you can see, the psychedelic and op-art influences were being reflected in DC's romance line fairly early; this was the May 1968 issue.  Just a beautiful cover by Ric Estrada.  Note the tribute to Palisades Amusement Park, a longtime DC advertiser.

You can get a quick idea of the opening story from this sequence:

She doesn't resist him, but she refuses to tell him she loves him.  And after they're going steady she decides to try to attract her old boyfriend, Greg. But then she realizes she's just playing Rod's game:

As you can see, Rod's already fooling around on her with the brunette in the background.  And it turns out that Greg really does want her back:

Cute ending, with the final line probably swiped from the movie Some Like It Hot.

The second story concerns a gal who arrives in the big city for the first time.  Fortunately a handsome stranger helps her flag down a taxi to her old friend's apartment, where she'll be staying.  She assumes she'll never see him again, but that evening:

Gail finds herself falling for her roommate's boyfriend.  To make matters more difficult, Marjorie and Cliff insist on including her in their dates, making her uncomfortable whenever they get a little lovey-dovey.  Finally, one evening Marjorie asks Gail to entertain Cliff as she is going to be working late.  Cliff falls asleep and Gail confesses all:

But it turns out Cliff heard everything, and returns her love.  And surprise, while Marjorie isn't overjoyed, she realized something was up:

Comments: I like the characterization for everybody in this story, although I doubt that Marjorie would really have been as phlegmatic as it appears here.

The final story is the cover feature, and it's a doozy.  Lisa and Amy have been friends since they were kids, but Lisa starts to realize that the boys are interested in her buddy:

So she gets a new bff:

Heh.  But although the guys notice her more now that she's not around Amy, they still tend to have wandering eyes:

But finally she meets Frankie, who notices only her:

Well, happy ending, right?  Not quite, for Lisa notices that Frankie, while not straying, still doesn't treat her the way she wants.  And this is where the story gets a little murky, because it appears that Lisa's kinda bitchy:

And when it looks like he forgot her birthday she's in tears.  However, he does show up with a present and this time it's obvious that he's not very thoughtful:

Any guy who's ever given a prank gift to a gal will know that doesn't go over well.  And as time goes on, Lisa realizes that while Frankie may be faithful, he's not satisfying her other needs.

But this time she's had enough.  Maybe she needed him at one point, but no longer:

Comments: Entertaining story and beautiful artwork by Estrada.  Frankie comes off as a bit of a cypher; why exactly doesn't he flirt with the other girls?  I assume because that's what the plot required.