Romance Comics Archives

Comic book writer/artist Frank Thorne, best known for his work on the comic book character Red Sonja, began his comics career decades earlier pencilling romance comics for Standard Comics, as well as the Perry Mason newspaper strip for King Features and Flash Gordon, Jungle Jim, The Green Hornet, Tom Corbett Space Cadet, Tomahawk, Mighty Samson[...]

Before his DC Comics era, Dick Giordano had a long career at Charlton including romance comics work like the cover of Sweetheart Diary #45.

In 1954, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby returned to the romance comic genre they had created, with their own publication, In Love.

There were three romance comics from three different publishers called Love Diary The first from Quality Comics which ran from 1937 to 1956 The second was from Orbit Publications, which ran from 1949 to 1955, while it was operated by publisher, editor, cartoonist and a rare woman at the top of a comics publisher back[...]

Before known for his Marvel comics work such as Fantastic Four, Joe Sinnott's contributions included Charlton romance comics among others.

It is considered to be one of the top ten most collectible romance comics by Overstreet and features a painted cover by Everett Raymond Kinstler Looking at recent sales, well, there aren't many, leading me to believe that it is a well-earned place on that top romance comics list At 36 pages, it certainly packs[...]

Overstreet 2023 FN 6.0 value = $45; VF 8.0 value = $84. The romance comics genre in the USA was created by Captain America co-creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, with Young Romance in 1947, looking for a new higt and something that might appeal to older audiences They got it, and the series would last[...]

The Romances of Nurse Helen Grant #1 was published in 1957 by Atlas Comics, the company which would one day be renamed Marvel Comics.

Marvel romance title True Secrets title started life as Actual Romances in 1949.  It's unclear why the title changed, though these things happened often with many comic book publishers of the period for seemingly opaque reasons.  "True" would have been more recognizeable as an indicator of a romance title to readers of that day, though[...]

The modern romance magazine had been a staple of American newsstands for decades by the time comic books entered the arena with Joe Simon and Jack Kirby's Young Romance in 1947.  The romance magazine as we know it today (or at least, as we knew it for nearly a century) was popularized by the success[...]

We recently discussed the covers of little-known artist Alice Kirkpatrick for the Ace Magazines comic book romance line, but unfortunately, most artists on this line have remained unidentified.  This is unfortunate, because although the publisher is best remembered today for its superhero titles like Super-Mystery Comics and Lightning Comics, plus its Pre-Code Horror titles such[...]

If there's such a thing as overlooked Jack Kirby covers, his Silver Age romance work for Marvel might just fit the bill.  Joe Simon and Jack Kirby had pioneered the romance genre in comics with Young Romance in 1947, so it should come as no surprise that Kirby had romance work mixed in among the monsters,[...]

Cole covers up for auction in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L B Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions. L.B Cole cover on Confessions of Love #14 (Star Publications, 1953) With the heat turning up on the comic book industry in 1948, Curtis Publishing, who published comics via their Novelty Press imprint,[...]

Alice Kirkpatrick (1912-1997) got into the romance magazine illustration field around 1937 with Ace Magazines title Love Fiction Monthly and likely other Ace romance pulps which included Ten-Story Love and Complete Love Magazine at that time.  Kirkpatrick had branched out into the comic book field by the late 1940s, with work for publishers including Ace, Quality[...]

The DC Comics romance series Secret Hearts would become one of the publisher's most successful and well-known romance titles, lasting 153 issues 1949-1971.  But surprisingly, the series might just as easily have become another forgotten moment of 1950s romance comic book history.  The title was canceled with issue #6 at the height of the romance[...]

This raw copy of Secret Story Romances #1 (Atlas, 1953) Condition: VG taking bids in the 2023 October 26 – 27 Romance Comics Featuring L B Cole Showcase Auction #40224 at Heritage Auctions This is the first copy the heralded auction house has ever put up This is rare air here, people All that said, right[...]

Another series that survived Marvel's 1948-1950 romance boom and bust, Lovers provides us with a particularly stark reminder of the changing conditions that motivated publisher Martin Goodman to go all in on the genre.  With superheroes on the decline at the time, the series took over the number from the famous female superhero title Blonde[...]

Within two years, the publisher had launched a staggering 31 romance titles, with most of them quickly failing.  But this flagship romance series remained one of the Marvel success stories of the period, lasting 76 issues 1948-1950.  There's a My Romance #1 (Marvel, 1948) Condition: FN- up for auction in the 2023 October 26 –[...]

About a year after Joe Simon and Jack Kirby launched the comic book romance genre with Young Romance #1 in 1947, Marvel/Atlas publisher Martin Goodman debuted Marvel's first romance title, My Romance.  The title was quickly altered to My Own Romance with issue #4 to make room for a non-comics Atlas magazine called My Romance, and[...]

Alex Toth's earliest credited comic book work is from 1945-1946 on Eastern Color's Heroic Comics, but he more famously began working for DC Comics right after graduating from the School of Industrial Art in 1947.  Superhero work in Comic Cavalcade, All-American Comics, Green Lantern, and All-Star Comics were among his first assignments there.  As the[...]

Falling in Love was the first romance title that DC Comics launched during the Comics Code era.  The title began seven months after the publisher started using the Code seal with issues that hit the newsstand in January 1955.  Joining regular DC Comics romance series Girls' Love Stories Girls' Romances, and Secret Hearts on the[...]

Manta announced new seasons for popular romance webcomics Finding Camellia, Evangeline's Sword, and The Accidental Heiress coming in April and May.

Manta Comics announced that Disobey the Duke if You Dare, one of the platform's leading romance webcomics, is returning for a second season on October 2,