I absolutely loved this collection! It had everything I love about Gothic literature and graphic novels. Each story was a perfect encapsulation of the Gothic genre, big houses, lost loves, and women running away from some dark creature. I couldn't get enough. I really appreciated the diversity of voices and art styles that were included, while still maintaining that beloved pulpy melodramatic feel of a Gothic romance. I will definitely be recommending this to others and will be looking out for the next edition from this editor.

While the themes and general story line where interesting, the plot seem disconnected and didn't hold my interest the way I though it would.

I really loved this anthology! As with all collections, I enjoyed some stories more than others, that's inevitable, but there were only 2 stories that were not to my tastes at all. Overall the story-lines were entertaining, the graphics were beautiful and the lettering was great. Some of these stories are thought-provoking, some are chilling, some are just downright beautiful. If you're into graphics novels and gothic lit, this is one for you! Ghosts, werewolves, murder and mayhem, hell yes!
Recommended!

An anthology of haunted love stories that pays tribute to those Gothic romance comics of days gone by. I'm a fan of the macabre twist on love stories, these occur in times past but some are LGBTQ+. All in all, a lot of twisted fun.

Like all anthologies, there were stories I loved and stories I didn't. In all honesty, there were only two stories that had me shrugging at which I thought really spoke to the quality of entertainment found in this book.
Every story is from a different artist and author so I can't speak to it as a whole. Most of the art was enjoyable. I can't think of any that I disliked.
While this is an anthology of haunted love, I would definitely warn you that this is not a collection of romance stories. The horror starts early and happens often. There are love stories and every story has an element of romance. Many don't have a happily ever after ending (though I would say many have a happy ending for one of the characters).
I loved this. This is right up my alley and I hope you enjoy it.
This book has the best extras I have ever seen. There is an older gothic tale that is a bit hard to read but still interesting. My favorite, though, is the what kind of gothic heroine are you? quiz. That's going to keep me tickled for quite some time.

For some reason I thought this was a collection of short stories instead of short graphic novels all together. I enjoyed some of the stories in this graphic novel collection but not all. I think I would have enjoyed this more if the stories were longer and went into more detail. There were a few I wanted full length novels about, felt like I didn't get enough time with the characters and wanted more time. I do like the idea behind this though. I gave this a two out of five stars.

Well done to the creators of this, a decent crowd-funded anthology of brand new stories. Some stick more rigidly to what I imagine the old-fashioned gothic romance comics would have been, all heaving bosoms and ecstatic emotions and country houses. Others give us secret basement rooms wherein ghosts lie in almost a manga fashion, and you can hardly go further from the original trope than a brightly-lit gay romance set in the Vietnam War's minefields. It does raise the question of how you can efficiently tie someone's arms behind their backs if you use their lower arms and have chopped off one of their hands, but quality is pretty high all round, with the few obligatory exceptions later on, from these unknown-to-me creators (with the few obligatory exceptions again, like the brilliant Ray Fawkes). There is certainly a lot less that is obvious and cheesy than I would have assumed to find.

An anthology homaging gothic romance comics, which as the introduction admits, were very much a niche subgenre even at the time - a handful of short-lived titles whose modern fans want more, and also, though this point is not belaboured, more diverse (I suspect the original heroines would have generally been lily-white, maybe the odd one with Gypsy blood - not so here). I was drawn to it by contributors such as Colleen Coover and Cecil Castellucci (though there is also work by creators who don't begin with C) and by the beautiful painted covers of the original titles, some of which are reproduced here, and others echoed in pin-ups. The sequential art is sometimes a disappointment in comparison; if the stories occasionally feel a little broad-brush and obvious, I imagine that's as much an echo of the originals as anything. But when sometimes the art is too bright and cute, that doesn't feel like it would have been the case, and does more to dispel the mood. Still, I've never read the originals, so ultimately this is supposition on my part. And I did enjoy the helpful quiz at the end for identifying the gravity of one's gothic plight.

