Joshua Unruh's Blog, page 12

Comic Art Exposes a Boob

UPDATE: Apparently later the day of the post, Mr. Dorman stated he would clarify his position. The next day, he deleted the post. So I guess that's clarification of a sort. Regardless, I'm leaving the dead link as a testament to one man's goofball ideas leading to me having grown up thoughts.

I asked the internet to provide me something to get righteously irate about for a blog post and, lo, behold its generous bounty. As usual, a few things one should know after reading that post and before reading mine.

I don't know who that guy is. I just stumbled on that blog post and, because his response initially sounds like something I might say or feel, I had to address it.
I may not be altogether charitable to the guy. I'm not feeling too bad about it, though, because blogs are you putting your opinions out there. If you can't take the challenge, you're in the wrong line.
He obviously made a mistake about the book being all ages. That's an honest mistake, but I really don't think it has anything to do with the reactions I had to the post.

Frequent readers of this blog will know that I'm a lover of comics. They will also know that I lament the lack of superhero comics available for my son to read (yes, he's four but I wouldn't let him read the majority until he was in his teens due to content; then I wouldn't let him read them because they're stupid). More recent readers will know that I've come to lament how, though those pickings are slim, they get even slimmer if I want to give a superhero book to a young female reader.

That last one is newly on my radar but it hit me so hard that I decided to write TEEN Agents in The Plundered Parent Protocol. This wasn't because there are no YA novels for young girls, but because I feel you can either draw awareness to a problem, actively work against the problem, or both. As a writer, I get to do both.

I say all that to show that I'm a) knowledgeable on the subject of comics, b) knowledgeable the subject of parenting, c) have done a lot of thinking on the nexus where parenting and comics intersect, and d) am currently in the process of putting my money where my mouth is.

The teaser art in question if for a new comic called SAGA by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. In short, the art does indeed reveal a boob, but an unintended one. It revealed a boob who took to the internet in a fit of pique that shows him to be far less mature than the kids he's seeking to protect.

Let's look at some typical superhero comic depictions of the ladies right quick.

Now, for contrast, here's the shocking teaser art in question.

Breastfeeding. That's the family unfriendly, prurient shock tactic we're going to decry today?

Cards on the table, if you find this offensive to anyone, let alone children, you're doing it wrong. If you think somehow the act of a mother nourishing her child is inappropriate for your 7 year old (or any year old, really), you're doing it wrong. If you think this is a shock tactic, you're doing it wrong.

This is the internet. Somewhere there is a site that would find that image positively charged with sexuality. Actually, since it's the internet, there are probably literally thousands or millions such sites. But the right thinking response is to find those guys offensive, not breastfeeding.

This is a fantasy/sci fi family story. That is a guy with horns standing next to a woman with wings who he clearly cares about who herself is lovingly holding a baby to her breast to suckle. Horns...wings...okay, that's obviously the fantasy and sci fi. Family story...okay, patriarch holds matriarch in protective embrace and matriarch shares her life directly with their offspring.

Think of the children, won't you?

For those of you keeping score at home, this is a way to show the female form in a way that affirms some of what it means to be female. It isn't spilling out of costumes, it isn't using sexuality to sell or take things, it isn't turning female characters into wantons to show how "mature" your work is.

Family. Protecting one another. Loving one another. Feeding one another. In space. That's not sexy, at least not in the way Mr. Dorman wants to define it. But it is mature, and in the way we should all want to define it.

PS: I accidentally incensed Courtney Cantrell by forwarding this story on to her and here's what came out.

Jim Jarmusch Tells It Like Me But More Clever

I've been sick this week. Not debilitating sick that keeps me from even getting out of bed, but sick enough I haven't wanted to mess with the blog much. But I have been writing. I've been working on a science fictioin espionage game. I've been writing scripts for a superhero story set in a fantasy world. I've been anxiously awaiting beta reader feedback on TEEN Agents.

All that reminded me of this quote. Because I stand on the shoulders of pulp fictional giants. Every writer has always taken things they read and used them as fuel for their own writings, but I'd like to think I'm very self conscious about it. When I describe the girls in TEEN Agents as direct heirs to both Mrs. Peel and Sydney Bristow, I'm not kidding. When I describe The Hood as Batman/The Shadow/The Spider/Green Hornet meets Robin Hood, I know exactly what I'm saying. When I talk about Champion as Doc Savage and Superman's love child if he were a D&D Paladin, I'm not just talking gibberish.

I love mashing things up. I love making homages. The reason I don't feel at all like a hack or a derivative artist is because of this quote. I'm taking it all someplace totally different, totally other. And, I hope, totally awesome.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery — celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from — it's where you take them to."
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—Jim Jarmusch, The Golden Rules of Filming[