#8 Carmen and Heraclio from Gilbert Hernandez in Love and Rockets

While Hopey and Izzie from were fun, it was this couple living in Palomar, facing life's challenges as a married couple that was deeply sad and emotionally painful for both of them and yet their love kept them together while overcoming all obstacles. It was so real and cuts through the heartstrings in delivering an honest, complicated and mature compelling love story.



Carmen was abandoned on a doorstep as an infant with a note that read "Good riddance". She has a poor education in comparison of her husband Heraclio who is a school teacher. They have a son, Tito together and Carmen soon finds out that Heraclio when younger, fathered Luba's second daughter Guadalupea. Rather than condemn her husband or allow anger to rule, she tries to help Tonantzin and make her part of their life and family.

Perhaps because I grew up knowing such couples (usually teens not even out of high school yet) struggling to do their best in sad situations, this married couple truly spoke to me. And they endured and overcame their personal obstacles sharing a pure love in support of and embracing each other. I would read the Palomar stories 1st as it was just so compelling and a truly touching story of life.

Damn, that's a beautiful writeup.

Please remember, folks, to edit out the images when you quote another post. It makes this so much easier on my overworked eyes.

Cei-U!
I summon the Visine!

In my continuing quest to have a basic white guy list...

8.  Swamp Thing and Abigal Arcane Cable  



Again it's one that's been covered before and I'm ridiculously busy and that's good because I don't have time to re-hash already covered ground.  Let's just say that we now know that you can have a deep abiding love of vegetables.  

@mrp and brutalis,
Well done.  Berlin is a genius book. I'm glad you put this one. And any Love & Rockets couple will tug on your heartstrings. I can't believe I missed that one.

Everyone here is crushing it!

8. Craig & Raina

Craig Thompson & Raina (just Raina, I think)
Blankets
by Craig Thompson
Top Shelf, 2003



This couple didn't originate in comics, but in another medium we know as reality. But all I know of their relationship comes from this comic. He was raised in a strict Christian household which left him somewhat confused about the subject of sex.

And then he had his first high school love and first sexual encounters, and had to figure out how to reconcile his confusing feelings with the faith he was raised in.



If my description of their relationship is mostly about him, it's because it's his telling of the story. He reflects on his youth and first love with an almost idolatry of Raina, remembering how he saw her. It's his story of growing up, and this perfect girl was part of that story. At least for a short time.

I read this in the first place because I asked the creator of my favorite romance comic what his favorite romance comic was, and he suggested Blankets. Of course, that other comic is still to come...

my #8: ROM: Spaceknight and Brandy Clark

ROM in the comics was technically a cyborg, not a robot, from the Planet Galador. He ends up on Earth fighting the secret invasion of the Dire Wraiths. . where he meets human Brandy Clark

Brandy at first thinks ROM is a murderer (humans can't see the dire wraiths inhabiting the people shapes that ROM takes out), and she can't imagine being friendly with him, but over the course of the series, she comes to really care for him:




at one point - she pines for ROM so badly, and can't get around the fact that he's metal and she's human - Brandy even ends up making a deal with a "Wraith Sorcerer" and has her body transported inside the Cyborg shape of Starshine where she fights side by side with ROM for many issues.

Eventually as ROMs series came to an end, and he defeated the Dire Wraits on Earth, he left to go back to Galador, leaving a now human again (thanks the ROM Villian "Hybrid" who consumed the magic that had turned her into Starshine)Brandy on Earth to pine for him.

of course, this was all happening around the time of "Secret Wars II" and towards the end of issue 72 (3 issues before the end), the Beyonder grants Brandy's wish to be with ROM on Galador.

This being the Beyonder (a stupid, stupid character), he instantly transports Brandy to Galador - where she arrives weeks before ROM (who is flying there thru space). It gets super complicated, but there's a rebellion of the Spaceknights on Galador killing the remaining "organic" inhabitants, Brandy joins the resistance, ROM finally arrives and saves only her - with everyone else organic dying, and CONVENIENTLY ROM's original organic body is inside one of the defeated Spaceknights (something not true of the other heroic Spaceknights.. go figure. . so they ended up disappearing into space to be used as cannon fodder at some point).

but ROM ended up back in his organic body, and with Brandy they decided as the last two organic life forms on Galador, they would repopulate the planet (no, really).

I believe their last Marvel appearance was at Rick Jone's wedding over in Hulk:







anyways. . ended silly, but yeah, Brandy and the Toaster are my #8 pick.