The "He's Not For Her" Variations: Comic Book Hinterlands, #8

By David Macpherson

How many ways can a love story go? 

 

"He's Not For Her" is an eight page comic story from 1975. It is a love story about two sisters and the man that has come between them It all ends well for everyone. Love is always victorious.  

 

David Macpherson has taken this little story and spun 32 variations on the theme and plot of the story. Using Bach's Goldberg Variations as a guide, we can see so many permutations of the romance comic story. 

 

It is an odd, affectionate look at the genre tropes of romance comics. 

 

The Comic Book Hinterlands is the place where the oddness of comics is celebrated.  

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Macpherson
• Release date: May 31, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201630768

Book preview

Variation One

The Basic Story

The story is narrated by a young woman named Theo. Her sister, Mala has a boyfriend, Reed, who is sexy and very early seventies cool. He wears a jacket with no shirt. He asks Mala to marry him. She says yes. Theo thinks it is a terrible idea and they will ruin their lives. She must do something. She has to stop them.

She becomes very flirty with Reed. She lingers on a kiss with him. Theo begins to do things with Reed. They swim. They play tennis. She even goes out with him where his friends think she is his fiancee. They kiss.

Mala is not happy. She is down. She is depressed. Why is she so down? Is it because her little sister is trying to break up her engagement? Apparently not.

Her old boyfriend has just returned from his mysterious job in the Middle East. Fritz left Mala to work for an oil company. He still can’t tell Mala what he did for his job. It was dangerous. It is a secret he will not offer up to her. Theo meets up with Fritz and says that Mala’s engagement might not be permanent.

Theo dresses up in a crazy sexy outfit. Reed sees her and is impressed. They kiss again and Mala catches them. Luckily, that is when Fritz enters and swears his love to Mala. He tells her the reason he broke up with her was because he felt he might die due to his job in the Middle East. Why he would die is not brought up.

Reed realizes that Theo set up this whole thing. He is greatly impressed with her conniving ways and they kiss once more. Mala now embraces Fritz and tells him that as of five minutes ago, she is no longer engaged. Everyone now is happy and paired off. For the moment.

Variation Two

The Entry

From the Romance Comic Database

He’s Not for Her 8 Pages. Teen Confessions 91. Charlton Comics. October 1975.

Plot Description: A young woman thinks her older sister’s engagement is not wise. She decides to break up the pair. She becomes romantically involved with the young man. The older sister meets up with an old love and they rekindle their relationship.

Credits: Writer is unknown. It might be Nick Cuti or Joe Gill because they wrote many of these scripts. The art is by Enrique Nieto. He has an expressionistic style. It is not certain who did the coloring, though that is distinctive and different from the other features in the comic.

Comments: The coloring is out there. The characters are colored in strong colors, but not consistently. In one panel, Reed is Blue, then he is Purple. There is yellow skins and magenta and people move from hue to hue. This seems to be part of the pop art trend that Peter Max popularized.

Variation Three

Mala’s Secret Diary

July 11th. Wow oh wow. It happened. Reed asked me to be his old lady. He didn’t say that, he asked me to be his wife. But to some crazy dude like Reed, I know I will be his old lady. I like him. He’s groovy looking. And that’s the important part. I mean, my old guy, Fritz. He was not as hot a guy as Reed. And Reed is here. I’m on cloud two thousand right now. Theo doesn’t seem like she’s digging it. She can be a real square. I don’t get it.

July 17th Theo has been weirding me out, man. She has