Well, that was fun! I love a graphic anthology – even if one style of art or story isn't to my taste, it's only a few pages and then it's on to another. I'm a sucker for melodrama, and there were several stories here I really enjoyed. I don't think I'd read it again (though I would read a longer book about the genre, as in the introduction), but it's worth a read. Also had good representation in terms of LGBT and POC characters.

A mighty collection of haunting tales.

Every story stands solidly on a foundation of gothic brilliance. Each story is filled with sheer brilliance. The realism in some, the wildness of others, the authenticity in all really stood out to me. The artwork and writing is top notch. It's stories like these, artwork like this that'll keep me coming back to comics. It proves you don't always need a superhero to make a comic great.

Gothic Tales Of Haunted Love is a diverse graphic novel featuring 16 stories of love, loss, murder and mystery. Most of the stories were own voices and featured POC characters and queer characters.

For the most part I enjoyed the stories in this graphic novel. Most were diverse and the range of artwork was wonderful.

My favorite stories from the graphic novel were defiantly: H. Pueyo by Dante L It featured POC Mc’s, m/m romance and a good mystery. The artwork was brilliant and it was long enough to rate fairly.
Ladies Of The Lake by Sarah Winters Searle. Featured the cutest f/f romance and showing men just what women can do.
Secrets in the Silk by Niki This one was super creepy and I loved it. Ghost wife shows her husband the payback he deserves!
Mine field by Hien Pham This story was written in Korean. It featured a m/m romance that made me cry. The artwork was amazing and even though I couldn’t read what was happening the art was vivid and so the story was easy to follow.

I liked the rest of the stories though not as much as the ones mentioned above. Most were too short to rate even for a comic, some were five pages long. From the title I expected a lot of creepy stories and I was slightly disappointed to find we don’t get a lot of horror stories. We do get some but not nearly enough.

Overall I really enjoyed this graphic novel. The range of different artworks were fabulous and some of the stories took my breath away. However don’t expect the creepiest stories ever because you will be disappointed. Most of the stories featured love. I still recommend checking this out.

*Thank you to Netgalley and The Publisher for giving me a copy in exchange for an honest review.*

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is a new anthology that attempts to merge the style of old 1970s gothic romance comics, with more modern sensibilities. These stories feature people of color or LGBTQIA individuals in them. It was a crowd-sourced book and you can check out the KICKSTARTER page for some more art samples.

I actually liked every story in this anthology but the three that stood out for me were:

One More Cup by Barbara Guttman – The story of a woman who shares a cup of tea and conversation with a monster every night at her window. I found the tone of this story both whimsical and darkly romantic.
Ouroboros by Svetla Nikolova & LAB – A story of love, loss, sacrifice, and rebirth. The art on this story was wispy and romantic.
The Promsie by Sanho Kim – A Korean styled ghost story. This seems to be a reprint of Charlton Comics All New Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House #101.
The best thing about the collection is probably the selection of art styles. These stories are all short and it’s refreshing to see that although some of them are simplistic they are satisfying. I came to think of it like bedtime stories for adults.

I think quite a few of the stories in this collection fall short of the genre they were shooting for and are more just horror or weird tales. This didn’t keep me from enjoying them a bit. I totally recommend this collection to those who have an interest in this style.

I found this book on Netgalley under the Read Now section and received no compensation from the publisher for this review outside of the pleasure of being able to read the book for free. #GothicTalesOfHauntedLove #NetGalley

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is a great concept — inspired by the short-run early 70s comic genre of gothic romance, which featured spooky old houses, tragic young women in danger, and the potential of ghosts, a variety of creators have created new stories with today’s attitudes. There are 20 stories included plus some moody pinups.

The book starts with a must-read foreword by romance comic historian Jacque Nodell that covers the high points of the genre and its influences, which ran through eight issues of two titles from DC Comics and eleven Charlton issues. She points out that most of the stories are “ultimately revealed to be merely a diabolical plot by a person who either abhors change, or who uses the illusion of the supernatural to satisfy their own greed.” That’s one key difference between the previous take on the genre and the stories here: these stories don’t explain away the ghostly or macabre elements. Sometimes, they even relish in them. Another is that few women portrayed are helpless; even if the actions they take are unforgivable, they’re making their own decisions.

High points of the anthology for me, were:

* “Crush” by Janet Hetherington and Ronn Sutton — A classic premise, the new governess at a remote old house, is given a fresh approach by making the heroine dark-skinned and ending the story with a determined, grisly twist. This is perhaps the most in keeping with the genre roots of the collection.

* “Rose’s Heart” by Colleen Coover — A damsel in distress turns the table on her “protector” and exploiter.

* “L’Heure Verte” by Caroline Dougherty and Femi Sobowale — Named after “the green hour”, an absinthe happy hour, this romantic encounter has gorgeous art and design in keeping with the fancy costume party setting.

* “Goldblind” by Hope Nicholson and Scott Chantler — Given his historical work, Chantler is a great artistic choice for a story set during the gold rush in a remote snowbound cabin about the tragic futility of chasing riches.

* “Ladies of the Lake” by Sarah Winifred Searle — An abandoned wife, aided by her maid, stops a privileged serial killer. Searle’s deceptively simple style suits the underlying optimism of women winning out.

* “Mistress Fox” by Megan Kearney and Derek Spencer — Truly creepy manipulation and psychological battle among the wealthy, with wonderful use of language.

* “One More Cup” by Barbara Guttman — Distinctly modern but classic in its portrait of fascination and a slow falling in love with a supernatural creature. The final page, in all its gothic glory, is something to see.

Other stories are intriguing, but wander too far away from the premise for me. Nika’s “Secrets in the Silk”, for example, takes revenge on an anti-feminist fashion designer in 1974 Taiwan. Great concept, but not “gothic” to my mind. It’s more than just having a spirit involved, but requires a certain atmosphere and environment. Similarly, “The Return” by David A. Robertson and Scott B. Henderson is a zombie story among Native Americans with an obvious message. Again, not a bad story, but it didn’t seem suited for this collection (and I found myself wondering about the choice, as it comes close to equating “native” with “mysticism” in a clueless, overly reductive way).

In addition to the stories, there are several painted images by Lou Marchetti, paperback cover artist, that beautifully illustrate the “maiden and mansion” trope, as well as a reprint of a 1973 Charlton story featuring a Korean folk tale by Sanho Kim.

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love is a fascinating nod to an overlooked part of comic history and a collection of artists worth reading.

Aside some things I found problematic (like no woman of color contributors! I was expecting this with so many representation but no woman of color contributors so I was let down!), I really liked this anthology. There are definitely some stories I enjoyed and found myself really having fun when I read them. The art is gorgeous and I am so in love with all the illustrator's art + the writer's stories.

I don't think I've ever read a gothic romance so I was very impress and I love the little intro at the beginning because it showed me lots of things I didn't know and opened up the door for me for the greatest in the next pages.

What I loved the most was the many sides of this anthology. How much representation it has! That's amazing. And I was so happy when I saw at the beginning yall didn't wanted that typical story of a white girl being chased and her white dress flowing. I was surprised to find so much rep like: Vietnamese rep, Taiwanese rep, Black rep, Brazilian rep, etc.

Overall I really enjoyed the anthology! And hope you all come out with more issues, that'd be grand!