Comics and realistic body image

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

All the guys in the comic will now have exaggerated crotch bulges.

HELLO GOD!!!!!

That is one Giant Salami

That's a spicy meatball!

[CJBurgandy]

I was actually making a reference to Claude's comic: http://recklessyouth.comicgen.com/d/20050729.html

[Cat42]

I know I've never had a guy hold a gun to my head with someone screaming "draw bigger boobs" or "she's too fat, skinny her up!!"

That's actually the only way I know how to draw my comic, although it's hard to believe that some one would stick a Sig Sauer to my temple while screaming "draw some f#%$ing stick figures!", it's true.

Also, apparently Nutcracker will get struck in the head with a brick that threatens her family if she does not comply to draw fillers...

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I was actually making a reference to Claude's comic: http://recklessyouth.comicgen.com/d/20050729.html

The statement reminded me of that old commecial though.

[Noise Monkey]

All the guys in the comic will now have exaggerated crotch bulges.

HELLO GOD!!!!!

That is one Giant Salami

This just in, CJ is none other than Joe Jenson!

[Ryuko]

This is a topic close to my heart... See, at the start of my comic I wanted it to be a bit more about my (The Green Avenger's) struggle with my weight, and how that affects my life. (translated into superhero comic form, of course.) But as I drew I realized how hard it is to continually draw an overweight character (in my style, anyway. For me.) and also realized about myself that my problems are less due to my weight and more due to my self-image, which is at the core unrelated to weight, I started to draw the Green Avenger more or less normal-sized. Though sometimes she veers into the skinny realm of things. It's also partly because The Green Avenger has really become her own character. Fairly similar to me, but different in some important ways.

Anyway, blah blahditty blah. I try my best to vary the shapes of the women in my comics, and the men too.

[Wishmaster]

I followed the link to Green Avenger from a post over at buzzcomics awhile back. I'm still working my way through the archives here, but to judge from what I've read so far the Green Avenger seems pretty realistically proportioned; hips, calves, breasts but not bazongas, a little tummy on her. She's a cutie.

[Dutch!]

Josie, could you please quit it? This isn't supposed to be a philosophical debate

Um...it isn't supposed to be a debate? Because this quote seems to suggest otherwise...

I'm curious about how people feel about the often unrealistic proportions of comic characters?

Fair dinkum, is the entire world going through a big defend my opinion at all costs phase at the moment? You talk about everybody here respecting each other's opinions as different and then either swear agressively or post abrasively in return.

I'm with you on this one Josie, it's a much more far reaching social problem than seems to be regarded here, but before you lot smack me down , I agree, it's a problem we can't really tackle all that successfully ourselves, and it's also not really our problem that other people reading may take your disproportionate designs as the body beautiful.

Cheers.

[McDuffies]

To Supernerdcore: Calm down and count to fifty next time. We know that the reason you were mad is Josie's response to K-Dawg. But you also have to realise that she's new on board and she doesn't know K-Dawg very well, so she can't be certain of the real tone of his post. To someone who doesn't know him, that post really comes out as a macho bullshit. It is all a misunderstanding and that's why such situations should be handled by resolving them calmly, not by asking someone what died up his ass. And definitely not by ganging up on a new person, like Yeahduff said.

On subject of objectification: We could make this a semantics issue: how far does objectification go? You can say that, if every time I look at the woman and admire her looks without knowing her personality, I am objectificating her. If that is the case, then peole who dress up nice really are asking for it. Then I am asking for it because I like to look good and I like to feel like a person a girl would glee at.
But I don't think that's objectification. Objectification is only if someone constantly sees you in that manner. It's like when a person knows you for years but still looks at your chest when they're talking to you; Or an old story of the actress who can't get a serious role in film; Or, in the end, the character in the comic, where author can't past the superficial image of big-breasted women and give her a bit of freaking character.

[K-Dawg]

So then do I get an apology?

[Cat42]

So then do I get an apology?

I'm sorry K-Dawg, for spreading rumors that you making deals with North Korea to start the 3rd world war.

[Bwerith]

The body-shape issue has been in my thoughts a fair bit over the past few years. I haven't really come to any conclusions though, so I guess I haven't been thinking hard enough

I remember it was brought up at the "Women in Comics" panel at the most recent Ad Astra convention... a room full of people trying their hardest to think of overweight female characters, and barely being able to name half a dozen.

It seems to me that the best way to combat unrealistic body image, is to create super awesome stories that everyone wants to read, and to fill them with more normal-shaped characters.

