Sex and Violence in comics - how far is too far?

[Lara Phillips]

What do you guys feel about nudity and violence in comics? I agree that there are a variety of story telling methods. But at times, showing something visually can be more effective than use of other less direct methods. Obviously one should not use nudity and/or violence gratuitously or for simple reasons of titillation.

[Martin Smith]

I'm all for it. Totally agree with you. If the story demands it, go nuts. There's no BBFC for comics so I find the idea of limiting ourselves to what's acceptable on TV at 9pm a bit silly. Heck, go nuts even if the story doesn't demand it. I'll take the odd offensive splash page every now and again if it means that there's more variety out there.

[Paul Eldridge]

Really does depend on who you're aiming it at, I'll assume by the question that it's not going to be pre-schoolers. Apart from that it is up to you, sex and violence have always been popular, if you think it's a little extreme maybe add the words 'mature content' somewhere, you're covered from any backlash and if anything it may attract more people rather than put them off. Just try to decide who your readers may be first.

[Simon Wyatt]

I think it depends on the context of the story you're telling, what message its delivering. If an image is an important part of the narrative or will enhance it, go for it.

Tittilation for its own sake only detracts from the story being told and I think readers instantly recognise that, I know I do!

I've recently completed a page with both (see below), deciding how to portray the action in an image is half the battle. In this one there's a suggestion of sex, without being too explicit but with the violence I felt it was necessary to show it to the fullest due to the nature of the Vinkingr characters involved, who revel in the battle.

Ceers,

Si

[Lara Phillips]

Well, it sounds like you're pretty open-minded. I like to use violence in the context of the story but sometimes, it's also great for shock effect as long as it's not over-used. The Rome miniseries is one of my favs and they balanced out intricate political intrigue with lots of sex and violence. Obviously, I’d never go to those extremes but it think it's a good example of how mature content can enhance a story.

[Martin Smith]

You've totally sold me on Rome now! Well, if you're shocked by something then you're at least engaged by it a little bit. I'll take shocking rubbish over just plain old rubbish any day of the week. Anyway, the way I look at it, it's a bit silly to get offended by varying degrees of nudity and violence. At the end of the day, whether I watch James Bond shoot a guy who falls over clutching his chest or Viggo Mortensen stamp on a man's throat, I'm still being entertained by the image of somebody dying. With that in mind, why not have the more visually pleasing version (usually the gory one) or the version that you haven't seen a million times before (which usually has to be pretty darned sick)?

[Shane Chebsey]

I think it's every artist's right to be offensive! :-)

If you don't like sex and violence then don't buy adult comics with sex and violence in them... it's that simple.

As for kids... if parents can't be responsible for what their children read, then why do they have kids??
I think more and more resposibility, and therefore authority, is being stripped away from the parents and handed over to the government, who are in no positon to take that responsiblity, and certainly have no right to such authority... pretty much the core of today's social and economic problems IMHO

Rant over :-)

S.

[Simon Wyatt]

Dr. Fredric Wertham must be turning in his grave. Lol!

[Steve Butler]

Shane Chebsey said:

I think more and more resposibility, and therefore authority, is being stripped away from the parents and handed over to the government, who are in no positon to take that responsiblity, and certainly have no right to such authority...

But in a nanny state, we chose the nanny. Just listen to the news and you see it all the time. One moment everyone complains about excessive government intervention and when the next thing goes wrong we are all up in arms demanding stricter controls.

My biggest gripe about sex, violence and language in comics is that it seems to be overused and often out of context. If there's no light and shade and no context then it is pointless.

[Shane Chebsey]

Oh I totally agree Steve.

I think there need to be more comics for kids (shame the DFC wasn't a success) and I think it's a real skill to write good all ages material, a skill many comics creators these days are sadly lacking.

Then again I'm an adult, so I tend to read adult comics, so luckily there's lots of great stuff aimed at me out there right now. :-)

I also agree that the great British public (not me of course) ;-) created our own problems with the nanny state etc etc. No one want's to take responsibility for anything these days... and I see it trickling down into all areas of society too: The Workplace, Government, parents, schools, the press, it's everywhere.

S.



Steve Butler said:

Shane Chebsey said:

I think more and more resposibility, and therefore authority, is being stripped away from the parents and handed over to the government, who are in no positon to take that responsiblity, and certainly have no right to such authority...

But in a nanny state, we chose the nanny. Just listen to the news and you see it all the time. One moment everyone complains about excessive government intervention and when the next thing goes wrong we are all up in arms demanding stricter controls.

My biggest gripe about sex, violence and language in comics is that it seems to be overused and often out of context. If there's no light and shade and no context then it is pointless.

[Lara Phillips]

I agree that sex and violence are over –used in pop culture and one needs a contrast. Personally, I think the place where they’re most over-used is in American horror (forgive the over-generalization.) I prefer Japanese horror in which the scares are mostly psychologically.

On the other hand, something like Gears of War has a military flavor and needs to have some blood and guts to make it feel authentic. One of the best examples of well-written adult fare is, in my humble opinion, Battle Royal which contrasted the extreme violence with genuine character development and touching scenes. I did however, think that most of the sex and nudity there was fan-service though…

Query - is it harder to incorporate sex and nudity into a story well than violence? What does everyone think?

By the way, check out the attachment for a shocking example of sex and violence in the comic book world (heh heh heh…)

[Martin Smith]

Hardcore! The BBFC will hear of that!

I think it probably is a bit more difficult to incorporate sex into a story than graphic violence. You don't get proper, full-on sex much now. Maybe they don't know what else to do besides the rubbish fade out trick. I mean, you can kill a man in a million entertaining ways, but there are only so many things you can show people doing during sex (I think Team America does them all). I suppose sex scenes require more set up, more effort in the script phase, so that you actually care or so that you're learning something about the characters. My favourite recent-ish example of awesome sex scenes is A History of Violence. David Cronenberg's special, though. He made Crash and that was just all sex scenes, after all.

Have any of you had problems with getting nudity in? The writers blocked it, the artist not wanted to draw it, that kinda thing?