733. RT Rewind: July 1992 Ads & Features – The 100th Issue Special!

23 hours ago 5

We are back in the early 90s, when the mullets were epic and the covers were sumptuous. Come on back to July 1992 with us as we explore the ads & features of the 100th issue of Romantic Times Magazine!

This issue contains some FASCINATING retrospective looks at romance, cover art, and more, and I think it is one of the primary sources cited for some of the more common stories I’ve heard about romance.

Were you a Borders, B. Dalton, or Waldenbooks reader, or another bookshop entirely?

Don’t forget – you can watch this episode on YouTube with the visuals on screen, or look for the visual aids below!

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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:

Smart Podcast Trashy Books Romantic Times Rewind

We also mentioned:

The sandals from Keen I mentioned in the outro.
Lucynka’s posts on SBTB about pulp romance
Marysville Public Library: Nora Roberts Go Fish (Facebook video)
Lake Villa District Library: Nora Roberts Challenge (Tiktok video)

And of course…visual aids!

Moonrunner by Jane Toombs. A woman with dark hair holds a a candle and looks worried. Behind her is a dark menacing house with yellow glowing windows and behind that is a demonic looking figure with white stiff hair yellow eyes, a flat nose and sharp teeth

So this is my sleep paralysis demon. His name is Hank. Allegedly this is a werewolf of some kind and YIKES.

A man in a red striped shirt and dark suspenders dances holding the hand of a white blonde woman in a white top with spaghetti straps. Behind them is a swirl of red, yellow, and blue

This is the book with the couple who dance to an old Victrola and find themselves with a bit of a haunting. We think he looks like a carnival barker or a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Temptation's Price by Dallas Schulze A large illustration of a white blonde woman (as in she is white and so is her hair) with a mostly out of focus technique except for her eyes and nose which are very large and very in focus. The effect is very uncanny

Long before Instagram Filters were a thing, she has Instagram Filter face.

Georgina Gentry's Sioux Savage (oy) featuring a woman with long hair with feathers in it wearing an off the shoulder fringe leather dress. she is close to kissing a man who is shirtless, wearing high-waisted blue trousers, and his hands are tied over a tree branch because she tied him up. Nice

YIKES on the title, but she did tie him to a tree. We’re impressed. Also that man has the longest torso we have ever seen. There’s like nine miles between his waist and That Bulge.

The flaccid jizz clip art fireworks that made Amanda laugh so hard

This is the flaccid fireworks clip art that Amanda spotted. Once we discussed what she thought they looked like, I made this:

The cover of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" except instead of kid it says "Jizz" and the flaccid fireworks clipart is superimposed over the drawn figure of the main character so it looks like a wimpy fireworks with legs.

Not bad! Graphic design is my passion.

The Jim-Mark featuring Jim Henke in a ruffled tux shirt and untied bow tie, holding a silver coin in his hand at his waist.

This is Shirl Henke’s late husband Jim, who would do custom photo shoots for book marks (Jim-marks) as part of the promotion for Shirl’s latest book. In this case they’re giving away a rare silver coin (in his hand by his waist) to a lucky reader who can guess which sex scene in Terms of Love is the one he wrote. In the article about the latest Jim-mark, Shirl reports that his bookmark poses were very popular with her readers.

A Close up of the couple embracing while on top of the water. The way the illustration is drawn, his right hand is reaching across her ribs beneath her arm. Because his other hand is behind her, at a glance it looks like his right hand has 7 fingers.

Because of the angle, this man looks like he has 7 fingers on his right hand.

A close up of a cover with a woman with long black hair and bangs, kind of Xena Warrior Princess style, in a blue dress kneeling in the surf. A man with a massive mullet and his shirt partially peeled off his shoulders is embracing her. Somehow they are kneeling on the water, even though submerged rocks are visible behind them.

This is the cover illustration. They look like they’re kneeling on top of deep water? And she looks like Xena warrior princess.

A Close up of the couple from Surrender the Night, where it looks like the man behind the cover model is looking over her shoulder from behind and checking out her massive jeweled necklace or her bosoms or both

A close up of Surrender the Night: we think he’s looking at the necklace but we could be wrong.

Also get a load of that necklace! Is that called a “bib necklace?” Because WOW that’s a lot of jewels.

Colleen Shannon's Surrender the Night features a couple standing in some woods at night. The background is blue with green in the front. A shirtless blonde man with his hair pulled back - I'm pretty sure that's Fabio - is embracing a woman from behind. She has long, fluffy blonde hair and a giant jeweled necklace, and is wearing a white fur coat and possibly not much beneath it

The full cover – think she’s got anything on under the fur coat? Are they going to do it in the park??

We don’t know who Gloria Diehl is, but we do know that this cover is a marvelous selection for her book club.

Two photographs of Kathryn Falk from the 100th issue, Top left is Kathryn holding the first issue, a tabloid style newspaper, in 1981. Her hair is long and dark in a side part. Then a second photo of her in 1992, dressed in a gown with flowers in her hair and possibly a veil. her hair is shorter, blonde with bangs. She is embracing Fabio, who is resting his cheek on her forehead.

The lead article from the 100th issue, featuring Kathryn Falk holding the first issue of RT, and a 100th issue photo of her embracing Fabio.

And another bookmark! This is the Fabio bookmark they gave away to celebrate 100 issues, and my GOSH I wish I could see it in color. Someone has to have one of these, right? He’s reading issues of RT!

A black and white photo of Fabio smoldering at the camera, while lounging shirtless on a bed reading issues of RT magazine. I am DEVASTATED that I don't have one.

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