Comic Books Are Not Just for Superheroes

5 min readSep 20, 2021

Do you think comic books are the gateway drug that leads to reading books? As a kid, it was the ultimate treat for me to get a comic book! In the supermarket checkout line, I desired comic books over candy. Okay that’s not true…I wanted both! The candy to eat, while I read the comic book!

Do Comic Books Lead to Reading Real Books?

When I was 8, I read comic books. When I was 11, I drew comic books. At 12, I began reading real books, (a whole lot of books!) and here I am now writing books. So yeah, comic books got me started reading.

This blog post isn’t about the typical comic books with caped crusaders, it’s more than that and worth a quick read.

Wartime Comics

Beginning in 1940, adult romance comic books became extremely popular. This golden age of romance comic books was right after World War II. Romance comic books flew off the shelves! It was the rage, what people talked about, and everyone wanted. During this period the sales of romance comic books easily surpassed comic books with superheroes. In the 1940’s superhero comic books were considered old fashion and out of date.

One reason was the romance comic books were not simple boy meets girl type of stories; these comic books covered intense topics like infidelity, jealousy, marriage, divorce, and heartbreak! The sexy colorful images in the comic books were equally as dramatic and the words in the word bubbles were scandalous!

Big Brother Comes After Comics

In the 1950’s there was a real possibility government regulations would destroy comic books altogether in this country. In 1954, after a US government hearing was held to eliminate the production of comic books; the CCA (Comics Code Authority) was established. The CCA developed the “Comics Code”, a seal that was printed on the cover of a comic book stating if it was approved by the Comics Code Authority. While the CCA did not have formal control over comic book publishers, during the 1950’s the majority of distributors refused to sell comic books without the seal. As such many comic book publishers went bankrupt. You will be shocked when you read the rules of the Comics Code.

It wasn’t until the early 2000’s, when Marvel Comics and other comic book publishers disregarded the “Comics Code”. In 2010 only a few publishers still observed the Comics Code. Shockingly, DC Comics was one of the publishers who did. Thankfully, In 2011 the “Comics Code” was completely abolished!

Black Romance Comic Books in the 50’s and 60’s

As an “experiment” in the 1950’s three issues of black romance comic books were published. These segregated romance comic books only included black romantic characters and the series was named “Negro Romance”. Negro Romance was published by Fawcett Comics. It was unusual that, unlike black dolls during this time period, the Negro Romance comic books did not include African American stereotypes. Instead, the Negro romance comic books used familiar story lines found in white romance comic books. The black characters in Negro Romance even attended college, where in real life during this time, few blacks did.

Black Mirror Comics

In 1967 and in 1972, two black romance comic books were published by well known comic book publisher DC Comics.“Young Romance 151” was published in 1967 and “Girls’ Love 170” was published in 1972.

The storylines and dialogue were EXACTLY the same in the black, and white version of the romance comic book. The black characters even had the identical names as the white characters. However, the titles were different, as was race, the attire and hairstyles. See below.

Today’s Modern Romance Comic Books

As a romance novelist I was intrigued when I learned that beginning in 2019, top romance publisher, Harlequin began publishing their romance novels as romance comic books! These Harlequin romance comic books are translated from their popular romance books and drawn in the Japanese manga style. You can purchase the Harlequin romance comic books via the Romance Comics website here: https://www.romancecomics.com/ and on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/8140E1C0-E36E-4B01-9C1A-35E891A8F94F

Make Money From Selling Rare Comic Books

Today each of the rare “Negro Romance” comic books are valued at over $6,000 dollars. If you have some comic books stashed away, they too could be worth some green money. Visit this website to find out their value now!