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Comic Style Covers Keep On Coming


It’s Comics, but it’s not Comic Sans!

Recently Cat Sebastian revealed on Instagram the cover for her new book, Star Shipped, coming out in March 2026:

A vintage comic style illustration of two men about to kiss. One is standing up, has blonde hair in a kind of pompadour, and is wearing a right red shirt and jeans. In front of him is a seated man in a director's chair wearing a white button down and jeans.

Vintage comic style! I dig it. It conveys an era without being exactly specific, and it’s a style that’s nostalgically familiar.

I’ve noticed this style as a growing trend in romance. Now, usually when I notice a trend, it’s after two similar occurrences. That’s a coincidence, I know. This is NOT a coincidence – this is most definitely a trend. Let’s take a look!

I think (I may be wrong here – feel free to correct me) that the book that kicked off the trend was Lyla Sage’s Done and Dusted: 

Done and Dusted - a vintage comic style illustration of a woman with long red brown hair in a orange brown blouse embracing and kissing a man in a white collared shirt with his cowboy hat tipped back away from his face

Followed by Swift and Saddled: 

A vintage comic style illustration of a woman with a lavender tank top on under some overalls, one shoulder strap of which is down. Her hair is a black bombshell style, and her hand is resting on the cheek of the man behind her who is kissing her on her cheek. He's wearing a cowboy hat and a brown collar shirt.

And, of course, Lost and Lassoed, followed by Wild and Wrangled:

Vintage comics, ofc, with a man in a red collar shirt with a cowboy hat and a brown beard embracing a woman with flowing red hair I wish my hair would do that honestly. She's wearing a fringed buckskin jacket

Vinage comic style with a blonde man with shaggy hair, a short sleeved blue shirt and an arm sleeve of rose tattoos is embracing a woman kneeling in front of him. She has thick brown wavy hair and is wearing some sort of off the shoulder top

The colors, the textures, and the line art are great replicas of vintage comics.

Cash by Jessica Peterson also uses this style, particularly the texture:

A man in a red button down shirt and cowboy hat is embracing a woman who is tiled backwards in his arms. He's wearing a fuchsia button down and a cowboy hat covers both of their faces while she's wearing a retro styled dress with a blue collar, light blue top and blue skirt

And in December, Duke will come out:

A blue textured comic style background with a doorway through which a man in a cowboy hat is standing witha woman with red hair and jeans and cowboy boots in his arms. They're kissing but again the hat hides their faces

I’m kinda fascinated by the use of the hats to hide their faces, since faces can be (I am told) difficult to draw – I certainly can’t do it.

I’ve also seen the hat-hiding-faces illustration style on Dust Storm by Maggie Gates, though I confess when I saw the image in a small size, I thought he was wearing a potato:

A more flat nontextured illustration of a man in a cowboy hat embracing a woman so that his hat covers both their faces but it's drawn in a way that from far away it looks like a potato on his head, brown and potato shaped.

 

Do you see what I mean? Maybe it’s just my weird brain. Here’s the full-size cover, which is not a potato.

 

A more flat nontextured illustration of a man in a cowboy hat embracing a woman so that his hat covers both their faces but it's drawn in a way that from far away it looks like a potato on his head, brown and potato shaped.

 

Contemporary Western romances aren’t the only books getting the vintage style on the cover: Fan Service by Rosie Danan also uses this technique.

A filming clap board in the foreground has the title and author while there are two comic-style figures, one a man with brown shaggy hair and big chesticles is ripping his shirt off. Behind him is a woman looking over her shoulder at him. She has long straight brown hair and is holding a book with page markers on the side

The background is not quite as textured, but the line art style is similar, I think.

Then, coming on October 25, we have two more books with vintage comic-style illustrated covers!

A green wreath with longhorns at the top surrounds a line art illustration of a man with a beard and a jean jacket and white cowboy hat embracing a woman with long brown hair and a brown jacket

Not as much of the texture, but the line art fits.

Cowboy It’s Cold Outside by Maisey Yates is part of the Four Corners Ranch series – and the above cover is a bit of a departure from the prior eleven books in the series, which had photograph covers:

The Rogue - a photograph of a man in a blue jean shirt open to the waist with a bare chest, leading a horse while a woman with light brown hair and an off the shoulder blouse rests her hand on his chest and is about to smooch him Hero for the Holidays - a photograph of a woman in a red dress and plaid scarf and long brown hair rests her hand on the cheek of a man with a cowboy hat and a brown jacket. They're standing in the snow with a red barn behind them and they're about to smooch The outsider - this cover is great. He's leaning back against a split rail fence, shirt open to his bare chest and a dark cowboy hat on. Standing in front of him is a blonde woman in a light colored dress and she has her hands spread across his chest like she's checking him for ticks

The last book in my “It’s Comics, But it’s Not Comic Sans”  collection:

A retro comic illustration of two women in an elevator. One is tall with brown hair and a red suit on, while a blonde woman leans against her and presses her to the wall. The blonde woman is wearing a pink dress, and her shadow includes devil horns and a devil tail

The Devil She Knows by Alexandria Bellefleur is a neat mix of the textured comic style inside the elevator, and a more matte finish on the wall around it. I really like how their expressions are rendered, and the subtlety of the shadow – and the tag line, “Going down?”

10/10. No notes.

Have you seen vintage comic style covers making a strong comeback? What titles have you noticed?

And what do you think of this style? 





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