Witchblade is no longer a T&A title. Yeah at the beginning Michael Turner may have over-sexified Sara but the story was strong. Later writers and artists may had temporarily turned it into a T&A title with *blink* and Sara’s lost her shirt again which has no relation to the plot but Ron Marz and Stjepan Sejic’s current run has done a complete turnaround. It’s a character story that doesn’t involve naked Sara – unless relevant of course – which just proves that Top Cow is evolving.

A bit of T&A will always be present somehow in comics but sex sells. Living in this age, one would think that most people would’ve become immune to it to an extent and concentrate on the stories rather than the hot semi-naked chicks that are seemingly everywhere – from our magazines to TV to music.

Frankly I’d rather see the strong (sexy) female lead kick some ass within a great story rather than the pretty and conservative, apathetic girl waiting on her man to save her (Why does Twilight exist?). Why not save the world with style?

but … those who claim the comic is about tits and ass have obviously never read it in the last few years, i for one hate tna, i refuse to do it, if guys at top cow decided to go back to the old metal bigini that magically removes all articles of clothing, id leave the title and never look back,

for me witchblade is a title with alot of potential for truly epic stories, villains and heroes that are greater than life.

tna is a relis of the nineties and thats where it should remain,
now i know there are anal people who will complain that the characters look sexy… to them here is an auztomatic response, try finding golden girls the comic

i mean i get it, you dont like the sexy variants, ill allways flat out say that i hate them and they stand against all that im trying to do with the art direction but from some of the comments here im getting the feeling pope and his cardinals are visiting these forums quite often

loosen up people, ull get yourself a cardiac arrest

Speaking as a former anime fan, I could attest that the large female following is due to the manga being ‘feminine’ in character. Which implies an even creepier brand of fetishism – when the subjugated, perenially-aroused creators within a HIGHLY patriarchal culture start ‘identifying’ with their subjects, in the same sorta way that Buffalo Bill wants to wear actual female breasts. Aren’t these the types who’d tend to put panties over their heads ? But it’s alright, ‘coz the girls in the HIGHLY patriarchal world are finding solace in friggin ‘Sweet Valley High’ stuff written by a buncha latent rapists.

That’s really where all that stuff gets their market strength : PATRIARCHAL CONDITIONING. Girls gravitate to them because they’ve been made to stick with them, in the same way they’re being told to stick with pretty dresses, teenage crushes, and friggin’ nail polish. In that sense, the much-touted large female following don’t seem that much of a complement. Might as well say that ‘Twilight’ is good for literature. Nowadays, they’ve moved onto kids. Friggin’ hopeless.

I find stuff like ‘Whiteout’, Alan Grant’s ‘Judge Anderson’ story, Air, and anything involving Jenny Sparks far healthier material for ladies. If we could only focus on the actual handling of the content and characters, PLEASE….

That being said, there are important points he made that I must respectfully disagree with.

The argument that men are as objectified as women in comics is one that I have heard often from comic fans, professionals and industry pundits.

This premise is faulty. Yes, the drawings of male super-heroes are idealized, but not sexualized like their female counterparts. That’s a BIG difference.

How often do you see male super-heroes in porn star poses? Or drawn with exaggerated emphasis placed on their groins?

Yes, I do agree that Top Cow should be judged based on the actual content of their comics.

However, as stated in an earlier comment, if the company wants to overcome their “T & A” image, just stop using images of that nature. Period.

As the old adage goes, actions speak louder than words.

And Disney.

Dunno with Top Cow, ‘coz the company seems to have evolved to a considerable extent. Nonetheless, the company seems to operate within very defined parameters when it comes to their Witchblade character. Stephan Seijic and Ron Marz are trying; however, even their efforts don’t seem adequate enough to pull the whole thing out of its basic fantasy-sci-fi ‘FHM’ template. I look at those covers, and can’t shake the underlying feeling it’s about a buncha bikini models posing. It seems stilted like that. The characters are based around a specific design sense, a mandated template, which, to me, limits story possibilities. It’s where the money seems to lie, sure. But the whole thing could be so much more than that. At the very least, it could be something ELSE. The live-action TV incarnation, for instance, was a very good precedent.

