As a young teenager my comic book purchases were pretty much predicated on a sliding scale based on my interests. At the top of my list was to purchase any comic with superheroes followed by barbarians, science fiction, humour, horror and lastly , and only at a pinch anything related to girls comics (this included Supergirl comics and of course love stories) . One such last ditch comic purchase on a week where there must have been few comics in the spinner racks to my liking was for "Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane" issue 117. As it turned out this was a pretty interesting read, not for the Lois Lane tale, but for the back-up feature The Rose and the Thorn.
I have never hidden my affection for DC comics at this time and in particular there numerous back up tales which regularly featured a host of interesting characters. To be honest, I’m not sure how much I actually enjoyed reading the Rose and the Thorn strips at this time (reading this one with new eyes, its not great) but I do rememebr finding the character utterly fascinating even although I found it unfeasible that a character that had no actual superpowers apart from being athletic and being prolific with a combat daggers and a barbed wire whip , could so easily take down the notorious 100 gang all on her own.
This was actually the second version of the Rose and the thorn character which was created by Robert Khanigher and artist Ross Andru who would draw most of her tales at this time (but not this particular issue). This Rose and Thorn was Rhosyn "Rose" Forrest (these names were really terrible) the daughter of Metropolis police officer Phil Forrest, who was killed by a criminal gang named The 100. When Rose slept her Thorn personality would emerge and stalk the streets as a vigilante, attempting to bring The 100 to justice.
This issue of Loise Lane is cover dated November 1971 so I would have probably picked this up on or around April/May 1972 on one of my many excursion to the local newsagents after school. I suppose as I would have been approaching 13 years of aged around this time this could have explained my interest in this scantily glad thigh length boot wearing female crime fighter. The story itself “ The Ghost with Two Faces “ illustrated by the late great Rich Buckler, is pretty basic as Rose Forrest goes on vacation to the seaside and , as the Thorn, defeats a band of kidnappers but it still must have resonated with me as I remember picking up several Lois Lane comic after this time which featured Rose and the Thorn back up strips. I even tracked down Lois Lane issue 114 where Lois meets Rose and Thorn, a comic I stil have in my collection.