Jack Kirby’s contributions to comics are innumerable. Co-creator and designer of many of comics most iconic characters, Kirby left an indelible mark on the superhero genre in both his fantastical designs and the revolutionary way he depicted action and energy into every page he drew. While Kirby’s contributions to superhero comics are well documented, he also played an important role in the creation of a unexpected second genre of comics: the romance comic.

Although Kirby is best known for his partnership with Marvel editor/writer Stan Lee, his first comics partnership was with Joe Simon, Lee’s predecessor. Simon and Kirby co-created Captain America for Timely Comics (Marvel’s name during the 1940’s), beginning the trend of patriotic superheroes in comics. After the duo left Timely due to a dispute over profits, they quit the company and joined Timely’s rival publisher National Comics (which later renamed itself DC Comics after its bestselling Detective Comics series). The pair developed a few hits for National Comics like Manhunter and Newsboy Legion, before their comics careers took a backseat to World War II. Kirby served in the US Army during the war, almost losing his legs to frostbite, while Simon joined the Coast Guard and wrote war comics to help with the war effort.

When World War II ended, Kirby and Simon returned to a changing comics industry. With the war over, superhero sales began to decline and so the two explored other genres as a way to stay in the business. The two tried their hands at adventure comics, crime comics and horror comics before the pair saw an opportunity at tapping into two new demographics of readers: adults. Seeing the popularity of confession magazines, Kirby and Simon decided to mimic the grounded and “real” stories found in those magazines in comic form. Whereas comics typically focused on either humor or fantasy and were written primarily for teenagers and children, Kirby and Simon wanted to make a comic with feet firmly set in the real world.

Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, creators of the romance comic.

The duo first tried the new comics style in an issue of My Date, a teen humor series owned by Hillman Publications. My Date was similar to the Archie style of teen humor with a focus on romance, but it’s popularity allowed Simon to begin work on a new series focused entirely on stories for adult readers. After seeing a mock up of their new series, Young Romance, Crestwood Publications even agreed to split profits on the book 50/50 with the creative team, marking the first time in history that creators received a percentage of profits as opposed to a flat rate. Young Romance hit newsstands in the summer of 1947, with the tagline “Designed For the More ADULT Readers of Comics” to set it apart from its younger skewing peers. Although relatively tame by modern standards, Young Romance’s stories featured sultry love triangles, brooding heroes, troubled relationships and plenty of drama. The comic was an instant hit, selling millions of copies, and Crestwood quickly asked the pair to work on a second romance series, Young Love. By the time Crestwood published Young Love in 1949, the newsstand was flooded with dozens of imitations, including comics by publishers like Atlas (Timely Comics’ successor), Charlton and Fawcett Comics.

The success of Young Romance and Young Love also afforded Kirby and Simon unheard of financial success. The two moved their families to Long Island, purchasing homes across the street from one another with the proceeds from Young Romance. While continuing to work on Young Romance and other titles, the pair also launched their own comics company called Mainline Publication, that dabbled in different comic genres (including their own romance series In Love). Romance comics were the leading genre in comics for nearly a decade, with books like Young Romance outselling their superhero peers by a comfortable margin. However, the controversial 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent took aim at adult romance comics and other genres, leading to the creation of the self-censoring Comics Code and the general decline of adult comics in general. As publishers cancelled adult horror and crime series, the popular romance genre shifted towards tamer, more vanilla stories, filled with heroines that conformed to society’s more traditional views on women. Despite these changes, Kirby and Simon continued work on Young Romance through the 1950s. Kirby’s last story in Young Romance appeared in 1959, while Simon continued on as editor into the early 1960s. In 1963, DC purchased the rights to Young Romance and Young Love from Crestwood and incorporated the books into their own line of romance books geared to younger girls. By then, Joe Simon had stopped writing comics, instead focusing on ad work and editing. Kirby, meanwhile, had started freelancing for Marvel again, working on the company’s science fiction series and collaborating with Stan Lee to start the company’s new line of heroes. Young Romance lingered on newsstands until the 1970s, the last of the once popular romance genre of comics.

However, the romance genre hasn't entirely gone away. Several superhero comics, such as Amazing Spider-Man, used complicated romance as a way to build tension and interpersonal drama for months. DC has also occasionally brought back romance comics as limited series or one-shots, usually as Valentine's Day specials featuring their various superheroes. In 2016, DC attempted a more serious approach, publishing a 3 issue "gothic romance" series featuring Deadman that earned wide acclaim. Independent and small press publishers have also incorporated popular romance tropes into their comics, with books like Strangers in Paradise or Love and Rockets spending years developing the complicated relationships between characters. While romance comics are no longer the biggest genre in the industry, their influence can still be seen in many of the comics currently enjoyed by readers around the world.

DC recently brought back Young Romance as a one-shot Valentine's Day Special