Written by: Bart A. Thompson
Art by: Ezequiel Pineda
Letters by: Brant W. Fowler
Cover by: Ezequiel Pineda
Published by: Arcana
Cover Price: $14.95 (USD)
Romance comics used to be a massive part of the comic book industry. In the early 20th century, when many different genres of comic were read by both men, women and children, Romance was one of the most popular.
This popularity faded, meaning that this collection of Romance shorts is the first time I have experienced such comics. As it is a collection of short stories, it seems almost too obvious to state that some are better than others and depending on taste other readers may enjoy a different selection of the tales.
There are ten stories in this collection and I liked half of them. It is important to mention though that a number of these stories are a mix of Romance and Horror and while this isn’t personally to my taste, I can see that others would like them.
Aside from some of the stories being more sex than romance based, there are some really well written stories in this collection. It is the times when the writing feels more personal and natural that this collection shines brightest, with the story featuring the writer of this volume being my favourite for this reason.
There’s definitely a good mix of stories, as the focus switches from online dating, to female masturbation, to sentimentality, to the supernatural. This does make the reading experience a little imbalanced and disorientating, but it also shows the variety that Romance can reach.
The art from Ezequiel Pineda is good throughout, with all the art being in black and white. Some of the stories have more grey shading/colouring and I think they improve the visuals, though the more stark black and white strips look good too.
This volume definitely contains a mix of content and quality, despite all being romance focused. However, a lot of the writing is good, particularly the dialogue and the artist does well to match the changing the nature of each story.
6/10
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