iFanboy Video Podcast

iFanboy #108 – Romance Comics

Show Notes

Usually when people think of comic books, they think of capes and tights and violence, but love has always played a role in the world of comic books. Dating back to the 1940s, in the comics Golden Age where genre books were all the rage, titles like Young Romance by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby told tales of love and romance in comic book form. Romance comics faded in the 1950s, but saw a resurgence in the Silver Age with books like Millie the Model by Marvel Comics

In today’s day and age of comics, there are many books that tell the tales of love, relationships, hardships and happiness. Books like Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore, Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston, Empowered by Adam Warren, Love Fights by Andi Watson, 12 Reasons Why I Love Her and Love The Way You Love by Jamie S. Rich and various artists, Blankets by Craig Thompson and even Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon all touch on the concept of love in comics.

But romance doesn’t just have to be limited to comics about love. Even super hero books get touched with the love bug as they depict the romantic relationships such as Superman and Lois Lane, Green Arrow and Black Canary, Cyclops and Jean Grey, Hawkeye and Mockingbird…the list goes on and on.

So find that special someone, get comfortable and prepare to be overwhelmed with butterflies and happy thoughts as we stroll through the world of Romance Comics!

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Comments

  1. Wow, way to gang up on ron at the beginning guys. I feel bad for him! 🙁

  2. Watch the credits…

  3. Oh snap!  Ron burn!!!

  4. I’ll add one to the list: Y The Last Man. Yes there is great social commentary and polticial intrigue,but, at its core, Y is about a man growing up by learning to love. After all what is the human condition if not the struggle to achieve love which is by  virtue of mortality, fiinite? Is there more crtical experience to maturation than the recognition of love and the struggle to cope with its abscence?

    I won’t give away anymore chracter details, but read the story! I promise it’s good!

  5. haha…bromance 🙂

    P.S. Doom will have you killed for questioning his sexuality!!

  6. I just want to know where connor got the Tshirt. 

  7. Who’s Connor?

    (makes me laugh every time.)

  8. @Drake– Doom has Valeria and Morgan Le Fay! He’s totally straight.

  9. Beards!

  10. *sigh* Conor alright Im a newbie gimme a break

  11. Ah, love.  Hehehehehe, isn’t there a Monty Python skit with Grahm Chapman repeditadly saying *Shambles.*  

    Ah, speaking of love, it’s really no wonder why I’m not getting laid. 

  12. What about Runaways? Plenty of romance in there, more than superheroing i’d say.

  13. "Batman didn’t sleep with Wolverine.."  Maybe the quote of the show right there.

  14. @josh– They are not!  Doom and Le Fay were totally doing it! 

  15. Superhero comics make a lot more sense if you assume that most of them are bisexual.

    I’m just saying.

  16. Beastiality in a video show? Jurassic Park – the unrated edition? Interesting.

    Did you censor a curse word in a scanned page of the comic? 

  17. Just opened today’s issue of Scalped, and thought about how much the book is about the complicated relationships between Red Crow and Gina and Dash and Carol.  Actually, it’s more about the complicated non-romantic relationship between Dash and Gina (or about modern Native Americans and their heritage), but I digress.

    Without the romance, Scalped isn’t half the fantastic book that it is.

  18. I’m not sure if "romance" is the word I’d use as much as "entanglements".  I mean, it’s not "romantic" perse.  But other than that, your statement is true.

  19. @chlop-what the hell are you talking about?

  20. There was an issue in Brian Wood’s DEMO where there was not any dialogue, only the lyrics of a song that I found extremely affecting, romantic and touching.  (Or maybe it was it a poem)?

    P.S.  I actually like that Pam and Jim are together, avoiding the trappings of the formulistic will they/won’t they;  there’s enough of that in other shows, and that is already touched upon with Dwight and Angela. 

  21. @unclebob – I’m pretty sure that issue of demo was ’em killing themselves together. i guess that’s kinda romantic in a twisted sort of way.

  22. Oh yeah and this episode totally reminded me that i had the first two volumes of empowered lying around unread. I blazed through that first one and enjoyed the shit outta that. DAMN YOU RON NOW I HAVE TO BUY THE OTHER TWO!

  23. Confession: I like romance in my comics.

  24. 10:29 in the video show – seems a word is censored, in the part about Empowered.

  25. i think the lex/superman relationship and the joker/batman relationship etc. are more obsession than love. i would say there is a difference between the two.

    although the love/fighting thing can work and is interesting, more often than not id say the fighting is filled with hate.

    i went into this episode thinking ‘i aint falling for this smoochy crap’. but i must confess, im swithering over a few of the ones you listed.

  26. What???…Just Straight Romance?

  27. How does Strangers in Paradise not count?

  28. I figured the Apollo/Midnighter relationship would’ve atleast garner a mention

  29. What about Hulk and Caiera the oldstrong? When they killed , I was like so pissed off.

  30. Deadpool and Syrin… he DID show her his face. What’s more romantic than that?

  31. Sorry Josh, i haven’t read Strangers in Paradise.

    I would also recomend Tim Barela’s "Leonard & Larry"   (  http://leonardandlarry.com/  )

  32. My favorite love story in comics is that of Thanos and Death. 

  33. @s30: The Joker is totally in love with Batman!

  34. ye ye. not romantically, thats for sure.

    eew! i have a horrible picture in my head!!!!

  35. Oh, come on, Joker & Batman are at least as functional as Edward & Whazzrname in Twilight.

  36. So Batman is a furry and the Joker is transsexual? What does that turn Harley Quinn into?

  37. …..you live in your own little world chlop? I wish I could be in it with you somethings 🙂

  38. @Paul: Yeah, the Thanos and Death relationship was quite great. Really shows the lengths one would go to for their love. 

    I just wanna say a big thank you for this show.  I actually went and bought my wife 12 Reasons Why I Love Her for Valentine’s Day. 

     

  39. @TheNextChampion – as long as you don’t step on the dead hookers…

  40. OMG you have a 2nd generation New Zealand singer, song writer on an American Internet Show, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING! THANK YOU!!!! He rocks! (at the end of the survey) 

  41. @LukeB-what?  Confused am I

  42. @drakedangerz – In the break where Ron asks you to fill out the ifanboy survey, he says to goto http://www.revision3.com/ifanboysurvey/ , and at the end they show off something they’re working on (not sure if it’s ifanboy or rev3, think rev3), but the person being interviewed is Liam Finn, he also plays his song live "Second Chance", really good song, anyway, he is a 2nd Generation NZ Singer/ Song Writer, and as I am from NZ and don’t hear our stuff outside NZ that often, I was hugely surprised and had a sense of pride seeing and hearing that, hence the thanks 🙂

  43. That’s Rev3, not us.  But I’m glad you dug it.

  44. Just thought of a Great one. SCUD: THE DISPOSABLE ASSASSIN collected by Image. Rob Svhrab’s  delightful tale robot killer  (purchasable through a vending machine) who turns his back in the programming and finds love. Image comics has released the full series in trade.. But don’t just take my word for it

    Look at what Josh had to say!

    I got the softocover for $20. Worth every penny.

  45. Avatar photo Jeff Reid (@JeffRReid) says:

    I know, this comment is way late, but I wanted you guys to know that this podcast got my wife to read "True Story, Swear to God."  This only the third comic she’s ever read, after "Y: The Last Man" and "Fables."  Thanks for helping me find another comic to present my wife with!

  46. Kill your boyfriend, great romance story

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