diff --git a/language-docker.cabal b/language-docker.cabal
--- a/language-docker.cabal
+++ b/language-docker.cabal
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 cabal-version: 1.12
 
--- This file has been generated from package.yaml by hpack version 0.31.0.
+-- This file has been generated from package.yaml by hpack version 0.31.1.
 --
 -- see: https://github.com/sol/hpack
 --
--- hash: e70e395205673f99130496542ebb35f3353a9d6568091de10c1457576d58a1ac
+-- hash: 7a74d5326d2b97c11b2c1f412955004e681971bb5aa82c37173e2399c124c1bf
 
 name:           language-docker
-version:        8.0.0
+version:        8.0.1
 synopsis:       Dockerfile parser, pretty-printer and embedded DSL
 description:    All functions for parsing, printing and writting Dockerfiles are exported through @Language.Docker@. For more fine-grained operations look for specific modules that implement a certain functionality.
                 See the <https://github.com/hadolint/language-docker GitHub project> for the source-code and examples.
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@
       src
   ghc-options: -Wall -Wcompat -Wincomplete-record-updates -Wincomplete-uni-patterns -Wredundant-constraints -fno-warn-unused-do-bind -fno-warn-orphans
   build-depends:
-      base >=4.8 && <5
+      base >=4.9 && <5
     , bytestring >=0.10
     , containers
     , free
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@
       Glob
     , HUnit >=1.2
     , QuickCheck
-    , base >=4.8 && <5
+    , base >=4.9 && <5
     , bytestring >=0.10
     , containers
     , directory
diff --git a/src/Language/Docker/Normalize.hs b/src/Language/Docker/Normalize.hs
--- a/src/Language/Docker/Normalize.hs
+++ b/src/Language/Docker/Normalize.hs
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@
     -- whether or not the current line ends with \. If it does not, then we just yield the
     -- current line as part of the result
     transform Continue rawLine
+        | isComment line = (Continue, Just line)
         | endsWithEscape line = (Joined (normalizeLast line) 1, Nothing)
         | otherwise = (Continue, Just line)
       where
diff --git a/test/Language/Docker/ParserSpec.hs b/test/Language/Docker/ParserSpec.hs
--- a/test/Language/Docker/ParserSpec.hs
+++ b/test/Language/Docker/ParserSpec.hs
@@ -312,6 +312,18 @@
                 in assertAst dockerfile [ From (untaggedImage "busybox")
                                         , Run "echo hello"
                                         ]
+
+            it "Correctly joins blank lines starting with comments" $
+                let dockerfile = Text.unlines [ "FROM busybox"
+                                              , "# I forgot to remove the backslash \\"
+                                              , "# This is a comment"
+                                              , "RUN echo hello"
+                                              ]
+                in assertAst dockerfile [ From (untaggedImage "busybox")
+                                        , Comment " I forgot to remove the backslash \\"
+                                        , Comment " This is a comment"
+                                        , Run "echo hello"
+                                        ]
         describe "expose" $ do
             it "should handle number ports" $
                 let content = "EXPOSE 8080"