Where's the love for romance books?

Usually I don't have much of a problem working on a blog entry with the t.v. playing in the background. Normally it's all just background noise reminiscent of the snowy static screen that used to exist when televisions actually had knobs that you could turn to some unused UHF channel. With the nature of cable and satellite television, and the onset of digital broadcasting, can you even get a snowy screen anymore?

Anyway, tonight is different as the background noise is Casablanca! And damn if it isn't some of the finest background noise you'll ever hear. You'd be hard pressed to find a smarter script, delivered with impeccable timing by outstanding performance after outstanding performance.

Sitting here watching that movie with my laptop, trying to come up with something to say about comics got me thinking about genres. There's been a nice little renaissance of various genres over the last ten years in the comic book industry, but there's something missing. Where is the globe-spanning, romantic love story, set in the backdrop of a world ravaged by war and political intrigue?

Are romance books the last great genre to be mined for a modern audience? Or are they just too anachronistic for today's readers?

I think the most recent book that I remember for the love story was, believe it or not, Preacher. Say what you will about Ennis' over the top scenarios and characters, but that book was in it's heart a love story between Jesse and Tulip. At times just as tragic as Rick and Ilsa, but at least (SPOILER WARNING) they get to be together in the end.

Maybe I'm just an audience of one, but I'd kill to have a long-range love story like that again. I'm open for suggestions, if anyone can think of a book that fits the bill.

In the meantime, let's see what the next random book to review is...

...and that book is Darkhawk #15 from May 1992, published by Marvel Comics!

     Of all the blogs, on all the internets, in all the world, and Darkhawk walks into mine.

And so we have the first book here at the Random Longbox that gets plucked from my ebay-ready longbox. I have the first two years of this title just waiting to find a new home, but my ebaying activities have been pushed to the back burner lately.

So consider this a last minute reprieve from the governor. Will Darkhawk be saved from death row? Will his sentence be commuted so that Darkhawk can be filed back into the general population? Come back in a day or two for the review to find out.

     I'm shocked, shocked to find 90's era comic books being reviewed in here?

     Your complete set of polybagged X-Force #1's, sir.

     Oh, thank you very much. Now everybody out at once!