(Downloaded as a Netgalley ARC, but that wasn't working, so I ended up getting one from Edelweiss too and reading that. Does this matter? Probably not, but accuracy is important in and of itself. And maybe if I send this back on both sites, it will help Diamond sort out whatever was messing up their files on both sites this month, and making them so slow or sometimes outright impossible to import)

Well this anthology certainly packs a punch! It starts off with a rather gory governess story and then gets even better. I enjoyed it but it is not for the squeamish. These are gothic and ghastly tales at their best.

The best aspect of the stories here are the unexpected and brilliantly depicted twists and turns. They give these short stories a startling and enjoyable edge but only if you like a slice of darkness and frisson of horror with your stories.

I think this volume really manages to capture and express the meaning of gothic. The dark scariness of hauntings, monsters, magic and no escape routes, are illustrated by a range of different artists and story tellers.

I loved the different styles of drawing and the diversity in the coloring as well. The artwork ranges from gloomy and dark illustrations for dark stories, to the brightly colored contemporary style artwork which gives the reader a false sense of security and then suddenly reveals a dark and gothic story.

Each story has its own way of expressing gothic tales and together all these stories from a group of highly talented authors and artists make up a thoroughly enjoyable anthology. The love stories embrace diversity in terms of race and sexuality and this enriches the book and enhances the stories. It is an exceptional collection of comics.

Copy provided by publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love was really good diverce anthology about gothic stories. Some stories are really short. I wish they could be little longer so we could learn the story more. My favourite one was One More Cup. Generally i really liked reading it and i loved the illustrations.

'Gothic Tales of Haunted Love' edited by Hope Nicholson and S.M. Beiko is a collection of short stories by a variety of contributors that pay homage to the creepy gothic comics of the 1970s.

I'm not much of a romance reader, but I do like a good haunted love story. This collection of 19 stories and a fun quiz. There is a cover gallery at the end and the collection even includes a reprint of an original story called 'The Promise' by Korean artist Sanho Kim, about a soldier who is saved by two sisters with a promise to marry one of them, and the consequences of breaking that promise.

The stories vary in quality. I liked some more than others. There is a range of diversity here. The problem with including a classic story, is that it just seems to shine above most of the collection. My favorites were the reprint, 'Crush' by Janet Hetherington, Ron Sutton, Becka Kinzie & Zakk Sam, and 'Minefield' by Hien Pham, which is told almost entirely in Vietnamese.

I received a review copy of this graphic novel from Bedside Press, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Gothic Tales of Haunted Love by Various authors is a 2018 Bedside Press publication.

“Smoke from the doused candle swirled around the room and clouded my mind in a misty haze, the night was pungent with a thousand musky smells-time and again I felt the fire of his presence.
Kiss of the Serpent-The Sinister House of Secret Love #4 -1972

A combination of factors makes this collection of short stories a real treat for me. Not to sound redundant, but for those who do not know, I have a small collection of Gothic Romance/ Horror novels, and still love taking one down and reading it, no matter how dated they are.

Recently, I developed a real interest in graphic novels, comics and Manga, so when I saw this book up on Netgalley, I was immediately intrigued. As it turns out, back in the seventies, not only were the Gothic romance novels wildly popular, there was a brief period in which a small, limited number of Gothic romance/horror comic books were published.

These are rare and some collectors are asking five hundred to one thousand dollars per issue for first editions. Some reissued copies are a bit more affordable, however, but are not worth as much and are still hard to find.

This comic collection is an homage to those old Gothic romance and horror comics, but the stories have been updated to include a wide range of diversity.

This book has nineteen stories, all of them super short featuring murder mysteries, ghosts and other tales of the supernatural. The artwork is phenomenal, and the stories are all new and original. While many of the stories do fall into the pure Gothic category, some do not. While some are poignant tales, others fall squarely into the horror genre.

Overall, the writers and illustrators did a terrific job with this anthology. I can’t say I loved every single story in the compilation, but most of them are really cool, and they do manage to capture that 1970’s pulp horror and Gothic tone, which was a lot of fun for me.

4 stars