Speaking of Terry Moore … you might remember the Hulk #1 cover project that I blogged about right before Wizard World Chicago. It was a fund raiser for the Hero Initiative, where artists were asked to draw original Hulk art to be auctioned off on eBay. Moore points out that Frank Cho’s piece for the event was rejected:
Catching up on Frank Cho’s funny forum recently I read his Hulk cover was rejected entirely. Something about his rendition of the Hulk and She-Hulk, doing something or producing something decent people have decided we shouldn’t see. I haven’t seen the art in question, but now that it’s banned in all English speaking countries, I am, of course, dying to see it. Naturally, Frank’s cover would have sold for thousands. Sober estimates (much more trustworthy than the alternative) run at $8,000. It’s a shame. That’s a lot of money for a charity to lose.
On his message board, Cho comments on why it was rejected:
C’mon. It’s me. It can only mean one thing – too risque.
Americans fear female nudity.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I’m no prude or anything, but who the hell draws a naked or “risque” charity auction cover? Speaks volumes for Cho’s maturity, or lack thereof.
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Risque covers go for insane amounts of money. If you think about it, he was helping out.
I don’t think it’s a maturity thing at all. It wasn’t like it was a kid’s only auction or anything.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
frank and any artist can do whatever they like if its for charity …sorry.
Here’s how I see it being an artist…they ask for a piece and you can decide to give them what you want …end of story.
If they dont want it fine…Their loss here.
frank drew what he wanted, they didnt like it so, they dont have to auction it and everyone loses.
I am sure it was brilliant coming from frank.
Jimmy
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
“Americans fear female nudity.”
Well, I think there’s a difference between fearing female nudity and fearing a naked She-Hulk. The latter sounds so much more advisable, doncha think?
July 3rd, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Forget important discussion and rational discourse, how do we see the picture in question?!
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
what mister palmiotti said.
maybe frank can ebay it himself and donate the proceeds.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I’d agree with Palmiotti and disagree with Nat. Well…Nat does have a point, but I think Frank’s contention is right. American society is fairly repressed when it comes to nudity and it is especially so when it comes to comic book stuff because of that pesky association with kids that people still seem to give it.
But Frank was perfectly in the right to do what he wanted. Hell, so many of Frank’s fans particularly love his depiction of the female form in comic books. He’s giving what his fanbase is looking for.
July 4th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
I was asked to participate in the Spider-Man charity gig, and I ended up doing two pieces: one with lots of detail which took a couple of hours; and one for fun that too ten minutes, which everyone liked more. But it WAS for charity, so I didn’t care. People liked it. So Jimmy’s right on that count – for charity, for free, we got to draw what we wanted.
The bigger, uh, picture people are missing is that lots of people WANT to see Frank’s drawing. It WILL sell for serious bucks. And I kind of thought that was the point.
July 4th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
The problem is that it’s not just a matter of Cho drawing whatever he wants. If he wants to make risque drawings of his own characters, that’s one thing.
This is a Marvel character that’s going to be sold for the Hero Inititive. He’s not just representing himself, he’s representing those other groups. For them to be involved, and for him to do it with one of Marvel’s characters, that makes them partly responsible for that image being out there.
They can’t do that. She-Hulk is a character that goes on lunch boxes and into Saturday morning cartoon series. If this got media attention, there could be complaints and they’d bare some of the responsibility.
Cho knows this. He could have done something that was still what you’d expect from Cho but would have been acceptable, but he didn’t. So yes, there is a bit of a maturity issue. Not because he likes drawing naked women, but because he knew these groups would have limitations and he still drew a cover that they can’t use.
I love Cho’s stuff. He just didn’t make a great judgement in this case.
July 5th, 2008 at 10:25 am
“frank and any artist can do whatever they like if its for charity …sorry.”
I don’t know. This feels like, “they should take what I give them and be thankful for it.”
If you’re doing something for charity then perhaps a charitible attitude might be in order. Give some consideration to the organization and provide something they can use. If you provide something they can’t use, take it like a grown up and be gracious about it rather then using it to make pronouncements about the sexual views of a nation.
If you can’t contribute to a charity without making it about yourself, don’t do it.
July 5th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Just so folks know, the Hulk/She-Hulk cover was a joking “homage” to the Spider-man/Mary Jane cover Frank also did for Hero last year during that cover auction. Exact same pose, same level of skin showing, and this year it’s not appropriate. Amazing what a year can do, I guess Hero is allergic to playful non-pornogrpahic nudity and money nowadays.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
“bare some of the responsibility”.
I see what you did there. Clever.
July 7th, 2008 at 3:41 am
It’s funny how some of you criticize something you haven’t seen.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Last year’s cover by Cho raised well over $5000, this one (I’ve seen it) could have nearly doubled that amount.
No, money is no excuse, but when you’ll see it (and you’ll see it at apesandbabes.com) you’ll shake your head and wonder why it was refused.
UM!
(Cho’s webmaster at apesandbabes.com)
July 8th, 2008 at 12:09 am
# Kirk Warren Says:
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I’m no prude or anything, but who the hell draws a naked or “risque” charity auction cover? Speaks volumes for Cho’s maturity, or lack thereof.
———————————————-
Yeah, because She-Hulk has always been portrayed as a Prudy McPrude.
At the same time, once you approach Frank you know what to expect. And as mentioned before, a piece like the one described would’ve fetched a ton of cash and helped out the charity immensely.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:33 am
I find it ironic that a community surrounding an art form dedicated to drawing violent conflicts freaks out about boobs and bum cracks.
No wonder we women are so conflicted about our bodies. We’re more offensive to look at naked than gunshots, knife wounds, disembodied brains, or numerous other violent things that have ended up on comic book covers. If we’re supposed to be adult enough to handle scenes of brutish violence a la “Hulk Smash!”, we should be able to handle the naked female form.
… and that was an unintentional pun. Oh dear.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:29 am
o come on. This is taking the “covered up nudity is worse then Hulk kicking through ones head or Punisher shooting people up or Midnighter getting assfucked” hypocrisy to the next level.
Sigh
July 8th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
At least, as UgoMilani says, we will be able to
appreciate it at Frank’s website…
Absolutely agree with Liana!
July 9th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
You know I think if Frank decided to draw a cute puppy it would somehow get censored.
July 9th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
I’ve been a fan of Frank’s work for years now, and I’m a little disappointed that his piece was rejected. The charity lost out on a lot of money that could have been generated. Like Ugo said, money is no excuse, but I’m sure that comics have seen a lot worse than whatever beautiful artwork frank created.
July 19th, 2008 at 11:28 am
hulk and she-hulk depicted as kissing cousins with hulk peaking in while she-hulk is dressing up is certainly going to be rejected by marvel