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Post by junkmonkey on Mar 17, 2020 5:10:10 GMT -5
A good moment to punt one of my own comics into the mix?  |
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Post by MDG on Mar 17, 2020 9:25:36 GMT -5
Yes, I meant to add that some of the old Golden Age comics in this thread actually do a much better job of drawing athletic looking heroines than a lot of modern day superhero comics. Nobody had yet conceived of perfectly spherical, gravity defying, double-D breasts coupled with a 23-inch waist. |
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 17, 2020 11:03:09 GMT -5
A good moment to punt one of my own comics into the mix? Yes, I meant to add that some of the old Golden Age comics in this thread actually do a much better job of drawing athletic looking heroines than a lot of modern day superhero comics. Earlier Golden Age heroines were quite a bit more active than I think people like to give credit for. Sure, there was good girl cheesecake art, as how some may accuse companies like Fiction House of sexually exploiting women’s looks with partially exposed boobs, exposed navels, and bare legs, though at the same time, their heroines tended to be more so competent than captured damsels in distress. It was only really after World War II, in which many women took on “men’s jobs,” that there were more parents complaining about the contents of comics like the cheesecake art (attention to it further gained because of people like Frederic Wertham) and that there came about this sort of fixed image of the woman being a romantic housewife during the baby boom generation that, although brought attention to any cheesecake art issues, also neutered many female characters into being less active and more passive. Ironically, it may have been during the more recent “extreme era” of the 1990s in which, although there arguably many more active female characters, that there also came about the noticeable situation of reducing female characters into less competent and more sexy objects, such as having bigger boobs, among other exaggerations. |
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 17, 2020 11:40:04 GMT -5
I think a lot of the men were as skimpily clad... Tarzan, Samson, Sub-Mariner, Hawkman, Pat Ryan (Terry & The Pirates), and Flash Gordon was often losing part of his costume, all come to (my) mind.   |
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Post by nerdygirl905 on Mar 17, 2020 12:18:46 GMT -5
Except in that crossover issue, Spider Widow is always wearing that witch mask, which is weird considering her young body, and only one villain saw that, and he died by the end of the issue.
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Post by berkley on Mar 17, 2020 15:51:29 GMT -5
I think a lot of the men were as skimpily clad... Tarzan, Samson, Sub-Mariner, Hawkman, Pat Ryan (Terry & The Pirates), and Flash Gordon was often losing part of his costume, all come to (my) mind. Yes, I think Grant Morrison's description of superhero comics as "beautiful people doing amazing things", or something like that, is a good one: they're exaggerated paragons in every way: strength, power, intelligence, ... and looks too. But I think it's undeniable that a lot of the time, the men are exaggerated in the direction of size and strength while the women aren't, or not nearly as often.
Not that I have anything against cheesecake or sexiness in these idealised images. I don't see a conflict there - you can have the sexiness and the athleticism. Superhero artists don't take as much advantage of this as they could, IMO.
This reminds me, I think they should recruit more athletes like Gina Carano to play superheroines and other action-roles, just like they got Johnny Weismuller and Buster Crabbe to play Tarzan and Flash Gordon for the simple reason that they looked the part. I'd like to see a Serena Williams playing characters of that kind, she'd certainly look more convincing than most of the actors I see out there.
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 17, 2020 23:57:59 GMT -5
Felt that it was worth mentioning the various non-superpowered heroines that aren’t as famous as Lois Lane: Jane Arden (Famous Funnies #5, December 1934):  Patty O’Day (Wonderworld Comics #9, January 1940):  Penny Wright (Champion Comics #4, February 1940):  Sally O’Neil (National Comics #1, July 1940):  Jane Martin (Wings Comics #1, September 1940):  Betty Bates (Hit Comics #5, November 1940):  Fran Frazer (Top Notch Comics #13, March 1941):  Blonde Bomber (Green Hornet Comics #7, June 1942):  Joan Mason (Blue Beetle #32, July 1944):  Jill Trent (Fighting Yank #9, August 1944):  Gail Porter (Blue Circle Comics #3, September 1944):  Betty Boyd (All Good Comics, November 1944):  Molly O’Moore (Cat-Man Comics #27, April 1945):  Debbie Dean (Debbie Dean #2, July 1945):  Linda Lens (Camera Comics #6, Fall 1945):  Lucky Wings (Atomic Comics #4, July 1946):  Front Page Peggy (Startling Comics #41, September 1946):  Lucky Dale (The Saint #1, August 1947):  Gail Ford (Crime Smashers #1, October 1950):  Sally the Sleuth (Crime Smashers #1, October 1950):  |
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Post by codystarbuck on Mar 18, 2020 0:30:34 GMT -5
Don't forget Senorita Rio!
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Post by nerdygirl905 on Mar 18, 2020 2:47:52 GMT -5
Betty Bates was one of the best non-powered heroines ever.
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 23, 2020 18:56:20 GMT -5
So I'm reading Kurt's book on 1940-1944 more thoroughly and have come to The Woman In Red as the first masked/costume heroine original to comics in the year 1940. I notice a lot of the non-powered heroines in electricmastro's post above wear red! |
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 24, 2020 0:48:59 GMT -5
So I'm reading Kurt's book on 1940-1944 more thoroughly and have come to The Woman In Red as the first masked/costume heroine original to comics in the year 1940. I notice a lot of the non-powered heroines in electricmastro 's post above wear red! That may be the Crimson Rider, though in regards to the Woman in Red, it was great to see her get published by Dynamite Entertainment in the 21st century:  |
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Post by junkmonkey on Mar 24, 2020 6:03:57 GMT -5
Hardly the first but I've a soft spot for Gale Allen and her (later dropped) All Girl Squadron - a capable space heroine who, from what I've read, soon escaped the formulaic 'getting rescued every episode by some hunky male' and showed a lot less leg and cleavage than many of her contemporaries.  Planet Stories 40 (1946)
American spaceships have left hand drive. I wonder if British and Japanese spaceships of the same era had the steering wheels on the right?
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Post by electricmastro on Mar 24, 2020 15:23:41 GMT -5
Hardly the first but I've a soft spot for Gale Allen and her (later dropped) All Girl Squadron - a capable space heroine who, from what I've read, soon escaped the formulaic 'getting rescued every episode by some hunky male' and showed a lot less leg and cleavage than many of her contemporaries. Planet Stories 40 (1946)
American spaceships have left hand drive. I wonder if British and Japanese spaceships of the same era had the steering wheels on the right?
Yep, and another notable female team was the Girl Commandos, led by War Nurse. |
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Post by berkley on Mar 24, 2020 15:35:32 GMT -5
So I'm reading Kurt's book on 1940-1944 more thoroughly and have come to The Woman In Red as the first masked/costume heroine original to comics in the year 1940. I notice a lot of the non-powered heroines in electricmastro 's post above wear red! That may be the Crimson Rider, though in regards to the Woman in Red, it was great to see her get published by Dynamite Entertainment in the 21st century: I usually find the artwork in those Dynamite comics a deal-breaker for me but that doesn't look too bad. Is the comic titled "Woman in Red" ? |
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Post by Rob Allen on Mar 24, 2020 15:36:03 GMT -5
Hardly the first but I've a soft spot for Gale Allen and her (later dropped) All Girl Squadron - a capable space heroine who, from what I've read, soon escaped the formulaic 'getting rescued every episode by some hunky male' and showed a lot less leg and cleavage than many of her contemporaries. I've joked in this forum about Gale Allen being my aunt. |
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