The design and synthesis of a new planar cyclooctatetraene (COT) with protons directly connected to the COT ring was attained by monoannelation with dithieno[3,4-b:3′,4′-d]thiophene. The planar structure of the COT core was unambiguously confirmed by X-ray crystallography. The magnetic antiaromaticity of the COT core was found to be higher than that of the previously synthesized planar COTs with olefinic protons, according to the results of 1 H NMR and absorption spectra as well as NICS calculations. © 2013 American Chemical Society.