Romantic comics

When adding the “Love” back into comics; one of my favorite books that I love is Thom Zahler’s wonderful Love and Capes. It is easily the best combination of super-heroics and romance that I’ve ever read. While it really is essentially a comic that details the relationship between the Crusader (Mark Spencer) and his girlfriend, Abby Tennyson. The Crusader protects Deco City, and pals around with other heroes, including Darkblade (Paul LeCroix, protector of Chronopolis, and fellow member of the Liberty League), while Abby runs a bookstore, knows that Mark (an accountant) is The Crusader, and has a sister named Charlotte.

Other characters include Amazonia (Crusader’s ex girlfriend), Arachnerd, Steel Worker, and well, a number of other characters that are thinly-veiled versions of DC and Marvel heroes. Oh yeah, issue #11 is the most recent issue out, with #12 (due out later this year), slated to be the double-sized wedding issue. As always, Thom provides sparkling dialogue, and engaging stories, perfectly blending the amount of super-heroics with a requisite amount of mushy relationship stuff that keeps this ideal blending of both genres.

It is a true treat to read this comic, and I look forward to each and every issue (as a matter of fact, Thom always has a Free Comic Book Day version of one issue, which then is also issued in sequence as part of the on-going series.

Well, as long as we are talking about “romance” Comics, I thought that I’d run this report from my pal Heidi MacDonald over at The Beat (a column she writes for Publisher’s Weekly) about comics. This particular edition of her column is about a romance publisher that is developing romance comics for both online and iPhone delivery. Now while I’ve never really read any of their comics, I have read my share of romance comics over the years, and know of their worth and value. So if you like romance comics (or you want to hook your romance-reading girlfriend on them so she will stop breaking your stones over your reading comics), then you might want to hook her up with these folk.

Oh, if you want more info on romance comics, follow these links:

• Captain Spectre - Adventure in the grand tradition of 1930's - 1940's newspaper strips.


• Corbett Features - Enjoy Romantic Comics? Read Star Crossed at Corbett Features. 6 Comic Strips and a Weekly Caption Writing Contest!


• OnlineComics.net - A directory of online comics.

Now go and have fun!