Angel Love #6 (1987)
Angel Love #6 (January, 1987)
“the search for Mary Beth, part II”
Creator/Writer/Penciller – Barbara Slate
Inker – John Wm. Lopez
Letterer – Bill Yoshida
Colorist – Bob Le Rose
Editor – Karen Berger
Cover Price: $0.75
Still doin’ that Angel Love thing. For those interested, Reggie and I will probably be discussing this series (particularly the first issue) on next-week’s Cosmic Treadmill segment of the Weird Science DC Comics Podcast (Episode 88).
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We open with Angel on the phone with hard-boiled Detective Levy who she has hired to locate her sister, Mary Beth. Levy’s search hasn’t turned up the elusive MB, and so he suggests Angel take out an ad in “that Personals magazine” that may draw her out of the woodwork. Angel thinks this is a boffo plan, and with renewed hope ends the call. Outside the police station, special attention is being placed on some campaign flyers for a “Maureen McMeal” who is running for office… hmm…
Days later, Angel confides in her pal pregnant Cindy about the ad she placed in Personals. She reads what she’d written in there… and Cindy is disappointed to find she used the truth… why, you’ll never find her that way! She suggests Angel zazz it up a bit, maybe ad that their mother is already dead… and that she’s seeking Mary Beth to give her her share of the million-dollar inheritance! Yikes.
Back at the pad, our Wendy is practicing lines for her birdie audience. She is reading from a twisted version of Hamlet by Henry Shakespeare… er, Henry William… er, whoever the hell wrote it.
Angel enters with her copy of Personals… one particular ad catches her attention… it’s vapid and dopey… and yeah, it’s Wendy’s.
Two days later, Angel decides to check the mailbox… by now, if Mary Beth was going to write back, it may just be in there. In the mailbox there is a literal crap-load of letters! All for Wendy… so Angel figures it may be time to zazz up her ad the way Cindy suggested.
Later that afternoon, Wendy is filing her missives. She’s even got her file cabinet categorized… including a drawer labelled “H.T.B.” which in doing my research either means “hate the b*tch” or “hard to believe”… Wendy clarifies that it stands for “Husband to be”. One letter really catches her eye… one from an Alexander Henry Applebottom III… who she thinks is real H.T.B. material… because he’s fabulously wealthy.
She calls and gets a hold of Henry’s butler, and when passed along to the man… er, boy… himself, they make a date for Friday at 7:30. Yup, Wendy just made a date with a child. We learn that casa Love is located at 19 West 106th Street… which if Google maps is to believed looks like a pretty decent neighborhood.
That Friday night, Wendy’s all done up for her big date while Angel warns her that she may be headed out with a real “sex maniac”… which, hell… could be true?! The doorbell rings and, dun dun dunnnn… the tot is hot to trot. A very silly scene.
Later on that night, Angel meets up with pregnant Cindy, who announces that she is going to be married! I guess Angel called that one. She asks Angel to be her Maid of Honor, and she accepts. Upon returning home, Angel sees a line of people wrapped around the block… all leading to her front door. This is where she learns the important life-lesson of not advertising a million-dollar inheritance through the sleazy personals magazine! Wonk wonk wonkkkkk… to be continued.
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A much more lighthearted issue that last time. A lot of fun to read… I was pleasantly surprised to see that the heaviness of the overarching storyline hasn’t weighed down the humor this book can bring.
Now, really Angel… offering a million bucks to whoever can read in New York City was a fool move. Guess I can forgive it… she is really at her wits end here. This type of Personals magazine is something I have zero experience with. I can speak for their ubiquity or wide circulation. Perhaps this really would have been the best way to try and find somebody back in the day. It’s almost like a creepy Craigslist “missed connection” type of thing though, ain’t it?
The Wendy and her jail-bait husband-to-be bits were funny… and of course, would not fly today. I’m glad it was played for laughs rather than anything icky. The way she’s written, I’m doubtful Wendy would have the first clue either way.
I was saddened to see in the letters page that I’m not the target audience for this book. No! In fact, this book is targeted at girls between 11 and 18. Whoops.
Gotta mention… I love the cover this month. This busy street crammed full of detail is a real treat. It’s almost Where’s Waldo level of detail. A lot of fun, and definitely would have popped out on the newsstand. Overall, still having fun with this one… sadly, we’ve only got two issues (plus a special) left in the pipe.
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