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Diary Secrets #11, St. John Publications, April 1952. CGC Universal Grade 4.0, Off-White to White pages. Matt Baker cover noted on the label. Certification number 3973460007.
Golden Age romance comic with a Matt Baker cover. The cover, titled “I Gave My Love Too Freely,” is Baker’s distinctive grey-tone / wash treatment, a softer, textured look that is unusual among his St. John romance covers. The main image shows a red-haired woman in a green coat with a blond man behind her; the left side carries the “True Love Stories” banner and smaller panels, including the teaser “When I discovered my own mother was the woman Bill loved, I laid a trap for him…”
Matt Baker is one of the most collected artists of the Golden Age romance boom. St. John was the publisher most closely associated with his best-known cover work, and complete Baker-cover issues from this run are scarcer in certified grade than the more common later reprints and photo covers. Interiors on this issue are largely Baker reprints: “I Didn’t Want a Stepfather” and “I Was Afraid to Fall in Love” from Teen-Age Romances #3, “I Tried To Be a Hollywood Glamour Girl” (previously in Pictorial Confessions #2), the text story “Stand-In for Scandal,” and “Spitework Was My Folly.” Cover price ten cents.
Graded 4.0 VG by CGC, with Off-White to White pages, a strong page-quality note for a 1952 book. The slab is a standard CGC Universal case. See photos for the label, cover presentation, and case. A CGC 4.0 of this issue sold on in January 2023 for $350; higher grades have sold well above that when they appear.
Shipped in the CGC case, packed securely. Please review the photos and ask any questions before buying.
