Some folks asked me to Tumblr yesterday’s DORK TOWER.
Consider it Tumblr’d!
BTW: The line “Boobs don’t work that way” in the comic is a nod to one of my favorite Tumblrs: http://boobsdontworkthatway.tumblr.com
Hey That’s us!
( You’re our favorite too.)
A perfect breakdown of the excuses for ridiculous depiction of women in comics (and by extent, other pop media), including the all-time favorite arguments like “she’s liberated and/or sexy”.
Congratulations for the always-awesome boobsdontworkthatway for getting a shout out! 😀
It seems worthwhile to bring this one back for Throwback Thursday, since our theme for a the past week seems to have been big name creators who are determined to transform this strip from commentary into documentary.
Though what really bugs me is the creators in this one are actually better behaved than the mainstream counterparts – they’re not calling for a crusade against critics or drawing more deliberately terrible content for attention.
– wincenworks
Am I the only one who’s getting sick of the excuse of “That’s how the artists want to draw, so stop telling them what to do!” excuse when it comes to terrible bikini battle armour? It’s like these people expect all designs to be nothing down to personal preference, and yet never think about the bigger picture of just how many male artists are part of our culture that influence these decisions? Seriously, it’s a poor execuse and I’m sick of hearing ut.
We’re definitely with you there, friend! That’s why there’s the “art shouldn’t be censored!” rhetoric bingo square: cause “creative freedom” should not be a Get Out of Jail Free card of character design.
As femfreq puts it:
Yup, it’s all about the big picture of our media, not individual examples. Crying “artistic freedom” (or “stylization”, for that matter) to justify questionable design ignores seeking for the reason artist decided to make such choices.
Publishing this ask cause those points need to be iterated more.
~Ozzie
The other important thing that people should remember is that commercial art (such as covers, character designs, 3d models in games, etc) is not intended to be a purely artistic experience – it’s a product for consumption.
Artists will have to follow briefs that tell them kind of mood to give the work, what characters to put in it, what themes to put in – unlikely that an art director adding “Don’t put the female characters in ridiculous and hyper-sexualized costumes” would somehow break a professional artist’s will to create.
– wincenworks
Given this worrying trend of comic artists who helped create the 90s comic crash announcing they know what’s best for comics, I think it’s worth bringing this back for Throwback Thursday.
Today the 90s comic book is over and you need more than an “X” in your title to get record sales, but artists now have a big advantage: They can share bits of upcoming comics via the Internet the moment they get approval from the company.
That means they can also get immediate and direct feedback from the target audience who are not so concerned about ways to inflate sales figures as getting good comics. No more getting a summary from someone who got a summary from the guy who got summaries of the fan mail from the interns.
So if, y’know as a purely theoretical thought experiment, you are a cover artist for a major comic company and the audience they’re building for it doesn’t fit the theme, the classy and professional thing to do is respect the audience and the work, like
Rafael Abuquerque did.
Make good comics. Make good games. Make good stuff. That way you will enjoy it when you see the audience reaction.
– wincenworks
Am I the only one who’s getting sick of the excuse of “That’s how the artists want to draw, so stop telling them what to do!” excuse when it comes to terrible bikini battle armour? It’s like these people expect all designs to be nothing down to personal preference, and yet never think about the bigger picture of just how many male artists are part of our culture that influence these decisions? Seriously, it’s a poor execuse and I’m sick of hearing ut.
We’re definitely with you there, friend! That’s why there’s the “art shouldn’t be censored!” rhetoric bingo square: cause “creative freedom” should not be a Get Out of Jail Free card of character design.
As femfreq puts it:
Yup, it’s all about the big picture of our media, not individual examples. Crying “artistic freedom” (or “stylization”, for that matter) to justify questionable design ignores seeking for the reason artist decided to make such choices.
Publishing this ask cause those points need to be iterated more.
~Ozzie
The other important thing that people should remember is that commercial art (such as covers, character designs, 3d models in games, etc) is not intended to be a purely artistic experience – it’s a product for consumption.
Artists will have to follow briefs that tell them kind of mood to give the work, what characters to put in it, what themes to put in – unlikely that an art director adding “Don’t put the female characters in ridiculous and hyper-sexualized costumes” would somehow break a professional artist’s will to create.
– wincenworks
Given this worrying trend of comic artists who helped create the 90s comic crash announcing they know what’s best for comics, I think it’s worth bringing this back for Throwback Thursday.
Today the 90s comic book is over and you need more than an “X” in your title to get record sales, but artists now have a big advantage: They can share bits of upcoming comics via the Internet the moment they get approval from the company.
That means they can also get immediate and direct feedback from the target audience who are not so concerned about ways to inflate sales figures as getting good comics. No more getting a summary from someone who got a summary from the guy who got summaries of the fan mail from the interns.
So if, y’know as a purely theoretical thought experiment, you are a cover artist for a major comic company and the audience they’re building for it doesn’t fit the theme, the classy and professional thing to do is respect the audience and the work, like
Rafael Abuquerque did.
Make good comics. Make good games. Make good stuff. That way you will enjoy it when you see the audience reaction.
– wincenworks