Comments on: Jaded LinkBlogging

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 04:59:38 +0000

Oh, and James? You should only be ashamed you didn’t think of it first:

http://www.dancollinscartoons.com/CaptHardOn.html

(The things you find when Googling for an image of Matt Wagner’s Kirby Hero…)

By: Johanna

Johanna — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:46:14 +0000

I was going to bring up Starfox, especially with the recent date rape She-Hulk storyline involving him. David is sadly right in how it’s usually handled.

By: David Oakes

David Oakes — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 17:41:02 +0000

Starfox/Eros “makes women happy”. Mandrill specifically controlled women with pheremones. Jack of the Royal Flush Gang (Spades) was a gigolo, but that wasn’t a “power”. And certainly there have been any number of male characters with general mind control powers who used them on women. The problem is when a man uses extra-normal means to seduce a woman, it’s called “rape”. (Ms. Marvel and Marcus, Bendis’ Purple Man and anything that moves.) But when a female does it, it’s just “enhancing normal gifts” or the like, and is more often presented as “Men are stupid” than “Women are evil”.

And of course, you would first have to have a female character important enough that controlling them would be a story point. Outside of some alien “stealing” Lois or Lana away from the SA Superman, there is usually no reason to care what the girls think.

By: Lyle

Lyle — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 16:27:24 +0000

James, you got me thinking… has there been any male characters with seduction powers like Charma? All the characters I can think of with that kind of power have all been female.

By: Ray Cornwall

Ray Cornwall — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:00:12 +0000

The sad thing is that the artist probably doesn’t have to draw boobie books to make a living. Look at the brunette’s face on top. He (I’m blatantly assuming it’s a he from the discussion) draws a nice, cute face with decent hair. I’ve seen so many T&A books where the artist was challenged when he was called to draw non-round objects, so it’s a bit unusual to see an actual face here.

The colorist should be shot, though. Yuck. I hate when a colorist just puts too many light sources on a book. Flatter color, and this might not have looked so bad.

I know, I’m trying to be constructive about a piece of shinola. Long day.

By: James Schee

James Schee — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 03:39:39 +0000

Uhm, why are her breasts where her belly button should be?

If I see one more female “hero” whose primary weapon is her sex, then I’m going to teach myself how to draw. So I can do a story with a male hero whose power is his *sex.*

Think freak accident in science lab, that allows the hero the ability to greatly enlarge and control a certain body part to fight crime with.

I already know the tag line “He’s HARD ON Crime!”

Yes I am deeply tired and ashamed.:)

By: Nat Gertler

Nat Gertler — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:54:43 +0000

Allow me to correct myself; they do announce an art team, on their “news and updates” page.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:31:39 +0000

Good point, Dave.

Nat, good catch on the biker chick book. I only mentioned it because someone associated with the company was spamming press releases yesterday.

By: Nat Gertler

Nat Gertler — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:01:10 +0000

Except that Hardballers, from all signs, isn’t really a comic book. The site says there will be a comic book… to be published May 1, 2006. No sign of the comic existing. A writer is named, no artist. A quick search for the publisher name and the word “comics” suggests that nothing has been heard from them since their December press release announcing the May date.

And I’ll echo Dave on the “10 times as much”; that number is preorders. Comic shops ordered Flights 1 and 2, sold them, reordered. It’s not surprising that Ballantine got bigger bookstore preorders for 3 (although I expect even Image preorders for 3 would’ve been bigger than 2, as the retailers find the book something they can count on), but real success will come only with sell-through. Good luck to them!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:14:25 +0000

I correct myself: Breasts are only mentioned in two of the profiles. The brunette just got a write-up about using sex as a weapon. The red head got nothing at all. :( I guess short women aren't good for anything other than blowing stuff up.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 22:09:05 +0000

Harlequin: That’s awesome. I somehow had an inkling that women’s comics would end up being printed and distributed more like books because the comics industry can’t handle the female market as well as traditional printers can. Harlequin has a way better chance of successfully selling these books–and introducing a new audience to comics–through their already highly effective channels. I hope good things come of this (even if I am not fond of their imported manga *shudder*).

As for that last link, notice how all the character descriptions mention breasts! I cannot wait to make comics with lots of sexed up males in them so I can write bios like, “Dirk is a tall, lean, six-foot-five stud with hard muscles and long, ebony hair. His testicles bounce with every step.” Glee!

By: Dave Carter

Dave Carter — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 19:52:09 +0000

“they sell ten times as much.”

But those are returnable, right? It’ll be interesting to see if it sells through those 10x copies, of if they get sacked with a lot of returns. I certainly hope it’s the former, as I quite liked the first two Flight anthologies, but we cannot count the copies before they’re hatched…