Magazine originally launched as Monthly HQ Comic in 2008
The Japanese arm of the Canadian romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday that its monthly Harlequin Original magazine has ended its publication with this year’s July issue, which shipped on June 11. The company will continue to publish titles under the Harlequin Comic label in print and digital.
The company has been publishing the magazine since January 2008 as its first monthly publication, when it first launched under the title Monthly HQ Comic. The magazine has published titles such as the Shakunetsu no Ō to Utsukushiki Tōbōsha manga adaptation of Abby Green’s A Christmas Bride for the King novel.
Harlequin has launched multiple other manga magazines — such as Monthly Harlequin (later just Harlequin), Bessatsu Harlequin, Zōkan Harlequin, Harlequin darling!, and the Harlequin Comics Magazine app for iOS devices — since 2008.
Digital reading platform Comixology added Harlequin Romance manga titles to its Comixology Unlimited subscription service in 2017.
Harlequin Enterprises’ Japanese branch, Harlequin K. K., has been publishing manga adaptations of Harlequin stories since 1998 in a partnership with Ohzora Publishing. SoftBank Creative took over digital distribution in 2008.
Dark Horse Comics began releasing some of the manga in print in English in 2005, though Harlequin took over distribution the following year. Harlequin and SoftBank Creative have distributed Harlequin’s manga titles digitally in English on several platforms, including Amazon and Digital Manga Publishing’s emanga.com website.
Source: Harlequin’s X/Twitter account
