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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2020 12:24:20 GMT -5
Yeah, I've read a bunch of those, and I noticed that. From Wonder Woman #188-209 there are 8, or 9, covers showing women in bondage (one is a cover of WW and another woman chained together at the wrist about to fight, so it's iffy if that's considered a bondage cover) though two of those covers had someone other than Diana in bondage. Didn't Golden Age Wonder Woman have a ton of bondage in it too? I can check but I'm a little tied up at the moment😜 I know bad joke but yeah Wonder Woman was known for this in the GA.
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Crimebuster
CCF Podcast Guru
Making comics!
Posts: 3,922
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Post by Crimebuster on May 21, 2020 13:41:15 GMT -5
Golden Age Wonder Woman had a lot of bondage in it for thematic reasons, as it was an expression of creator William Marston's views on sexual politics and freedom through submission.
The explosion of bondage covers on Wonder Woman around #196-207 had more to do, I think, with the changes to the Comics Code Authority that took place in 1971 and suddenly allowed more of this type of thing than the code previously had. If you look at DC's other books at the time, Lois Lane and Supergirl in Adventure Comics both suddenly got a ton of bondage covers at the same time - so this was less about Wonder Woman specifically and more about just straight up selling T+A.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 21, 2020 13:50:20 GMT -5
freedom through submission Sounds like something you'd hear from 1984 or V For Vendetta
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Post by dbutler69 on May 21, 2020 14:13:27 GMT -5
Yeah, I've read a bunch of those, and I noticed that. From Wonder Woman #188-209 there are 8, or 9, covers showing women in bondage (one is a cover of WW and another woman chained together at the wrist about to fight, so it's iffy if that's considered a bondage cover) though two of those covers had someone other than Diana in bondage. Didn't Golden Age Wonder Woman have a ton of bondage in it too? Yes, she did. Perhaps even more than 70's Wonder Woman! I'm not sure if it happened on the cover a lot, but certainly in the interior.
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Post by Farrar on May 21, 2020 16:44:29 GMT -5
Golden Age Wonder Woman had a lot of bondage in it for thematic reasons, as it was an expression of creator William Marston's views on sexual politics and freedom through submission. The explosion of bondage covers on Wonder Woman around #196-207 had more to do, I think, with the changes to the Comics Code Authority that took place in 1971 and suddenly allowed more of this type of thing than the code previously had. If you look at DC's other books at the time, Lois Lane and Supergirl in Adventure Comics both suddenly got a ton of bondage covers at the same time - so this was less about Wonder Woman specifically and more about just straight up selling T+A. Absolutely. And not only because of the relaxing of the Code, but the installing of the old boys' network of editors. Yes,Dorothy Woolfolk was installed as editor of WW, Lois Lane and Supergirl, but her tenure on those particular mainstream superhero books lasted for a grand total for 2 issues of WW (2 reprint issues, then Denny O'Neil took over the book again); one issue for Supergirl; and a whopping 7 issues of Lois Lane, before she was unceremoniously dumped and replaced by those champions of women's rights Robert Kanigher and Julius Schwartz I'm not saying Woolfolk could have stopped the T&A covers--by many accounts she was not well-liked there and besides, it was all about the sale and DC knew how to appeal to their audience base--but from what I've read, had she been retained she may have at least been able to speak up against the constant exploitative images of women. I know, I know, just one voice--but that would have been a start.
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Post by rberman on May 21, 2020 16:51:55 GMT -5
The explosion of bondage covers on Wonder Woman around #196-207 had more to do, I think, with the changes to the Comics Code Authority that took place in 1971 and suddenly allowed more of this type of thing than the code previously had. If you look at DC's other books at the time, Lois Lane and Supergirl in Adventure Comics both suddenly got a ton of bondage covers at the same time - so this was less about Wonder Woman specifically and more about just straight up selling T+A. Absolutely. And not only because of the relaxing of the Code, but the installing of the old boys' network of editors. Yes,Dorothy Woolfolk was installed as editor of WW, Lois Lane and Supergirl, but her tenure on those particular mainstream superhero books lasted for a grand total for 2 issues of WW (2 reprint issues, then Denny O'Neil took over the book again); one issue for Supergirl; and a whopping 7 issues of Lois Lane, before she was unceremoniously dumped and replaced by those champions of women's rights Robert Kanigher and Julius Schwartz And the same was happening at Marvel a few years later with covers of Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel. A majority of Tomb of Dracula covers show him clutching a helpless young woman. Etc.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 21, 2020 17:09:08 GMT -5
Absolutely. And not only because of the relaxing of the Code, but the installing of the old boys' network of editors. Yes,Dorothy Woolfolk was installed as editor of WW, Lois Lane and Supergirl, but her tenure on those particular mainstream superhero books lasted for a grand total for 2 issues of WW (2 reprint issues, then Denny O'Neil took over the book again); one issue for Supergirl; and a whopping 7 issues of Lois Lane, before she was unceremoniously dumped and replaced by those champions of women's rights Robert Kanigher and Julius Schwartz And the same was happening at Marvel a few years later with covers of Spider-Woman and Ms. Marvel. A majority of Tomb of Dracula covers show him clutching a helpless young woman. Etc. To be fair though, Dracula and pretty young women kind of go hand in hand. Drac is the ultimate seducer after all
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Post by codystarbuck on May 21, 2020 20:59:31 GMT -5