I'm doing my bit! I've consciously tried to keep the two-melons-taped-to-a-baseball-bat body shape out of my own comic. While it is drawn in a fairly simple and cartoony way, one of my goals is to give the story at least a little bit of a sense of realism. And I didn't think Princess Iaren could believably kick ass if she was overly top-heavy

[RemusShepherd]

so Dr. Laskins won't be showing up in the next bikini thread? aw..

Is that a request? Because I take perverted fan requests.

I have to say that I haven't seen any Leifeld-like women on any Keenspace/Comicgen comic. So as an aggregate, our body shapes are better than the professionals.

[Sput]

so Dr. Laskins won't be showing up in the next bikini thread? aw.. :cry:

Is that a request? Because I take perverted fan requests. ;)

I have to say that I haven't seen any Leifeld-like women on any Keenspace/Comicgen comic. So as an aggregate, our body shapes are better than the professionals. :)

ew leifeld women, ;_;

(i want flame!hopkin-ness. mmm, flames)


also, to make this relevent:

this what RA, my forum avatar/persona REALLY looks like: (NSFW due to relatively-tasteful nudity) http://img173.imageshack.us/img173/4922/ra0hg.jpg

And has changed into this:
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3734/radone4wx.jpg
(Courtesy of Levi-Chan)

She's prettier now, not as deformed but even though she's mean- she's not nearly as mean as she USED to be. Being a teenager that is affected more by indie emo kids than by pop idols, I guess I can't say much. But the transformation of her character, even though I DO draw her flatchested with an asian-pear shaped body, she's so pretty for being so ugly on the inside.

I don't think it's a matter of 'omg I want to look like this' - because I don't. I couldn't ever pull off that little clothing, or such big boobs- though I also think it's Silly to assume that big boobs are out of the question. Girls my age have, basically, 2 extremes. There's the Flat-ish A cups and then there's these girls with double D and a very small percentage of in between.


I've counted.

I think that it depends on the artist, because an artist does this for fun and not to please or even affect(unless you are attempting to portray a message) anyone, entertainment and maybe extraneous thought processes aside.

Though I guess I do draw objectified women- I also AM objectified- at least on the internet. I don't mind, because I am comfortable with my looks, and where being told that I'm hot may get old, it's not doing anything -negative- to me. I don't hate myself- or at least not my -body.-

I try to balance on my beautiful people with freaks/aliens/'furries' etc.


Wow I had a point but it got lost. I'm sorry, point.

[Mercury Hat]

I've recently noticed a lot of my female characters are built like I am. It's too late to fix, but it's just something I noticed >_>.

[Starline]

HELLO GOD!!!!!

That is one Giant Salami

That's a spicy meatball!

[K-Dawg]

The king of cosmos! He has the mightiest and most sensible of bulges!

[Col]

Kinky...

[Mr Ekshin]

As usual, I only read the first post before responding...

Serial comics tend to be innacurate by nature. Daily's are most notable.

The why is probably due to both necessity of time and also desire to have a recognizable style within the noted limits of the time alloted.

In printed periodicals: (of old?) "Snuffy Smith", "Beetle Bailey", "Hagar the Horrible".

"Mary worth" is the only only attempt at accuracy I remember and this beer-addled time.

And within the digital media: "Kevin and Kell", "Boxjam's Doodle", "Star Bored" come to mind. These favor style and storytelling over literal anthropological accuracy.

Digital: Even "Megatokyo", with all it's intricacies is still a stylization.

"Wanderers", "Clan of the cats", and "Fallen Angels Used Books" are attempts at accurate human depiction. Again, just off the top of my head.

I used to play guitar in a punk band. I had a saying: "Guitarists are a dime-a-dozen. Hell even GOOD guitarists are a dime a dozen. But GREAT guitarists? Well, they're still dime-a-dozen. It's better to be different than great."

Since the availability of great artists on the web are few, I find that I would rather look at INTERRESTING art than good art.

Heck. I played D&D back when you had to imagine everything that happened in your own head. The computerized avataristic version of the game simply didn't exist yet because we didn't have home computers.

And we had to walk in the snow to school. Up-hill. Both ways. and we ate rocks, and were glad to get them. all that.

Maybe for these reasons I can fore-go great art for a good story. "It's Walky!" is an example of a good story drawn in a stylized fashion, rather than drawn accurately. I prefered it for the story.

Aside: I think the only semi-accurately drawn "gag" comic I've ever seen is "The adventures of Captain Ribman". Love it.

I don't expect Frank Miller to draw my daily comic entertainment. I expect stylized jolts of scathing wit.

Gimme that scathing wit.

Or give me death.

Peas.

Ek

[Rocknjosie]

So then do I get an apology?

I'm truly ever so sorry. Like everyone said, I didn't know