Valentine’s Day is upon us. A time for candlelit dinners, flowers, candy… and romance comics!

The comic industry is dominated by superheroes, but there have been many other genres over the years that appeal to a wider audience. When World War II was ending, superhero popularity was waning, so comic publishers expanded their offerings to include other genres like romance. The books had many sources of inspiration, like radio dramas, romantic pulp magazines, confession magazines, and even comic strips.

Joe Simon and Jack Kirby are credited with introducing the romance genre to comics with their title, Young Romance. The Crestwood Publications book began in 1947 and went on to produce over 200 issues over the next 30 years.

DC had a solid hold on the romance market with titles like Girls’ Romances, Secret Hearts, Girls’ Love Stories, and Falling in Love. Their line, which was first overseen by Jack Miller, was later handled by female editors like Dorothy Woolfolk and Zena Brody. Through their guidance, each of the titles would appear on newsstands eight times a year.

Fawcett and then Charlton Comics had a nice line of romance titles, including Romantic Secrets and Romantic Story. Their book, Sweethearts, became the first romance title to be published on a monthly basis; it would run from 1948 until ’73.

Fox Feature Syndicate published more than 24 romance titles like My Secret Life and My Desire. Avon, Lev Gleason Publications, and Quality Comics also published romance books during that period. Collectively, there were over 150 romance titles on newsstands during the 1940s and into the ‘50s.

As with other genres, their popularity and accessibility took a hit because of the Comics Code. Anything risqué was removed from the books, replaced by chaste, and rather bland stories. Then in the 1960s during the women’s liberation movement, romance comics lost more steam because of their emphasis on domesticity, traditional gender expectations, and lack of sexual liberation.

While the romance genre is almost non-existent nowadays, there is still plenty of romance in comics. Strangers in Paradise is centered around a love triangle and Saga is about a married couple from warring races. Then there are the great comic book couples like Peter and M.J., Clark and Lois, and the list goes on and on.