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So, I'm in the bath reading Nana and I'm having the time of my life, "TIME FOR POSTING ACTION" I thinks.
Two of my favourite ongoing series right now are predominantly Romance orientated the aforementioned Nana and (the sadly on hiatus after losing it's writer to fucking Countdown) Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
SMLMJ is a wonderfully low-key high school drama about the day-to-day lives of Mary Jane, Liz Allen, Flash Thompson, Harry Osborn and Peter Parker. The plot itself moves at a fair pace, relationships both friendly and romantic teeter constantly on the edge and leap from status to status, but this is belied by the whimsical feel of the book, at it's core it's just about teenagers being teenagers, stupid hormonal completely adorable little people. The way McKeever weaves the Super-hero action in and out of the book is masterful.
I know for a fact at least two 'lithers checked this out after I last mentioned it, both of them far more articualte than myself, maybe they'll tell you how good it is.
Nana is a wonderful Shojo manga by Ai Yazawa, creator of Paradise Kiss my favourite manga ever. I'm only a volume and a half in so I can't really say much about it. It's an ongoing, rather than a short series like PK so nothings moving too quickly.
I wrote this about Paradise Kiss elsewhere: Not a new release, but I picked up the first three volumes of Paradise Kiss today. I just finished the first book and have ordered the final two.
It's a "fashion manga" about Yukari, a simple girl, with a simple crush on a simple guy who want's nothing more than to do well on her exams and make her parents happy. That is until she's "kidnapped" by the members of the Paradise Kiss design studio, a bunch of art students who want her to model their final project.
The character designs are really strong, punky Arashi, Loli-doll Miwako, towering transvestite Issabelle, and proud bi-sexual head-designer, George. It takes all of ten pages and they're all complete people in your head.
So far the plot has dealt with Yukari:
1.becoming dissilusioned with study after finally meeting people doing what they want, and being excited about it.
2.Falling head of heels in love with George, and out of it with her school boy crush (who is in love with Miwako, who is in a relationship with Arashi (And in love with school boy crush))
3.Agonising over wether or not to take the modelling job, she's doing badly enough at school as it is.
It doesn't sound special, but everything happens with such incredible pace, with an amazingly refreshing sense of humour, that you can't help but be swept along. I haven't been so caught up in a book for so long, I even let out an "Oh No!" when Yukari realises that George has read her student pass, which contains a picture of (almost) forgotten crush.
The only thing I really have to add is the fact that the ending is one of the most heartbreaking/warming things I've ever seen, and it had me noisily sobbing for literally hours afterwards.
So, Comics about romance. What are the best ones? Early Classics, modern works, female-targeted, male-targeted, for young or old readers, Super-hero stuff, tragic stuff, comedic stuff, anything. Tell me what you like. |
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