Golden Age Wonder Woman was more on the interior, than the cover. For instance, the most notorious GA Wonder Woman bondage-themed story was in WW #28, "Villainy, Inc." In the story, a female criminal, apprehended by Wondy and put on Transformation Isle (the Amazons' prison) gimmicks her Girdle of of Not Getting Uppity (or whatever it was called; it was, essentially, a chastity belt, minus the.....um....you know.....chastity part) and she then overpowers her guard and frees the other female criminals and the proceed to hogtie and chain everyone in sight, again...and again.....and again........ Now, here's the cover..... You see the villains all teamed up (the bulk are up at the top of the cover); but, no hint that they are up to rope tricks. The first bondage cover in her solo series is on #24.... #26 has two of the Holiday girls (Etta Candy and a brunette) trapped in glass tubes, with Wonder Woman breaking free of hers... The first you see in Sensation comics, apart from lassoing or holding male villains is in issue #9, where Wondy has hogtied the real Diana Prince (whose identity she took over, while she went to South America) and is carrying her over her shoulder... That's the only one until issue #77. Other than that, the only thing I saw was Wondy lassoing Etta to save her from being pushed off a roof. Now, contrast that with the reprint of "Villainy, Inc" in Adventure Comics #416 There are a handful of covers through the 50s and into the Silver Age, mostly in the latter days; then, we get into the Diana Prince, Wonder Woman era and it pops up routinely. From #188-209 it appears on 8 covers. #219-221 features three bondage covers in a row! Another turns up in #229. Then, things quiet down, pretty much around the time that Jenette Kahn takes over as publisher. Now, if you look at the stories inside Sensation Comics and Wonder Woman, you get a whole lot of rope and tons of chains. Sensations Comics #4 features the debut of Baroness Paula Von Gunther, one of Wonder Woman's earliest recurring foes. Here's page one... By page 4, we have the Holiday Girls up to some sorority hazing hijinks.... By page 8, Wondy has been bagged and hogtied and then finds the woman she was following, in a slave girl outfit, kneeling on the ground, chained to the wall. Wonder Woman is willingly chained and given a tour of Von Gunther's espionage school, where all the women (all are female students) are chained and submitted to all kinds of stuff, as part of their training... Not to be left out, Etta and the Holiday Girls do a bit of lassoing of their own, on the male guards of the school... That story provided inspiration for the tv show episode, Fausta, The Nazi Wonder Woman, where Wondy is captured in a similar manner as in this story (and Baroness Von Gunther turned up in the 1st WW tv episode, after the pilot). Pretty much, anytime the Baroness returned, there was bondage galore. She was back 2 issues later; and, not only is she accompanied by chained female slaves, but, Wondy stops off at Paradise Island to participate in the annual All-Amazon Girl-Roping Kangaroo Rodeo.... The object is to lasso the other competitors and pull them off their giant kangaroos and hogtie them. Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes reprinted a Wonder Woman story that had Mars as the villain and he had a bunch of chained female slaves, too. Dr Psycho stories usually involved both bondage and mind control. I used to have the Michael Fleischer Wonder Woman Encyclopedia (and the Batman on and the Great Superman Book) and it was filled with panels from various stories with Wonder Woman at play. As I recall, the Gloria Steinem book (the reprint book that had an intro from Steinem), was pretty free of those stories and had more straightforward adventures, with none of the really kinky stories.
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Post by berkley on May 21, 2020 22:36:06 GMT -5
Is the Amazon talking to WW in the last panel wearing glasses? That's unexpected.
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Post by beccabear67 on May 22, 2020 14:33:15 GMT -5
Those '40s Wonder Womans is just screwy. If one comic character were most responsible for Frederick Wertham... still, that old cartoony Cheetah is kind of entertaining in a wacky underground comix sense! She really wanted to dance...
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Post by electricmastro on May 22, 2020 15:12:26 GMT -5
Those '40s Wonder Womans is just screwy. If one comic character were most responsible for Frederick Wertham... still, that old cartoony Cheetah is kind of entertaining in a wacky underground comix sense! She really wanted to dance... After much though, I’ve concluded that Wertham was a good-intentioned man whose methods went in the wrong direction, given his attempts to help black children and the like. And as for William Marston, his development of the character of Wonder Woman was quite weird I’d say. From what understand, the original intention involved Marston basically creating his manifestation of freedom through breaking chains, rehabilitation of criminals, and loving submission through kindness through the usage of a female character. This, along with any intentions of feminism and lesbianism, sound like a recipe for a good-intentioned social comic, but as time went on, it sort of ended up becoming what I think some would accuse of being a comic showcasing, perhaps exploitive, sexual-fueled fetishes that sometimes included bondage and... well, stuff like this, which I don’t think I could defend with full confidence (Wonder Woman #3, February 1943).
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2020 21:02:06 GMT -5
Sometimes I know absolutely nothing about a new book but the artwork alone gets my curiousity piqued.
There, I said it.
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Post by Batflunkie on May 23, 2020 21:37:44 GMT -5
Sometimes I know absolutely nothing about a new book but the artwork alone gets my curiousity piqued.
There, I said it.
The FCBD Sharknife did the same for me
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2020 23:24:29 GMT -5
Sometimes I know absolutely nothing about a new book but the artwork alone gets my curiousity piqued.
There, I said it.
Don't let Richard Meyer know a woman bought one of is comics, he would be appalled. He is one of the architects and leading spokesman for the Comic Gate community and pretty much believes there's no room for women in comics as anything other than cheesecake/objects of lust. -M
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Post by rberman on May 24, 2020 0:23:43 GMT -5
Sometimes I know absolutely nothing about a new book but the artwork alone gets my curiousity piqued.
There, I said it.
Don't let Richard Meyer know a woman bought one of is comics, he would be appalled. He is one of the architects and leading spokesman for the Comic Gate community and pretty much believes there's no room for women in comics as anything other than cheesecake/objects of lust. Really? That woman on the cover looks like a Gloria Steinem-type.
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