“Love is for the Living,” from ACG’s
Romantic Adventures #5 (1949), isn’t all that original. A drab governess goes to work for a handsome widower with a small child, then has to win the love of both. What struck me when reading the story was that it reminded me of
The Bad Seed, the popular novel/play/movie, about a young blonde child who commits murder.
Maxwell Anderson's 1955 play was adapted from the novel by William March, published in 1954.
Life magazine covered the play and its young actress, Patty McCormack, in a January, 1955 issue. Here's the first page of the article:
The comic book story appeared about five years before the novel, and I'm not claiming it had any influence on the novelist. It's just an interesting coincidence. Stories about children who murder aren't all that rare. But the drama of the attempted murder does add some depth to an otherwise shopworn romance plot, and it helps that the
Romantic Adventures story is well illustrated by Emil Gershwin. Were I to give advice to someone in the same position as governess Celia Parrish I'd tell her even though it looks like she's won the love of the father, I wouldn't turn my back on his daughter.
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