It’s the week leading up to the release of the new DC Comics collected editions catalog, and you know what that means: new book announcements! I won’t be covering every new DC collected edition announcement, but I will be devoting a post to every new DC Omnibus and DC Finest paperback. And, our first new DC Finest is a major coup – it’s a new line, a new genre line, and something that just missed the on-air results of the DC Finest Most-Wanted Poll! The first DC Finest announcement for 2027 is: DC Finest Romance – Escape From Loneliness!
Even though DC Finest Romance – Escape From Loneliness picks up five different DC romance comics midway through their runs, it is effectively “Volume 1” of this DC Finest genre line. That is because material prior to these issues were published by Prize Comics. Though Prize sold off its romance line to DC in 1963, the prior issues are not DC Comics. It’s unclear on if DC has the right to reprint them, and they might not have access to archival copies.
DC Finest Romance – Escape From Loneliness is solicited for release in January 2027. It will collect:
Falling in Love (1955) #58-61, Girls’ Romances (1950) #91-94, Girls’ Love Stories (1949) #94-97, Heart Throbs (1957) #83-85, and Secret Hearts (1949) #86-89 – all of which contain multiple stories per issue.
If this line continues to collect just four issues at a time from each title, it could be running for many volumes. The final issues of these series were Falling in Love (1955) #143 in 1973, Girls’ Romances (1950) #159 in 1971, Girls’ Love Stories (1949) #180 in 1973, Heart Throbs (1957) #138 in 1978, and Secret Hearts (1949) #152 in 1971.
That means altogether there are another 82 issues of Falling in Love (1955), 66 issues of Girls’ Romances (1950), 84 issues of Girls’ Love Stories (1949), 54 issues of Heart Throbs (1957), and 64 issues of Secret Hearts (1949). That’s a total of 350 issues, or about 18 more volumes (though some of those issues may be shorter or could contain reprints… I haven’t researched too deeply… yet).
Now that DC has launched a DC Finest Romance line, do you think we will see a volume every year for Valentine’s Day?
Don’t forget to keep an eye on the DC Finest Tracking Sheet for the contents of every announced DC Finest Volume plus many speculated future volumes.
Here’s the announcement on Near Mint Condition:
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