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Angel Love #4 (1986)



Angel Love #4 (November, 1986)
“Chemistry”
Creator/Writer/Penciller – Barbara Slate
Inker – John Wm. Lopez
Letterer – Bill Yoshida
Colorist – Bob Le Rose
Editor – Karen Berger
Cover Price: $0.75


Man I’m glad I was able to finally track down issue #3 of this series.  Now, I can actually finish it.






We open with Angel returning home from a date with a fella named Mike.  She’s surprised to see Everett and his lady-love Lola (who we see for the first time in the Angel/Wendy apartment, and is far less angry than I thought she’d be) going at it hot ‘n heavy on her couch.  On a nearby chair a pair of cockroaches were engaging in some heavy petting as well!  We get some clarity on Everett’s situation… turns out his A/C is still on the fritz.



They ask Angel how her date went, and she shrugs… ya see big Mike don’t make her toes wriggle… and if she doesn’t notice chemistry from the very start… it just ain’t gonna happen, cap’n.  Everett’s all, ain’t no thing… look at Lola, you think she turned me on right away?  This obviously and justifiably strikes a chord in Lola… and the two start bickering back and forth.



The hub-bub is broken up by a ringing phone.  Why, it’s Mike!  Angel hops on the line, and is… dumped.  Mike tells her she’s not his type… and he thought it best to tell her that straight away, rather than have her waiting for a call that wasn’t gonna come.  Ruh roh… doesn’t he know Angel’s gotta think for forbidden fruit?  Now she’s nutso-crazy over him!  Ev and Lo kinda give each other the eye… and they split, leaving Angel to her fantasies.



The next night at the rollerskate restaurant, Angel spills the beans to her friend pregnant Cindy.  She tells her she’s madly in love with a dude who don’t wanna see her.  Cindy’s all… just try harder… just like her man Jeff did.  Ya see, she didn’t want Jeff at all to start, but his persistence (and knocking her up) kept him in her life!  Oddly enough, there is no mention of the pregnancy here.



So Angel decides to run to the pay phone and give ol’ Mike a call… and gets beaten down again.  He just doesn’t feel “it” with her.  She doesn’t rock his socks… and the fact that she was probably watching him like a hawk to make sure he wasn’t doing lines of coke at any point during the evening was probably a turn-off.



Angel is heartbroken… re-enter, pregnant Cindy.  She tells her it ain’t over yet… now it’s time to kick it up a notch.  Send the man flowers!  Cuz, ya know… all dudes dig that!



Well, that’s the bridge too far for Angel… why, just imagine… sending a dude who told ya flat out he doesn’t want you around a bouquet of flowers?  That’s ridicu… er, yeah… that’s exactly what she does…



Back at the pad… oh boy, it’s Wendy time!  She is being coached by Everett on how not to make Angel feel bad about her previous boyfriend, coke-head Don… which she instantly fubars, and mentions as Angel enters the room.  Angel’s all, “it’s cool, Don is history”… which Wendy, bless her, believes.  Everett interjects that Wendy probably believes in the tooth fairy too… and you know exactly where this is going…



After Everett leaves in a huff, the phone rings.  It’s Mike… again!  He was so touched by his floral gift that he wants to give Angel a second chance.  They set a date for that evening, and Angel and Wendy celebrate… with Wendy having perhaps the line of the issue here.



Staying with Wendy for a bit… she decides to give a call to her mother, to see if in fact, she is the tooth fairy.  Yeah, you knew this was coming.  The news that her mother IS the tooth fairy hits Wendy like a ton of bricks, even causing her left eye to lose its color!



Later that night, Angel returns from her date… to find Ev and Lo still going at it… and the cockroaches getting to second base… which I would have to assume is thorax-related.



Again… Angel claims not to have felt any chemistry for big Mike.  This time Lola offers up that Everett is kind of a schlub and didn’t do it for her at first either… but look at them now, pawing at each other on the neighbor’s couch!  As they argue their way out, the phone rings… it’s a Mike phone call hat-trick!  This time, however, it is Angel who lets him down gently.  All’s well and good until the next morning, when…






We seem to be entering into sitcom mode here… or maybe it always has been.  Either way, this was the first issue that actually felt like one to me.  A much more shallow experience than the prior three issues, however, perhaps it is just serving as a break in the seriousness as we appear to be entering into our first (and last) multi-part storyline “The Search for Mary Beth” with issue #5.  Judging from the cover of next issue… and after reading last issue, it was probably a smart move by Ms. Slate to place this relatively harmless and silly issue here.


Still really enjoyed this.  In reading some of the feedback on the letters page, one writer said they were smiling the whole time they were reading it.  I can say without any irony, I am in the same boat… this is just so different… innocent, yet exploring adult themes.  Just really good (and fun) comics.  Not sure where this is heading… though I have a sneaking suspicion it’s gonna get a fair amount darker.


I’m not sure where ownership on this series lay… either way, I’m pretty doubtful this will ever be re-released digitally or collected.  Way I figure, 2015’s DCYou initiative would have been the perfect time to repackage this property… or at least just get it out of the filing cabinet to get some air.  With DCYou going the way it did, I fear that was likely the last best chance for Angel Love… at least via DC Comics.





Letters Page (for real!):




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One thought on “Angel Love #4 (1986)

  • Unknown

    Hi Chris – I'm John Lopez, the original Illustrator AND Inker for the Angel Love series (not just inker as the credits say). Very exciting and gratifying to discover that there are still Angel Love fans out there. Working on the comic was a highlight of my early career when I lived in NY. It's a shame DC didn't continue the series, but it just wasn't popular enough (and perhaps too controversial) to continue, thus the final Special issue. Barbara Slate and I parted ways afterwards, I moved to LA to continue my main career as a cartoon animator (Disney, Dreamworks, The Simpsons). I did see Barbara one more time years ago at the San Diego Comic Con years ago – she was writing the Beauty and the Beast comic for Disney. I am now retired but continue to do an occasional freelance cartoon illustration here and there. Some of my cartoon illustrations are currently up on Etsy under my name Jon William Lopez or EnlightImages.

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