Familiar Imagery - Werner Roth's Handshake Panels

Hard to believe that it is March already... and you know what that means -- Women's History Month! But, before we move on to that, I wanted to do a little follow-up post on last week's Lois Lane story. If you thought the last panel (above) of  "I Am Curious (Black)!) from Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #106 (November 1970) looked familiar, then you are correct! Very similar imagery can be found in panels of two other stories I have covered here at Sequential Crush, "Someone to Love!" and "Black + White = Heartbreak!" -- and all three stories were penciled by Werner Roth.

 "Someone to Love!"

Girls' Love Stories #159 (May 1971) 

 "Black + White = Heartbreak!"

Girls' Love Stories #163 (November 1971)

Here we go again...

Celia and Angela shakin' on it,

also from Roth's "Someone to Love!"

We can conclude from these examples that either Roth really loved drawing hands, or that he found the handshake a simple and powerful way to convey solidarity between characters of different races. Though we can't be sure if this visual shorthand was a conscious effort by Roth, it certainly defines his style in part (not unlike "The Tiny Fists of Mortimer" or the phenomena of "Kirby Krackle") and helps Roth's work stand out as some of the best in the romance comics.