And I do find ‘sexy variant covers’ ABSURD.

You ask : “What the hell is going on with the breasts of that woman (it’s a woman, right?) on the cover of “Sky Doll”?

a) Is “Sky Doll” a series about bondaged breasts?
b) If it is, then the cover is appropriate for the material inside.
c) If not, then I have no idea what’s going on there.”

a) No it’s not
b and c) Sky doll is science fiction. The girl of the cover is named noa and she is a robot, named “Sky doll” created as a response of the main religion of the planet getting power hungry and represing female sexuality as a result. Organic Women were forced to cover themselves and try to live as “madonnas” mostly chaste and enduring the suffering of sexism instead of fighting it; so robots named dolls were chreated to be a sexual outlet for men, who also mostly control this religion even if the main figurehead is a woman. In this way many guys could have their cake and eat it too as having sex with a doll wasn’t really “sinning”.
Fetish outfit was the uniform of her last job before she escaped, and she actually ditched it at the first chance, she is not excempt of using other sexy outfits, but at least there is a reason for some.

It’s sad that you let your preconceived notions continue to make up lame excuses for the status quo. “Everybody else is doing it” is about THE lamest excuse one could come up with, I think. Whoever else brought up the fact that you should DO SOMETHING about it, instead of blog about it, was right.

T&A would be fine except that it has a history of being used only for straight male readers, to the patronizing of those not interested in DD titties hanging out of ridiculous strips of fabric, and posed with broken backs and horrid anatomy. I don’t mind attractive women–I mind the stupidly exaggerated and excessiveness of it.

Why do you think the rise of the manga market coincided with larger levels of female readers? That would be because someone was paying real attention to them in the T&A and story department (and it didn’t even need to be exaggerated). We don’t usually get that. You want to sell more? Branch out. Don’t make lame excuses for your preconceived notions.

Is “Sky Doll” a series about bondaged breasts?
If it is, then the cover is appropriate for the material inside.
If not, then I have no idea what’s going on there.

(And even if superhero comics don’t play up the looks of their male characters, take a look at the covers of shoujo manga volumes. Anything that’s not the heroine dolled up in a cute outfit is bound to feature one of her fashion-model-lookalike love interests.)

Is it a bit sad that some publishers resort to putting out the sleaziest covers they can get away with? Maybe, but the point of a cover is to draw eyes fast, and it’s hard to depict “intellectual maturity, a good sense of humor, and a nice personality” in one image, male or female.

@ComixxBoy: I really don’t care about these covers one way or the other. Whether they show attractive men or attractive women. I never spend more than a second or two on a cover anyhow. HOWEVER, I did see Maddy’s point. Its not that guys don’t really look like that–its that when you see a guy being portrayed as sexy, its in a pose that he would easily do even if the artist wasn’t going for that. He’s sexy in a heroic pose, or in an action pose, or whatever. But when its a woman and they’re trying to make HER look sexy? We always get her posed in some odd contorted view that’s got only one purpose: To get the guys to go, “Hey, hot chick!”

Which is kinda strange, as I find little more attractive than a heroic woman that can kick butt on a cover, but, I’m a very strange guy.

(Paraphrasing Hamlet, where the Queen makes the remark.)

Top Cow = T & A

I don’t hate them for it, and if they had any titles worth reading I would do so. I tried Witchblade, but none of the characters were interesting to me, and the artwork (while pretty) was not great sequential art.

I take part of that back: I did like Madame Mirage but it seemed to disappear after a few issues, is it still being published?

Your request was denied because of its content categorization: “Entertainment;Provocative Attire”

LOL, considering the subject of the blog post, and the fact that I can go to Image Central, Newsarama, Marvel.Com, and DCComics.Com from my work computer… apparently someone in the Internet security community has decided not to get over their preconceptions!