It’s Comics, but it’s not Comic Sans!
Recently Cat Sebastian revealed on Instagram the cover for her new book, Star Shipped, coming out in March 2026:
Vintage comic style! I dig it. It conveys an era without being exactly specific, and it’s a style that’s nostalgically familiar.
I’ve noticed this style as a growing trend in romance. Now, usually when I notice a trend, it’s after two similar occurrences. That’s a coincidence, I know. This is NOT a coincidence – this is most definitely a trend. Let’s take a look!
I think (I may be wrong here – feel free to correct me) that the book that kicked off the trend was Lyla Sage’s Done and Dusted:
Followed by Swift and Saddled:
And, of course, Lost and Lassoed, followed by Wild and Wrangled:
The colors, the textures, and the line art are great replicas of vintage comics.
Cash by Jessica Peterson also uses this style, particularly the texture:
And in December, Duke will come out:
I’m kinda fascinated by the use of the hats to hide their faces, since faces can be (I am told) difficult to draw – I certainly can’t do it.
I’ve also seen the hat-hiding-faces illustration style on Dust Storm by Maggie Gates, though I confess when I saw the image in a small size, I thought he was wearing a potato:
Do you see what I mean? Maybe it’s just my weird brain. Here’s the full-size cover, which is not a potato.
Contemporary Western romances aren’t the only books getting the vintage style on the cover: Fan Service by Rosie Danan also uses this technique.
The background is not quite as textured, but the line art style is similar, I think.
Then, coming on October 25, we have two more books with vintage comic-style illustrated covers!
Not as much of the texture, but the line art fits.
Cowboy It’s Cold Outside by Maisey Yates is part of the Four Corners Ranch series – and the above cover is a bit of a departure from the prior eleven books in the series, which had photograph covers:
The last book in my “It’s Comics, But it’s Not Comic Sans” collection:
The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur is a neat mix of the textured comic style inside the elevator, and a more matte finish on the wall around it. I really like how their expressions are rendered, and the subtlety of the shadow – and the tag line, “Going down?”
10/10. No notes.
Have you seen vintage comic style covers making a strong comeback? What titles have you noticed?
And what do you think of this style?
I’ve never liked this style, so predictably, I’m not feeling it, but my biggest emotional reaction to this post is relief that poor Alexandra Bellefleur wasn’t stuck with yet another bizarrely unsettling uncanny valley mannequin cover. She had like three of them or something! This is an improvement, at least (although I have to say I’m not feeling the romance in this one; to me, the non-demonic woman looks horrified).
My second-place emotional reaction is that it really annoys me when publishers change cover art, book size, or book format for later books in a long-running series.
Fan Service (like the cover) and Cowboy it’s Cold Outside (hate the wreath) don’t look vintage to me. Or maybe they do but it’s a more recent vintage than the others? It’s probably just the graphic novel vs newsprint texture more than anything else.
I like this trend? I’m pretty sure I do? I like them more than the infantilizing cartoon covers, absolutely. I think it’s partially because it’s subliminally giving me hope that we’ll swing back around to painted covers though.
I am tempted by the books that sound good to me, and not by the Westerns that are not my jam. That Cat Sebastian one is everything! This trend is definitely more useful for me than blanket hating all the cartoony ones, or being helplessly drawn towards lurid airbrushing even when I knew I didn’t like the author. Although I haven’t had good luck with Bellefleur, but idk that I can resist this one (the shadow!!!) which seems like a good indicator the cover is doing its job.
Part of what I don’t like about these covers is they make me hope there’s a comic inside, even though I know better. Like, Jack Kirby did way better work on romance comics than he ever did for Marvel or DC, imo, even if the storylines left a lot to be desired. But idk what kind of overlap there is between romance readership and fans of this style comic, given how long a hiatus there was in romance comic publishing, and how bad so much of the romance comic fare has been. Which is probably overthinking it.
And yes, that is definitely a potato.
I really like this trend in covers, I think partly because there’s more realism and therefore more emotion and body language. Not sure if it’s exactly vintage, but in a similar vein, I love the cover of the recent mm F1 romance, Crash Test by Amy James.
I am in the hate them camp. These covers don’t make me think of love and sexy times. They seem childish to me. It makes me glad I have an eReader and don’t have to look at the covers. I have also been known to change the cover in calibre because I dislike them so much.
Follow-up to my prior comment, the cover of Crash Test is more the look of a painted cover. But I feel like (hope?) it’s part of a broader trend away from cartoon covers. A few years ago Crash Test would’ve been more likely to have a RWRB style cover.
I don’t like this style. The faces are often ugly to me. Also, the body proportions of the standing person on that first cover seem off in a way that really bothers me.
I do like the old-style covers, but I wish they’d add word balloons to them too, like comic book covers used to have. In my opinion, romance comics are the only comics where those served a purpose on the cover, and couldn’t have been replaced by captions (or a textless image).
With dialogue on the cover, it’s so much easier to present some sort of mystery that makes the reader want to read the story. That kind of thing can be really hard to convey through an image alone.
Here’s one example, from Love Romances issue 104:
A woman is talking to another woman, saying “Oh, Diane! You’ve actually landed the most divine boy in school, you lucky thing!”
Diane replies “He loves me! We’ll soon be married! Nothing can change that!”
