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Our Adorable Past

Marriage According to the Romance Comics of 1950

by Susana Polo | 10:20 am, June 8th

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Gamma Squad fished this helpful quiz right out of Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics, Michael Barson‘s compilation of the most dramatic moments of the wave of popular romance comics that sprung up in the 1950′s, when an absurdly restrictive semi-self-imposed code of censorship reduced superhero writing to drivel and the comic industry branched out into, horror of horror, writing comics for girls. Of course, this was mostly older dudes writing comices for girls, and on top of that it was the 1950′s. This marriage quiz, for example, wants you to know that if you don’t pass it, you need to grow up because you’re incapable of trust, love, or sharing.

I’ll save you the trouble of deciphering that reversed key:

What is your score? If you had the correct answer 8 times out of 10, you don’t have to worry — you’ll be the kind of a wonderful wife a man needs! From 6 to 8, watch out! You’ll really have to make an effort if you want to hold your husband! And for any score under 6 — you’d better grow up! Steer clear of marriage until you’ve learned to share, to trust, to love!

All ten questions of the quiz can be read at Gamma Squad.

(via Comics Alliance.)

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  • Anonymous

    Read it in the voice of Dr. Zoidberg ;-)

  • Vanessa Carney

    The worst part is I remember quizzes that were very similar to this while reading “Sassy” and “Seventeen” as a pre-teen. Only they were slightly updated to be, “Are you ready for a boyfriend?” or “Are you ready to live together?” More or less the same crap.

  • http://twitter.com/KomiIsDrawing Kate Ashwin

    I love how she asks if it’s ok if she goes out with her friend, in question 10.

    9 has that wonderful old-comic-font problem- ‘Without a word, you f*ck off the radio switch’

  • http://profiles.google.com/viciousmarblecat Emma Jones

    Yeah, I had to take a couple double takes on that one. (The radio issue, I mean.)

  • http://profiles.google.com/viciousmarblecat Emma Jones

    I clicked through to read the first few…

    I especially love the one where the man exclaims “This isn’t how my mother made fried chicken!” On that one, the ‘right’ choice (ask his mom for the recipe) is clearly not correct. Obviously, you say “Why don’t you go back and eat hers, then!”

    That’ll shut ‘em up! (But seriously. What a little spoiled brat.)

  • http://my-geeker-joy.blogspot.com/ Cait

    My favorite part of the question was “After you’ve slaved for three hours preparing dinner…” Um, no. Maybe for Thanksgiving

  • Anonymous

    I love your alternetive answers on Gamma Squad ;) genius

  • Anonymous

    Realistic version: “After you’ve spent 15 minutes preparing dinner …”

  • http://www.twitter.com/missburlesque MissBurlesque

    Oh wow, I failed the bajeezuz out of that quiz! Guess I’m just not marriageable! haha

  • http://anothernotebook.tumblr.com kalsangikid

    The Tumblr comicallyvintage is a gold mine for panels from comics like these. http://comicallyvintage.tumblr.com/

    “We take vintage comics and place them out of context.
    Hilarity ensues…”

  • http://sequentialcrush.blogspot.com/ Jacque Nodell

    Just a note — this quiz comes from a pre-Code romance title. Romance comics reached their peak of popularity before the Comics Code was implemented. Romance comics didn’t spring up as a result of the Code (as seems to be implied in the introduction), but rather, changed because of it.