[1] The genre took its immediate inspiration from the romance pulps; confession magazines such as True Story; radio soap operas, and newspaper comic strips that focused on love, domestic strife, and heartache, such as Rex Morgan, M.D.

[4] (Later, a number of female editors oversaw DC's romance line, including Zena Brody[5] and Dorothy Woolfolk.

)[6] As author Michelle Nolan writes, "National's romance line was remarkably stable and thus must have sold consistently well.

Artists known for their work on romance comics during the period included Tony Abruzzo, Matt Baker, Frank Frazetta, Everett Kinstler, Jay Scott Pike, John Prentice, John Romita, Sr., Mike Sekowsky, Leonard Starr, Alex Toth, and Wally Wood.

"[9] Decades later, romance-themed comics made a modest resurgence with Arrow Publications' "My Romance Stories",[12] Dark Horse Comics' manga-style adaptations of Harlequin novels,[13][14] and long-running serials such as Strangers in Paradise — described by one reviewer as an attempt "to single-handedly update an entire genre with a new, skewed look at relationships and friendships.

To research the 1950s era of romance comics, Benson interviewed Ric Estrada, Joe Kubert and Leonard Starr, plus several St. John staffers, including editor Irwin Stein, production artist Warren Kremer and editorial assistant Nadine King.

In 2011, an anthology Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics, edited by Michael Barson, was published by Harper Design.