Skip to Content

I like the title

his pride, her passion

We've done two subway related strips in the past week and a half! Well, we've been spending a lot of time on public transit, and it's a gold mine.

To you ladies - are romance novels girl porn? I do believe that they are.

My friends and I used to challenge each other to go into book stores and read aloud from romance novels. It was like russian roulette - one person closes their eyes and points to a page at random, which they then have to read aloud in their most dramatic voice. We got the boot from a couple of bookstores that way, until we finally found one where the staff joined us. Try this game! It is loads of fun.

I'll be at Otakon this upcoming weekend! Then Yuko and I will be at SDCC (no table), and then Yuko and I will be at Connecticon (also Conrad?) ... we'll have a table there with some merch to sell. If you see us walking around at any of these shows, don't be shy - flag us down and say hello, we like to chat.

Add a comment | 112 Comments

Comments

Softcore, but definitely the genuine article. My niece calls them "Pillow Riders". Don't ask...

(reply to this comment)

Haaahahaha I don't think I need to ask XD

(reply to this comment)

I wonder what the writers of those books are thinking when they write those parts.

(reply to this comment)

You are wondering what they are thinking? o_O

Ananth and Yuko, you know this makes you voyeurs.

LOL

(reply to this comment)

Hmm, it might be true. :O

(reply to this comment)

I'm a writer, but I have yet to write a scene of the more... erotic variety. I don't know if I really want to. I'd hate to imagine my parent's feedback if they read it. XD

(reply to this comment)

What, you think you were hatched or something?

(reply to this comment)

It's great practice. Writing a steamy love scene is a lot of fun and is surprisingly hard to do well. More than a few modern writers have sharpened their skills doing just that. The most famous example was a book called 'Naked Came the Stranger'.

(reply to this comment)

Perhaps I will, at some point. Right now, I'd rather practise on getting my skill in general writing up. :3

(reply to this comment)

They are, but not in the way you think. Romance novels are ROMANCE porn for girls. The idea of the perfect man for the perfect woman and him sweeping her of her feet in his own way.

The sex scenes usually don't amount to much.

Note: Women watch real porn. They don't read romance novels to get off...at least I hope most don't.

(reply to this comment)

I TRIED to read one once when I was a teenager, but I got to one of the steamy parts while siting next to my mom and she looks over at me and is like "What's with that face?" and died. I never picked one up again. ^^;

(reply to this comment)

Dude ... oh wow. To be fair, I too would die of embarrassment.

(reply to this comment)

You guys are to funny. LOL. Well don't stop having fun! >.<

(reply to this comment)

THIS is why I don't read anything even remotely raunchy on the metro ;D

(reply to this comment)

To Abe:
In my experience the only real way to do it is to not read what you've just written and surge through it as quickly as possible. The editing process is cringeworthy (I don't write romance novels by the way, crikey no, every now and again I just happen to have steamy scenes).

I did know this woman once who'd been professionally writing hard-core erotica since she was 13, so I guess it just comes easily to some people.

(reply to this comment)

It's funny - I have a very easy time writing erotic scenes. Different strokes for different folks, as the cliche goes.

I just realized how hilarious that was in a different context.

(reply to this comment)

The most challenging thing I ever wrote was a scene in a zero gravity situation between a human man and a half-alien lady with tentacles coming out of her spine (sci-fi/comedy/smut for the win!)

Apparently I blush a lot, because my flatmate kept asking me if I was okay.

(reply to this comment)

Now THAT'S creative! =D

(reply to this comment)

I don't know whether to be disturbed or turned on.

(reply to this comment)

Disturbed or not, I want to read it.

(reply to this comment)

My friends and I play a similar game. All players pick a different romance book off the shelf and at the signal try to find a dirty part. Whoever gets there first wins and then shares the steamy section. It's harder than it sounds.

(reply to this comment)

If you can't find a steamy section in less than 5 random page-flips, it's no good.

A friend and I were at a used-book store and had a ball with the comparatively LARGE romance novel section. I was complaining that the books should be organized by cover: Hot man w/ flowy hair, hot girl w/ flowy hair, guy + girl kissing, guy + girl in tender embrace, glimpses of a body + red sheets, dramatic scenery, etc.

IT JUST MAKES SENSE.

(reply to this comment)

Hahahaha I like your system. Perfect!

(reply to this comment)

I was at a girlfriend's birthday party in high school, in which she received a few romance novels from one of her other friends. Later on that night, we ran out of things to do, so I suggested we take the raunchy parts of the romance novels and play mad libs.

Now whenever someone I know has a romance novel on hand, I suggest the game, and that usually keeps us occupied for awhile. It's funny enough examining the kinds of silly adjectives and hilarious euphemisms the authors use, but add your own without knowing the context, and things get sillier.

(reply to this comment)

Ad libs, wow. That hilarious and I'm totally stealing that.

(reply to this comment)

My friend and I used to do the same thing, except we'd read the backs of the novels in an Alan Rickman/Snape voice.

