As everyone knows, Valentine’s Day can be difficult when you’re single. Everyone around you is in love and you’re just trying to find a way to make the day pass quicker. If you are among those who are single today, do not worry and do not despair. You’re not the first person to find yourself in this situation and you won’t be the last. Though you may feel like you, you are not alone. The path to true love is never an easy one to travel but the destination makes the trip worth it. To help you on your journey, here are some vintage romance comic covers. Even in the 1950s and the 1960s and the 1970s, Valentine’s Day wasn’t for everyone.
Yes, the path of true love is never an easy one. But it’s out there and when you find it, it makes all of the trouble worth it.
Today is not going to be an easy Valentine’s Day. A lot of humans have had to cancel their plans because of bad weather, including the flame-haired one. She has been complaining nonstop since Thursday! Me, I haven’t been outside since last week because it’s too cold and there’s all sorts of birds and squirrels and who knows what else out in the back yard! A cat’s work is never done and I can’t do my work until the temperature gets back above freezing! Meh!
But Valentine’s Day isn’t about what you do or where you go. It’s about loving what you love. Some humans love other humans. Me, I love Temptations snacks, playing with my toys, and sleeping 10 hours a day. That’s what Valentine’s Day is all about to me.
Whatever Valentine’s Day is about to you, we all hope that you are having a good and a safe one! Happy Valentine’s Day to all! Be kind to those you love and never, ever forget the cats and the humans in your life!
There’s a story that goes along with this picture but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to tell it. So, I’ll just all of you the happiest of Valentine’s Days!
Today, it’s easy to make fun of the world’s most self-important band, U2. It’s not that their music has really gotten bad or that Bono doesn’t do commendable work when he’s not touring. It’s just that most people still associate them primarily with the debacle surrounding the release of Songs of Innocence. Forcing a lukewarm album on people who may not even be fans of the band is never a good look.
But, in the band’s early days and before they got so openly pretentious, U2 was one of the top groups around. The Joshua Tree still stands as one of the best musical accomplishments of the previous century and With Or Without You is one of the signature songs from that album.
As is always the case with U2, it helps if you don’t know what the song was actually about. I’ve always assumed that this was meant to be a sad love song but then I did some research and I discovered that it was just Bono singing about his conflict about whether he wanted to be a touring musician or a family man. Bono can’t live without or without … himself.
It’s better not to think about that and to just bring your own interpretation to the lyrics and the song. The video is simple but it captures the feel of the song.
By most accounts, Charles A. Floyd — better known by the nickname “Pretty Boy” Floyd — was one of the nicer of the Depression-era outlaws. Though he robbed his share of banks, he was usually described as being rather polite and sensible while he did so. He didn’t steal from the poor. While he did kill a few men, they were all law enforcement officers who were also shooting at him. And while that may not sound like a good thing, with murder being murder and all, it’s still a marked contrast to Bonnie and Clyde, who were known for being as deliberately violent as possible. Pretty Boy Floyd reportedly had a strong dislike for Bonnie and Clyde and even told his relatives in Oklahoma not to help the Barrow Gang hide from the police.
The most violent thing that Floyd was ever accused of was taking part in the killing of four law enforcement officers in Kansas City. (This was the so-called Kansas City Massacre.) Since one of the victims was an FBI Agent, Floyd quickly became public enemy number one and was eventually gunned down in a cornfield in Ohio. (Some accounts say that Floyd was initially only wounded and was executed by the FBI after he surrendered.) Most modern historians agree that Floyd was not involved in the Kansas City Massacre. Even after he had been shot and told that he was dying, Floyd reportedly vehemently denied having had any involvement in what happened in Kansas City. In the view of most historians, Pretty Boy Floyd was a polite country boy who just happened to rob banks.
That’s certainly the way that he’s portrayed in the 1970 film, A Bullet For Pretty Boy. Though this low-budget movie from Texas-born filmmaker Larry Buchanan opens with a title card telling us that we’re about to see a true story, it’s highly fictionalized. Singer Fabian Forte plays Charles A. Floyd, who goes from getting married to going to jail on a manslaughter conviction in record time. (It was all because someone was making trouble at the wedding reception so really, you can’t blame Floyd for anything that happened.) Floyd is supposed to serve six years but he decides to break out after only serving three and a half. Again, you really can’t blame Floyd for doing that. No one wants to work on a chain gang. Eventually, Floyd ends up hanging out at a brothel, where he falls in with a gang of bank robbers and a prostitute named Betty (Jocelyn Lane) ends up falling for him. After several bank robberies and gunfights, Floyd ends up working with an outlaw named Preacher (Adam Roarke). Everyone does not live happily ever after.
