Just because Valentine’s Day is behind us doesn’t mean the romance has to die. Au contraire — keep the flame alive by coloring these vintage covers of romance comic books!

Romance comics were a big thing beginning in the late 40s and continuing for several decades. After the first adult-targeted romance comic was published in 1947, the genre exploded in popularity, with many comic publishers turning out dozens of their own titles in the years that followed. The genre was dulled by the Comics Code in 1954, which banned certain types of graphic imagery, sexual innuendo, and other such unsavory content, eventually dying off for good in 1977.

This series of comic coloring books keeps the genre alive, offering up real romance comic book covers to color. There is a whole series of issues before the current one, #8, and they have also recently released a companion coloring book centering on powerful female protagonists in comic books, called Don’t Mess with These Dames!

Keep scrolling to learn more about Romance Comic Coloring Books #8, download a free page to print and color, and enter for a chance to win one of eight copies being given away!

Scroll to the bottom of this article to enter! This giveaway will be accepting new entries until 11:59pm EST on Sunday, March 5th, 2017. Eight lucky winners will be drawn at random on March 6th to receive their very own copy of the book. Enter today!

Only valid in the United States due to sweepstakes laws. No purchase necessary. Each prize is a $8.95 value. Winner must respond to an email within three days to claim their prize, or a new winner will be selected.

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A huge thank you to Bernie from Romance Comic Coloring Books for providing the review copies and prize for this showcase/giveaway! Also, this page contains some affiliate links. That means that if you buy anything after clicking my links, at no additional cost to you, you’ll be helping support Cleverpedia. Thank you so much for your support!

Here’s the video review!

A Look Inside Romance Comic Coloring Book #8

Romance Comic Coloring Book #8 looks and feels a little bit like a classic romance comic book. It is slim, with a glossy cover featuring a dramatic coloring of one of the pages inside. Even the way they are published in numbered, dated issues mirrors the comic book format; #8 is the January/February/March 2017 issue.

Inside the book are ten vintage covers to color, reprinted from real romance comics from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Some of the covers even include the date that the comic was originally published.

The book is printed through CreateSpace, so the paper is pretty thin and has a bit of tooth to it. Despite this, I was pleasantly surprised to see no bleed-through from my water-based Tombow dual-ended brush markers. I used an alcohol-based Copic marker for the skin tones, something I am trying to do more often to get a smoother texture across faces and hands when I color. The Copic did bleed on the paper and there is a clear shape of it on the other side of the page, but it does not appear to have reached the page below. Your results may vary — as always when using markers, I recommend you put a few sheets behind the page you are working on to protect the pages that follow.

The covers are printed on just one side of the page; on the other side, printed throughout the book are seven different short romance stories, and the end features an excerpt from a collection of love poetry.

Download a free page to color!

How better to get a feel for a book than to download a page to color yourself? Here’s a free page that you can print and try out, courtesy of Romance Comic Coloring Books and Cleverpedia. Don’t forget to tag us when you share your page on Facebook or Instagram!

Click the image above to get the free page! Please note that this page is not part of #8 so if you win or buy the book you will be getting ten completely new covers!

Here are a few sample pages from the book:

Overall, I really enjoyed coloring this style of art! It was unlike anything I’ve colored before in that there were a lot of dark shadows already filled in black, so it took a little practice to get used to laying down color around them. The end result is very dramatic, though, which I love.

Here are a few sample pages:

Here’s the first page I’ve colored so far:

As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed coloring this one! This particular cover jumped out at me because I liked that there were a variety of different people in the frame to color. I wanted to test out my new skin-tone Copic marker!

Check out my speed coloring video below:

In addition to my new Copic marker, I used my trusty set of Tombow dual-ended brush markers to color the page. As I mentioned above, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Tombows didn’t bleed through at all. The Copic bled through clearly but did not seem to leave any color on the following page.

As I laid down the color with the Copic I started to see the page behind showing through, but as the color dried the words on the reverse of the page faded away. Phew!

This page was quick to color, taking me just under an hour. The covers in the book vary in complexity from a little simpler than this one, to pretty detailed. I imagine it would take most people 1-2 hours to finish a page with markers and 2-4 with colored pencils.

The dark black shading and cross-hatching gives you some indication of where to shade if you need guidance, or you can just lay down the colors flat. Both look equally good here, so don’t shy away if you’re not the kind of colorist who likes to shade!

Here’s a larger image of the page I colored:

Overall, I was really happy with the end result — it pretty much looks like I have a romance comic in front of me! For my next page I think I want to really go all-out and try to find the vintage cover and try to copy the original colors in my own version.

I did manage to find the original cover for this one after the fact… I was pretty far off! But I am happy with the version I came up with.

Okay, I’m sold… how do I get a copy?

If the sample pages I showed above look appealing to you, I definitely encourage you go pick up your own copy on Amazon! The book was released on January 5th of this year and is just the latest in a line of other books with even more kitschy romance comic covers to color! (Try saying that five times fast!)

Don’t forget to share your colored pages! Bernie has created a huge inspirational fan gallery of colored pages to share. Follow the instructions on the site to submit your own and see them promoted around the web!

IT’S GIVEAWAY TIME! Enter here for a chance to win one of EIGHT copies of Romance Comic Coloring Book #8!

Eight lucky winners will receive their very own copy of Romance Comic Coloring Book #8, an $8.95 value.

This giveaway will run for one week only, beginning today and ending at 11:59pm EST next Sunday, March 5. The winners will be drawn at random on February 6th from the full pool of entrants, and they will have three days to respond to the winning announcement email before a new winner is drawn in their place.

Sorry, United States entrants only!

Now is the moment you’ve been waiting for! Step right up and click the options below to enter the giveaway — the more ways you enter, the greater your chance to win! Share with your friends via email, social media, and Facebook groups to earn the most possible entries, because each friend you refer will earn you an additional entry!

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Romance Comic Coloring Book #8 Giveaway



Thanks again to Bernie at Romance Comic Coloring Books for providing the review and giveaway copies!

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