'Chick Flicks.' You'll almost certainly have heard the expression, generally used derisively: it refers to a movie 'designed' to appeal to women. Exactly how any piece of fiction can be deliberately calculated to appeal to women, I have no idea. Most of the women I know are equally happy watching a good courtroom drama or horror movie as FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, but common wisdom has it that there is one key ingredient which will entice more women to a film than men:

Romance.

Now, there's an argument in itself there. I say bollocks to it, and the demographic-hoofed horse it rode in on. The 'cross-gender' successes HIGH FIDELITY, BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY and TITANIC all contradict this popular notion, and when the contradiction becomes the rule, well... it's time to change the rules.

The fact is, if it's good, then it should appeal to both sexes. I'd hazard to suggest that the reason most men are reluctant to sit through the latest Hanks/Ryan rom-com is because the men portrayed in such films are, frankly, as offensive to us as your average damsel in distress is to a woman.

'People really do want more than just big guns and explosions.' But you can't ignore success, and over the last few years the three aforementioned movies have had enormous success. Ranging the gamut from low-budget 'indie flick' to multi-million blockbusting (not to mention budget-busting) movie, they've proven that actually, people really do want more than just big guns and explosions, and they'll turn out in their millions to see it.

And of course it's not just film: the astute will have realised that two of those movies were based on novels. Nick Hornby's HIGH FIDELITY may not have been as prominent on the bookshelves as Helen Fielding's BRIDGET JONES, but it was just as successful in terms of appealing to both men and women.

TV doesn't escape either: while it's true that the majority audience for soap operas is women, there's a healthy percentage of men who watch them, too. And where would soaps be without troubled relationships, divorces, affairs, etc, ad nauseum?

So: both sexes are quite happy to indulge themselves in a love story, so long as it's good. Why?

Because almost everyone on this planet wants to be loved. Don't try and deny it, and don't give me your tales of woe. I've been there, so have most people who've had anything resembling a normal life, and we've heard them all before. Admit it, and give it up for Jake and Elwood: everybody needs somebody to love. Romance stories, or the 'love interest' in a larger fictional framework, are wish-fulfilment at its most basic.

So where are the comics?

Someone - doubtless someone famous, but lost to my memory - once said that all stories are love stories at their heart. Without love and desire, there can be no conflict of interest: and without conflict, there is no story.

Now, obviously that's a matter of degrees. Desire may play a part in every story, but not always desire for that special someone. If we look at the average Tom Clancy thriller, there's very little desire for anything other than 'thwarting the enemy' out of a sense of loyalty, often to a nation or state rather than a person.

Noir fiction, some might say, has no love at its heart. But I'd argue against this: a noir staple is the protagonist's angst when smitten with a woman who quickly turns out to be a femme fatale; Where would CHINATOWN be without the tangled web of lust and paternal urges between JJ Gittes and Evelyn Mulwray? Sometimes, the dilemma is that of choosing between an exciting femme fatale or a dull but reliable down-home girl. Either way, there's love in there.

'These are the stories people remember. Without love, they would be nothing.' Science fiction, or at least the more sterile aspects of it such as STAR TREK, often exists in a vacuum of emotion, more often dealing with issues of loyalty and duty. That much is true - but then they are generally the poorer stories.

In any genre, the better stories - the ones which stay with us for a while, sometimes the ones which become classics - have an emotional side. From the basest, rescue-the-girl action of films such as LETHAL WEAPON (where the theme is just as often familial or brotherly love), to the lament for contentment and happiness that is PI, love and desire are a storyteller's staple diet. There are book publishers who publish nothing but romance novels, and make a very nice living from it, thank you very much.

Which brings us, however obscurely, into comics. Mainly superhero comics.

The first parallel is obvious: the big companies survive by publishing almost nothing but superhero comics. The second parallel... well, it's more of anti-parallel. How many superhero books on the market today actually deal, on a semi-realistic level, with love and romance? Very few. But how many classic, fondly-remembered and highly-regarded superhero stories deal with love and romance? You betcha: most of them.

Classic FANTASTIC FOUR often revolves around the 'love triangle' of Reed Richards, Sue Storm and Namor. The introduction of Elektra into DAREDEVIL, and Murdock's confused feelings toward her, quickly ensured Frank Miller's place in the history books. Then there's Gwen Stacey's death in SPIDER-MAN. The affair and burgeoning relationship between Dan and Laurie in WATCHMEN. The better-regarded issues of X-MEN, such as the tragic love story at the core of the Dark Phoenix Saga.

These are the stories which people remember. The ones they talk about. And without love, they would be nothing.

But for the main part, superhero stories revolve instead around duty and honour, and hitting things with big sticks. This may partly be due to the need for a status quo in such comics: events that actually have some long-term effect, such as marriage or the death of a loved one, are few and far between in these comics. When they do occur, they area landmark events and often becomes sacrosanct: Lois and Clark will never split up, at least not for good. The combined outrage/horror/glee (delete as applicable) which greeted 'that' recent issue of ULTIMATE X-MEN, the cover of which teased readers with the prospect of Jean and Logan (finally!) copping off, merely serves to show how deprived of these events ongoing comics have become.

And unfortunately for us, this attitude - as with so many other superhero tropes - has its effect on other comics. The theme of love in turmoil is a rare one in the Western comics medium, except where used for parody, and it's absurd that things should be this way.

'There are very few great works of literature that don't contain a love interest.' Is it because our audience is primarily male? But we already dispelled that notion above: men will go and see a 'chick flick', so long as it's good.

There are some exceptions, of course, but they're mostly from the small-press end of the market. LOVE AND ROCKETS is probably the best example of a love-focused human relationship drama in comics. And while Los Bros Hernandez' work is rarely worthy of scorn, it's a sad case when comics between ten and twenty years old remain our best examples.

STRANGERS IN PARADISE, before it became a bad-girl-ninja book, was a good example. That direction appears to have been abandoned; let's hope Terry Moore will get back on track with the human relationship angle, without the need for adding high-kicks into the bargain.

Lea Hernandez' works - her 'Texas Steampunk' books CATHEDRAL CHILD and CLOCKWORK ANGELS, and RUMBLE GIRLS - have love at their heart. Hernandez often brings romance to the fore of her stories, with character's loves and desires actually driving the plot.

ELFQUEST - the original series, at least - handled love, romance and the turmoil thereof in an accomplished manner. In a style almost worthy of the earlier cinematic examples, the Pinis wove a tale of relationships, in all shapes and sizes, into an epic fantasy adventure.

There are a few others: Dave Sim's CEREBUS deserves a nod for the largely excellent JAKA'S STORY, and David Hahn's PRIVATE BEACH looks like it may be shaping into a contender in this area.

But the fact remains: where are the comics? There are very few great works of literature, cinema or theatre that don't contain such 'love interest' elements. Yet our comics are, generally, lacking in them. And I think this is one of our biggest hurdles - a problem we must overcome before we can truly claim to have matured as a medium.

I ask you: where's the love?

Antony Johnston is the author of JULIUS, SPOOKED and THE LONG HAUL. His new ongoing series WASTELAND begins in July 2006.

This article is Ideological Freeware. The author grants permission for its reproduction and redistribution by private individuals on condition that the author and source of the article are clearly shown, no charge is made, and the whole article is reproduced intact, including this notice.