'Abandoned!' (Girls' Love Stories issue #146)
Tony Abruzzo was an American comic book artist, who worked mainly on stories for the romance comic books published by National Periodicals/DC Comics in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born as Anthony Abruzzo into a family of Italian descent, and educated at the Pratt Institute and the Traphagen Institute of Design. Abruzzo first made his fame as a designer of dresses, while based in Ozone Park in the Queens neighborhood of New York City. He also designed fashion ads, and made plans for going to Paris to further pursue his career in fashion.
Cover illustrations for 'Falling in Love' and 'Girls' Romances'.
However, World War II broke out and the artist was drafted into the US Army. During this period, he drew tanks, scout cars and jeeps for special training manuals prepared for members of the Army Armored Force. By the mid-1950s, he was working as a comic book artist for National Periodicals, the company nowadays known as DC Comics. His experiences in the fashion industry made him a suitable artist for the company's many romance titles. Up until the early 1970s, Abruzzo illustrated love stories starring beautiful girls for titles like 'Girls' Love Stories', 'Girls' Romances', 'Secret Hearts', 'Young Love', 'Young Romance', 'Falling in Love', and more.
Abruzzo was a popular source of inspiration for Roy Lichtenstein. Panels from his romance comics inspired the paintings 'Drowning Girl' (1962), 'Hopeless' (1963), 'In The Car' (1963), 'Thinking of Him' (1963), 'No, Thank You!' (1964), 'Sleeping Girl' (1964), 'Oh Jeff ... I Love You Too ... But...' (1964), 'Ohhh... Alright...' (1964) and 'M-Maybe' (1965). Dutch painter Peter Klashorst also made an altered painting based on Lichtenstein's 'M-Maybe', turning it into a copy of a copy.
'Girls' Love Stories', issue #136.