And next to them, the boy in question is thinking “Diane, my darling! If only I didn’t have to tell you this! If only I didn’t have to break your heart!”
I’ve no idea what his secret is, but I’m dying to find out! And that, friends, is the power of the cover word balloon.
I’m neutralish on them, some are good (the Sage covers) but I don’t care for the Danon, Bellefleur or Gates ones. I kind of like that although the Sebastian title is her first contemporary, it feels like it’s paying homage to her historicals a bit?
That being said, I definitely prefer this trend to the cartoon ones with the smooth featureless faces (or worse, which have no features but eyebrows/glasses), which just seriously creep me out. I always feel like I should be getting some kind of pod people/body horror books with those covers….
I love a lot of these and I honestly think there’s room for both cartoony covers plus clinches. I really miss clinches.
I’ve also noticed this style! And I’m having trouble finding / remembering every example I’ve seen.
Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales (sapphic YA) has the newsprint texture look. And I swear I’ve seen another sapphic romance with this style cover, but I cannot find it.
I don’t love this trend (the faces also look weird to me) but I far prefer it to the shirtless, headless torsos of years past. And honestly, I like the illustration trend in general. Some of it is not to my taste but I like it so, so much better tha headless, over-photoshopped stock photos or the shirtless beefcakes that showed up on every paranormal or Western, whether it fit the story or not.
Hate. I’ve boycotted books that look too cutesy. I’ve started seeing this trend come for romantasy fiction and I doubt it will sit well with readers of the genre who collect editions and are fans of the beautiful covers.
If I like the author, I will buy the book, regardless of the cover. If we boycott the covers, then we hurt the author.
Still a potato at larger size (a really _big_ potato). If it were a hat, it would be falling off his head, which isn’t remotely tilted far enough to justify the nearly top-down perspective of the potatat.
As for the others, I dunno. I remember these styles from when I was a young thing (last century some time). Avoided those books, can’t help but automatically apply that prejudice to the covers that reproduce the look.
I do not like comic-style covers. I didn’t / don’t enjoy comic books as a kid or adult. Although I don’t want to judge books by their covers, when I find the cover unpleasant, I’m not likely to continue to read the blurb, especially for an unfamiliar author.
Another hater here, nothing to do with the art quality. Having lived through the repressive years of the late 50’s and early 60’s I just don’t want to look at anything that reminds me of that time.
I agree about the potato, so thanks for the laugh, @SB Sarah!
@Merle ~ I hear you on the proportions seeming off for that standing character.
I’m sorry but I just can’t get past the “going down” tag line. Hilarious! I do so like a book with a sense of humor.
Something about this cover reminds me of the old Nancy Drew books covers rather than comic books: the lighting, the sinister tone, the hair, the clothing, the old-timey elevator. I don’t know! Maybe it’s just me. https://www.pinterest.com/etelkall/old-nancy-drew-book-covers/
Another hater and another older reader who remembers this style from decades ago that were pretty repressive. I agree with all the comments from those who do not like this style and I, too, will not pick up a book for an unknown author if the cover repulses me. Cartoons covers do not make me think of a book for adults so I ignore them. I didn’t comment when there was a post about the appalling covers for Jane Austen’s books, but the same thing applies. The covers do not represent the contents and when an author has to tell you that the book is actually open-door in spite of the cutesy cover, somebody is doing that author and potential readers a grave disservice.
They may be thinking that since comic book movies and animation are both riding high in the zeitgeist right now, this style of cover might ride the coattails of that popularity. Personally I think it just makes the books look dated, and makes me feel like the story inside will be equally old-fashioned, full of over-exaggerated drama and misogyny.I feel like they belong in a flea market somewhere. Although for some reason I find the cover for Fan Service highly entertaining – maybe because the characters look like they’re in on the joke.
I like the trend, myself! I wasn’t alive for the publications they’re referencing, so the choice succeeds at being “something different” enough to make me look.
I think the two inroads to this as a trend have been Lyla Sage and then Jenifer Prince starting to design for YA, which kicked off with an art print for Courtney Summers’ I’m the Girl and then suddenly it felt like her stuff was everywhere, most recently on Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings and Nobody in Particular by Sophie Gonzales. Basically, if it’s queer (especially Sapphic) and comic style, it’s probably Jenifer Prince. Love her stuff.
Thank you, Dahlia, for connecting those covers to the artist – I love how she uses the newsprint/dot texture on different covers.
@Dahlia – Thank you! I’ve been trying to remember Jenifer Prince’s name for like two days now.
I know her work from Autostraddle and other queer publications and recognized the style when I saw the cover Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings. But could NOT come up with her full name and could not remember the name of Well, Actually.
I know that Cat’s book is inspired by “Star Trek”, so the cartoon style makes sense. Even the title font design and color definitely has a nod towards TOS.
I don’t think I’d ever consciously reject a book unread just because of the cover. That said, I don’t care for the vintage comic style covers a la Lyla Sage because they trigger my inner snob. (It’s an age thing.) They are definitely better than the faceless ones, however, which make me want to run away screaming. I have to remind myself that almost all book covers say more about current trends than about the content of the book.
I will say that I really liked the minimalist, object centered covers of the Twilight era. ‘Course, I never actually read Twilight. My first vamps were the Sookie Stackhouse books. and I adored those covers.
@Merle, @Kareni
It’s the mom jeans.