Bahlactus can pervert any symbols of joy and laughter he damn well please.
I have never read a single Dawn story, but one of my strongest memories of reading Wizard magazine as a kid is the multitude of images from Joseph Michael Linsner’s cheesecake comic. During the heyday of bad girls, Joseph Michael Linsner was considered a god of comic book T&A, and it’s quite understandable. However, unlike Lady Death and Jim Balent’s Catwoman, Dawn did had an air of innocence that made her stand out from the scantly clad crowd. Linsner’s art is clearly influenced by classic pin-up artists like Gil Evgrin and Alberto Vargas, giving it a timeless appeal.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Well, it look like AT&T is giving themselves three weeks to hook up my internet, so I might as well brave the risk of being seen blogging about seductive fictional characters while using the internet of my local Panera.
Cheesecake Appreciation Week begins with a indie favorite. I’m sure that there are plenty of better examples of Terry Moore’s talent for drawing women who are both realistically proportioned and incredibly sexy. When Moore wants to sex up his characters, he goes in a very traditional, pin-up direction, as can be observed in this two-page spread in the first issue of Strangers In Paradise.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
I’m going to hold off on starting Cheesecake Appreciation Week until I have working internet at home. In the meantime, here’s Man-Thing playing with blocks.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
While browsing the Marvel Swimsuit Specials for Beefcake Appreciation Week, I noticed a somewhat disturbing trend in the treatment of Northstar in the books. It would appear that during the years 1994 and 1995, Marvel editorial were under the impression that all gay men are promiscuous and thus Northstar must be a total slut.
First, we have the 1994 issue, in which Northstar appears to prefer being nude, although there in no reason to think that about the character. You know, other than the fact that he’s gay and being inapproriatley sexual in public is something gay guys do, don’t you know.
But the 1995 issue really takes the cake. Here it deplicts Northstar hanging out with Hector. For those who don’t recognize him, Hector was part of the forgettable mid-ninties superteam the Pantheon and he also happened to be openly gay. The caption reads “Northstar and the Pantheon’s Hector find a secluded spot near one of Madripoor’s ancient temples to engage in their favorite kind of worship.” For those who cannot read to the insinuation, Marvel is saying that Hector and Northstar are running off to have gay sex. Classy.
While I applaud Marvel for including their few gay characters in their overly sexualized Swimsuit Specials, it would have been nice if they didn’t go against characterization and canon (did Hector and Northstar ever even met in continuity?) to portray gay characters in a stereotypical and comical (thus comfortable) fashion. It took Marvel guts to include sexualized images of their male heroes along side the female characters considering the target audience of the Specials, but presenting their most prominent gay character as a slut is more than little uncalled for.
