8 Dark Romance Comics

This retelling of Little Red Riding Hood casts the young girl as the powerful hunter. Red has tasked herself with fighting off all danger in the woods in order to protect her Grand Mother (a witch). Her connection with a young wolf named Sil throws her and everything she protects into danger. This is pitched towards young adults, so it’s good for someone just dipping their toe into the genre.

After the apocalypse, reality television competition endures like a cockroach. Because of their desire for constant war, corporate nations seek to humiliate each other with god-like machine monsters, fighting on television. Magni and Domo are two popular robot fighters, existing only to beat the crap out of each other. However, the more Magni and Domo clash, the more they fall for each other. The violence is what they’re made for, so the violence is part of their love.

The world of dance makes for a beautifully creepy setting for this body horror queer romance. Mareike and Soňa are both dancers at a nocturnal dance house, with Mareike trying her best to stay in the background. It’s a super short book, but stirring as we follow Mareike get enticed by Soňa and what dancerly perfection demands of them.

If you like the movie The Bodyguard but wish it included an unavoidable specter of hell, your wish has been granted. Elias is the long-suffering bodyguard for a chaotic Cambion (half-demon) named Helianthes. Helianthes is on a mission in London to rid the city of full demons, and drags Elias along reluctantly. The constant danger and dark creatures push the two closer together.

This manga series is less dark than the mafia romance genre as a whole, but still very action-packed and dangerous. Davina works for the Elite Nanny Academy, and naturally her first charge is the son of a feared mafia boss named Gabriel Angelini. Davina’s first priority is always to protect Mikey, but she can’t deny her attraction to Gabriel, especially as they get thrown into more and more dangerous situations.

Cora Velasquez doesn’t actually want to be a bloodthirsty vampire. She’s part of a speakeasy vampire coven in New Orleans, but she’s tired of the endless afterlife and actually wants salvation. She finds a priest, Father Orville Thibodeaux, who is willing to help her demonic soul problem. She’s also deeply attracted to him. This is an especially gorgeous graphic novel, with the 1920s New Orleans setting and Hender’s color-stuffed pages.

When queer women start disappearing without a trace in New York City, Athena Lo takes the investigation into her own hands. When she meets Violet and suspects that she’s in danger, Athena gets drawn into the dark underbelly of Carmilla’s. Athena knows of and reads the novel Carmilla to understand the danger she’s in, but she can’t stop her obsession with the club.

Sick of dating and unable to forge a real connection, Clara outsources her problem to a tech company. Her new Perfect Partner is a dream: attentive, caring, and everything she wants. But Saul gets stuck on the Jealous Fae setting, and Clara can’t get him back to the factory settings. It’s a weird, thrilling story where romance turns to danger very quickly.