(reply to this comment)

That's awesome! XD

(reply to this comment)

and it's totally what I'm doing next time I'm hanging out with my friends. Maybe we can change up what voices we do for extra fun.

(reply to this comment)

...I love you.

(reply to this comment)

Niiiiiiice. XD

(reply to this comment)

I'm going to Otakon too! Hopefully I'll be able to see you guys. I love your comics!

(reply to this comment)

I'll be there! I don't think Yuko or Conrad will make it, though.

(reply to this comment)

Lol, when I was nine, I had to go on an airplane to visit my cousins. I ended up finishing the book I brought with me, so my Mom made me get a random one from a bookstore in the airport. I ended up with a smutty romance novel. *shudder* I was scarred for life.
See you at Ota-kon!~

(reply to this comment)

Ouch, ninja romance. That happened to me, too.

(reply to this comment)

I have run across very few 'romance novels' that I have ever enjoyed for more than just giggling like a fiend at the language. Harlequins are a little better, just stay away from the 'baby' ones and the military ones and the ones starring cowboys...uh, well, I guess that doesn't leave many, does it? LOL

I always choose romance novels (when I choose them at all) with this caveat: WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN. It's saved my bacon many times.

Oh, and if the guy on the front looks like Fabio or IS Fabio? Kill it. Kill it with fire!

(reply to this comment)

Haha, me and my best friend do this all the time when we go into the city. Pick a book from the Mills and Boon aisle, flick it open and start reading in a husky voice. I think my latest one was something about a girl standing in a manor's library while her forbidden love interest turned a "smoldering gaze" upon her, and her bosom was "heaving with emotion". The old ladies who come into the aisle to actually buy stuff always walk quickly away, and we laugh even harder.

The best part of the city bookstores is that they sell those packs of magnets with words written on them, so you can make messages on the fridge. They always have a little metal board with some demo words scattered across it, so we make suggestive phrases with them. "It rose like a beautiful sausage" was the most memorable.

(reply to this comment)

My fiance and his roomies have these on their fridge, and I can tell who wrote them by how suggestive they are. XD I think my fiance's contribution was "dumb stupid computer" (he builds/repairs computers). One of his roomies contributed "giant purple iron knife." That was the tamest of his entries--the others I can't repeat in mixed company!

(reply to this comment)

I began to feel rather uncomfortable when I reached the romance scene in 'The Amber Spyglass' while on the subway - I couldn't imagine reading anything resembling a romance novel in public. I guess my views are a little on the conservative side, especially for a nineteen-year-old ^_^;

(reply to this comment)

The title is nice.
I had a super feminist writing professor my Freshmen year of college. She would always ride me about how my stories never seem to have a male protagonist and never a heroin. So just to get her to stop I wrote a story about a woman who sorta felt the natural electricity in the air, I won't bore you with details. Anyway there is a good two page section of well... turns out she really likes lightning storms. I thought maybe the teacher would find it demeaning or sexist but she actually really enjoyed it and made it the piece to be read aloud during our weekly writers guild meeting in the coffee house. I don't think I left my dorm for the entire weekend after that.

(reply to this comment)

so it is suppose to say "my stories always had a male protagonist and never a Heroin". Writing major fail...

(reply to this comment)

...kidding. But, since you are all up in each others writing business, I have to add that it is "heroine," and not the drug kind. Also, no capitalization without a name, direct address (using a title - aka "the pope" as a name - aka, "Hello, Pope!"), or beginning of a sentence.

(reply to this comment)

They are totally girl porn!

(reply to this comment)

Your facial expressions are so adorable~!

Also, is that one of Yuko's characters back there?

(reply to this comment)

Yeah, that's a character from one of our long-term projects ... ! We've been planning it for about 2-3 years now, I think. It'll be a series.

(reply to this comment)

i play this game with friends as well! though in my opinion, nothing beats reading a romance novel written in your native language. it's more...primal.

oh, and i miss Conrad and John in the comics!

(reply to this comment)

Aw man, we'll have to remedy that!

(reply to this comment)

They're so bad. I have to backstock a bunch of them at work (I work at a Target) from time to time, and they sound so god awful. I've come up with a system of naming for them, too; most of them seem to follow the general "The (insert impossibly high class/rich title for a man) and the (insert subservient female position, usually a low-ranking job or class level, often dealing with marriage or paperwork)" formula. It's both hilarious and embarrassing to see.

I shall also be at Otakon as well! O: Look for the Daisuke Jigen handing out Tastycakes and Capri Suns. Is Yuko coming as well, or will it just be you, Ananth?

(reply to this comment)

Just me! But come say hi nonetheless. ;)

(reply to this comment)

Perhaps if there is any left, you'll be able to sample some buttercake! It's.... I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it's a pastry that I've only ever seen made around the Philadelphia area. It's amazingly sugary, but oh so delicious, and I'm bringing some down with me. It might all be gone really fast though. It's quite delicious.

(reply to this comment)

Ohh man! I hope there are some left.

(reply to this comment)

Post new comment