While watching A Bullet For Pretty Boy, it’s pretty easy to see the influence of the 1967 film, Bonnie and Clyde. There’s a lot of sudden bursts of violence (though never quite as bloody as the violence from Bonnie and Clyde) and the film is clearly on the side of Pretty Boy Floyd as opposed to the cops trying to catch him. However, whereas Bonnie and Clyde presented its title characters as being rebels against the establishment, A Bullet For Pretty Boy is content to portray Floyd as just being someone who ended up in a bad set of circumstances and who did what he felt he had to do to survive. As played by Forte, Floyd is good at robbing banks but he doesn’t seem to really enjoy doing it. That, of course, is a polite way of saying that Fabian Forte is credible but slightly boring in the lead role. He’s likable enough but he’s not exactly compelling and he often finds himself overshadowed by more energetic performers like Adam Roarke.
That said, I enjoyed A Bullet For Pretty Boy. Certainly, this film is better than the typical Larry Buchanan film. There aren’t any slow spots and the film does a good job of capturing the feeling and atmosphere of rural Texas and Oklahoma. (Undoubtedly it helped that the film was directed by a Texan who actually knew something about the communities that he was portraying.) The shoot outs and the bank robberies are just well-staged enough to hold your attention and that’s really the main thing that one can ask from a film like this. A Bullet From Pretty Boy doesn’t exactly make a lasting impression but it’s entertaining enough while you’re watching it.
Play it cool? How can anyone play it cool when you’ve got Danny Zuko checking out both you and your red tights? Those jeans! That leather jacket! Those sideburns! The cigarette behind the ear! The hair full of grease! Will you be my Valentine?
This book was published in 1959 and it was probably a big hit with young hoods everywhere. Unfortunately, the identity of the artist responsible for this quite frankly amazing cover is not known.
The Rolling Stones keep things simple in this music video for Worried About You. Worried About You was first recorded in 1975 but was not released until 1981, when it was included on Tattoo You, an album that was largely made up of outtakes from previous recording sessions.
When Worried About You was first recorded, Billy Preston played the piano and the guitar solo was performed by Woody Perkins, who was then under consideration for the lead guitarist spot that had been vacated by Mick Taylor. By the time the song was finally released and this video was filmed, Ron Wood had joined the band and, in the video, he’s the one who performs Perkins’s solo. Jagger, meanwhile, stands in for Billy Preston.
This video one of many Tattoo You videos to be directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Lindsay-Hogg is probably best known for directing Let It Be.
4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films is just what it says it is, 4 (or more) shots from 4 (or more) of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 (or more) Shots From 4 (or more) Films lets the visuals do the talking.
Today, the Shattered Lens wishes a happy 52nd birthday to one of our favorite filmmakers, Darren Aronofsky! When we first started this site, we were eagerly awaiting the release of Black Swan. Now, ten years alter, we’re eagerly awaiting the release of Aronofsky’s next film, whatever it may be.
In honor of the birthday of a true visionary director, here are….
6 Shots From 6 Films
Pi (1998, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Libatique)
Requiem for a Dream (2000, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Libatique)
The Wrestler (2008, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Maryse Alberti)
Black Swan (2010, dir by Darren Aronosfky, DP: Matthew Libatique)
Noah (2014, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Libatique)
mother! (2017, dir by Darren Aronofsky, DP: Matthew Libatique)
Manhattan Nights was first published in 1937. The Dell Edition came out in 1951 and featured this cover, by Robert Stanley. The boxer looks remarkably good for someone who gets beat up for a living. Neither his his manager nor his trainer seem to be there but his girlfriend made to the edge of the ring. Hopefully, she’s telling him to keep his hands up and protect that handsome face. It is almost Valentine’s Day, after all.
Without a doubt one of the best pop songs ever written, Things Can Only Get Better was meant to be a gift of positive energy for the people who had purchased Howard Jones’s first album. There’s no irony or sarcasm in this song, which is one of the thing that makes it so effective. Howard Jones is telling his fans that things can only get better. It’s not just humans that Jones’s song has helped through the years. He also recorded a version in the language of the Sims for The Sims 2.
This video was directed by the prolific Nigel Dick. The video features Jones trying to get ready for a concert, while Charlie Chaplin and … I guess that’s supposed to be Daniel LaRusso from The Karate Kid, hang out backstage. Chaplin was played by Jed Hoile, who was a mime who regularly performed as a part of Jones’s stage act. It was the 80s. It didn’t have to make sense.
The video was popular on MTV and helped make the song into a hit, though I’d like to think that a song this upbeat and catchy would have been a hit even without the video. This is another song that I have fond memories of listening to while driving around Vice City.
Through the Shattered Lens 