During the Olympics, my children and I actually talked about how THESE were the bodies that comic artists ought to use as references, and how AWESOME they all looked in spandex!
I loved reading this article; thanks for the link!
I think the artists need to be credited just how much time sequential pages eat up. It is very easy to fall back on shortcuts and generic stuff given the time schedule. Also note that some of this stuff is very subtle.
I do think it's a valid point that half the time when a woman shows up, she's there to be decorative first and to kick ass second. I'm not very good at drawing pretty people, but even I've run into the way that faced with internal expectations that female characters should be pretty, it's very easy to go for a "pretty girl" stereotype rather than "specific girl who does x stuff/is from y descent/and is also pretty." (There's also the "common knowledge" that women have more subcutaneous fat than men, which can pay off in female characters who look really generic.) You notice that the only truly pinned down look they have is She-Hulk, whose character is very very clearly defined.
>>I think the artists need to be credited just how much time sequential pages eat up. It is very easy to fall back on shortcuts and generic stuff given the time schedule.<<
And yet some artists manage to make their characters quite distinctive. Tch. Of all the places to cut corners, your main character is not a good choice for that.
>> I do think it's a valid point that half the time when a woman shows up, she's there to be decorative first and to kick ass second. <<
Very true. Happily there are also some people working against this trend.
I'm not going to cry over the mainstream comic industry floundering if they are doing dumb shit, and other people are doing awesome stuff elsewhere. The webcomics field is infinitely more diverse and so is their readership.
If you can find a copy that isn't 'blocked for copyright reasons in your country' have a look at the Channel 4 ad for the Paralympics. It's called "Meet the Superhumans."
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I loved reading this article; thanks for the link!
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I do think it's a valid point that half the time when a woman shows up, she's there to be decorative first and to kick ass second. I'm not very good at drawing pretty people, but even I've run into the way that faced with internal expectations that female characters should be pretty, it's very easy to go for a "pretty girl" stereotype rather than "specific girl who does x stuff/is from y descent/and is also pretty." (There's also the "common knowledge" that women have more subcutaneous fat than men, which can pay off in female characters who look really generic.) You notice that the only truly pinned down look they have is She-Hulk, whose character is very very clearly defined.
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And yet some artists manage to make their characters quite distinctive. Tch. Of all the places to cut corners, your main character is not a good choice for that.
>> I do think it's a valid point that half the time when a woman shows up, she's there to be decorative first and to kick ass second. <<
Very true. Happily there are also some people working against this trend.
I'm not going to cry over the mainstream comic industry floundering if they are doing dumb shit, and other people are doing awesome stuff elsewhere. The webcomics field is infinitely more diverse and so is their readership.
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