In the name of dark romance in comics, some creators enjoy exploring its edges through works released for the season of hearts. When there’s no anti-Valentine’s icon the way Christmas has Krampus, these tales lean on the human condition instead. Rather than crafting a saccharine Harlequin fantasy, what’s presented here cuts deeper.
In the real world, love comes with sacrifice, compromise, and the understanding that some connections aren’t meant to last. That emotional friction becomes fertile ground for storytelling. The result is a slate of works that challenge the idea that love must be soft, safe, or everlasting. What’s offered here are current and upcoming titles that dare to be different, stories where affection and obsession blur, where devotion turns corrosive, and where heartbreak is as transformative as it is devastating.
The City Beneath Her Feet (Remastered)
Sept 2025
The collaboration between James Tynion IV and Elsa Charretier is worth exploring for its sheer audacity. Although this series is not fodder for the special day for the saint, its September remastered edition released last year shows just how much love there is, since the narrative has been expanded to 56 pages for this new edition. It’s also packed with all-new backmatter.
Here, Zara is a struggling writer trying to scrape by. Jasper is an assassin who is impossible to control and is somehow essential to this woman’s survival. The idea that these two are meant to connect is absurd on paper, yet the story never turns syrupy. Instead, it leans into something stranger and more surreal, where attraction feels dangerous, unstable, and very much alive. With two updated comics already out and the third arriving after Valentine’s Day, well, we just have to see where this romance goes.
Bleeding Hearts #1
Feb 2026
DC’s revival of its legendary Vertigo imprint is aimed squarely at darker, anti-establishment storytelling, the kind that once made Hellblazer and The Sandman essential reading. This new ongoing series, from Deniz Camp, Stipan Morian, Matt Hollingsworth, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, centres on Poke, a young man whose heart inexplicably begins beating again in a world overrun by the undead. Poke is a zombie, but when he discovers love, the result isn’t another high-school undead romance. It’s something stranger, more unsettling, and far more interested in what it means to feel human when the world has already declared you dead.
Tortured Hearts #1
Feb 2026
This one-shot anthology from Oni Press proudly leans into what’s grim about love and pain. Featuring horror-tinged stories from a roster of creators that includes Jordie Bellaire and Tini Howard, it’s been described as a coffin-shaped bouquet delivered with soft whispers and death rattles. The stories favour emotional wounds, brutality, and sharp edges over sentimentality, offering something closer to catharsis than comfort.
Supernatural Valentine’s Day Special #1
Feb 2026
Sam and Dean Winchester understand love and loss better than most. Having long abandoned the idea of a normal life, the brothers hunt the things that destroyed their family, and they know all too well what grief can push someone to do. That makes them uniquely suited to confront a case where heartbreak leads someone to bargain with demonic forces to resurrect the dead.
Understanding the impulse doesn’t make it safe, though, and meddling with mortality rarely ends quietly. In this case, an attempt to command a minor underworld entity spirals into the summoning of an ancient, uncontrollable goddess of desire. What follows is chaos on a mythic scale, a reminder that love, when weaponised or distorted, can be every bit as destructive as it is powerful.
Past Dark Romance in Comics Which Set the Tone
Long before Valentine’s specials tried to get ironic, indie comics were already dismantling the fantasy. Instead of offering something sweet, these creators aimed for something far more brutal, and arguably more honest. And no, this isn’t just about The Crow. James O’Barr’s gothic revenge tragedy showed how love hurts. The grief. The pain. What he created became a way to process his own loss, while also reflecting how people face uncertain futures when all that remains is rage. But there are two other older works worth mentioning that helped define this space.
Wuvable Oaf
Ed Luce’s cult favourite follows a metal-loving outsider stumbling through friendship, sex, and heartbreak. Romance here is awkward and unglamorous, but deeply sincere. It rejects idealised love in favour of emotional truth, making vulnerability its quiet rebellion.
Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist
Diane DiMassa’s incendiary work channels rage as catharsis, tearing down romance as a structure tied to control and systemic violence. Love, when it exists at all, is secondary to survival. It remains one of the most uncompromising anti-romance statements comics have ever produced.
Discover more from Otaku no Culture
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
