Friday, January 16, 2009

Hey Kids! Comics!




(From DC Comics’ Final Crisis #6, written by Grant Morrison and illustrated by J.G. Jones. Re-posted here on EDILW, just so I can have all my scans of Marvel Family gore, violence and crotch shots all collected in one place)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I found your posts liek this amusing, I have no problem with violence in comics. Comics ARE NOT for kids anymore, and they don't have to be.

I can't stand it when people say the the industry is going to die if it doesn't reach out to kids. AS IF adults can't take on new hobbies. It's a stupid argument. I didn't get into comics until I was in my teens.

Maybe I just have a different outlook because I don't remember a time when comics were for kids.

I had no problem with Identity Crisis and Sue's rape/murder because it was a great story. (Although I absolutely hated the clusterfuck that was Meltzer's JLA run).

Anyways, just saying...love your blog though.

Michael Hoskin said...

"Maybe I just have a different outlook because I don't remember a time when comics were for kids."

It's funny because it's sad because it's true.

Scott said...

In all fairness, Tawky-Tawny is a fucking tiger.

Sure, seventy years of good-naturedness and snappy dressing can make stuff like that shocking, (and I'm trade-waiting FC)but didn't this comic also feature a mass-suicide-inducing e-mail?

I also think that, as fictional tigers go, Hobbes would win a tigre a tigre showdown.

Richard Cook said...

I don't think Caleb is saying that all comics, or even all superhero comics, have to be for kids.

But a comic featuring an evisceration by a character named Talky Tawny, who first appeared in the child-friendly Captain Marvel book, is just fucking stupid. It's like having an episode of the Smurfs where Smurfette gets gangraped.

Anonymous said...

It's like having an episode of the Smurfs where Smurfette gets gangraped.

Oh my...

Siskoid said...

Oh the irony. And Didio still doesn't want anyone to use Swamp Thing in a non-Vertigo title cuz making the kids interested would lead to them seeing a Vertigo book eventually.

SallyP said...

Oh Caleb, I don't think that Tawny castrates Kalibak! He just rips his entrails out.

And I have to admit that I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Caleb said...

While I found your posts liek this amusing, I have no problem with violence in comics. Comics ARE NOT for kids anymore, and they don't have to be.

Well, it depends on the comics. Some are, some aren't. Some that should be aren't, and some that shouldn't be are.


Oh Caleb, I don't think that Tawny castrates Kalibak! He just rips his entrails out.

Oh I know; I guess that bit at the bottom makes it look like maybe that was what I meant though? I was referring to another panel of Marvel Family decadence from Final Crisis, the one where Mary is thrusting her crotch in Freddie's face:
http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com/2008/12/hey-kids-comics.html


I'm not really trying to say anything here except, "Holy crap, that's a violent comics panel!"

Honestly I can kinda see what Morrison's going for here. In a world where C.C. Beck and company's children's comics characters like Tawky Tawny make war with Jack Kirby's 1970s New Gods mythology and live along the post-Dark Knight Batman and company, the all must share a certain tone, even if it seems really dischordant.

Did we need to see a fucking intestine in that panel, instead of a read streak of blood coming from Kalibak's belly or throat? Did it even need to be red blood and not like, black god-in-tiger-body blood?

I think the argument could be made that the level of gore and violene that even Tawky Tawny is subjected to demonstrates how dark this particular day in the DCU is, and the argument could be made taht Jones' photrealistic intestine accentuates that level of tactile grit in a way a more artsy blood splash might not have, but since three different art teams tackled this issue in three different styles, DC and company lose the ability to say it has to look just so to serve the story.

Ha ha, now my response is 500 times longer than the initial post!

Regarding what Siskoid said, I'm always fascinated with how far DC and Marvel go in their comics, given how far they refuse to go. It's...weird that John Constantine and Swamp Thing can't cross the border between Vertigo and DCU, but Mary Marvel can be in Final Crisis and Johnny DC books, you know?

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Come on..violence/shmiolence..who didn't tingle a bit to see Tawky Tiger throw down JUST ONCE and gain some street cred in the process. For me the best moment of Final Crisis. Takes a bad ass tiger mutha in a tweed jacket to straighten his bowtie after taking out a heavy hitter like Kalibak.