Things that went over your head...

[JayzusB.Christ]

It occurred to me embarrassingly recently that The Great Beard (the best English-language writer of comics) is a play on The Great Bard (the best English-language writer of other shit).

Also, yesterday I realised that 'Colosseum' must literally just mean 'very big thing' even though I don't speak Latin.

[GordonR]

Also, yesterday I realised that 'Colosseum' must literally just mean 'very big thing' even though I don't speak Latin.

A Latin bore writes:

The Colosseum is named after the giant statue that the Emperor Nero had made of himself - Nero's Colossus -that used to stand nearby.  The Romans didn't call the place the Colosseum at all, though.  To them, it was the Flavian Amphitheatre.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Also, yesterday I realised that 'Colosseum' must literally just mean 'very big thing' even though I don't speak Latin.

A Latin bore writes:

The Colosseum is named after the giant statue that the Emperor Nero had made of himself - Nero's Colossus -that used to stand nearby.  The Romans didn't call the place the Colosseum at all, though.  To them, it was the Flavian Amphitheatre.

Aha! Not at all boring in my book; I love both etymology and ancient history but only have an amateur's knowledge of each.  Aquila clearly had a bit of research behind it!

[Greg M.]

Rogue Trooper has no nipples. I don't think I'd ever consciously realised that until now.

[Dash Decent]

He wears blue pasties.  (No Pete, not the kind from Greggs.)

[JayzusB.Christ]

While we're on the subject, I didn't realise for a long time that the two types of pasty were pronounced differently  (the titty ones getting their name from being pasted on, I now see).

It wasn't just Rogue - most shirtless male characters in comics didn't have nipples in the old days.  Look at Belardinelli's Sláine - not a nip in sight. (McMahon wasn't squeamish about slapping them on to Sláine's funbags though.)

[Patrick]

I remember noticing and wondering about that as a tiny child in the 70s when I read American comics. The Hulk and the Sub-Mariner were always shirtless but didn't have nipples. Never understood it. I mean, they showed Tarzan film serials on children's TV without worrying that his nipples were visible.

Something was itching at the back of my head, so I did a bit of Googling and found it. It was mentioned by Dave Sim in his "Notes from the President" column in Cerebus in 1987:

That's why they call them editors, dept: Colleen Doran was showing a finished job to an editor. Spotting a specific panel, the chap in question gave it the old "Mm. We might have trouble with this one". Colleen asked why. "Naked breast." Colleen informed him that the breast in question was a male breast; not a female breast. "But." the fellow argued, "there's a nipple on it."

There was clearly an unwritten rule for decades that men were to be drawn without nipples. Haven't found any explanation for it.

[Gary James]

Rogue Trooper has no nipples. I don't think I'd ever consciously realised that until now.

Didn't you notice the hairless chest also? Rogue obviously uses a straight razor to get such a sleek appearance, and all it takes is one wrong move of the hand...

There was clearly an unwritten rule for decades that men were to be drawn without nipples. Haven't found any explanation for it.

Not just nipples, and not just comics - various anatomical parts have long been a no-no in various media around the world, with the most ridiculous example being Barbara Eden's navel being hidden on the television series I Dream of Jeannie. The costumers had to ensure that her belly button was never seen, as the network was allegedly squeamish about people complaining. The Japanese still routinely censor comics, films, and television series when certain things are seen - there are likely avid readers looking at their bits wondering why they haven't got a black line down there...

Meanwhile, in Britain, we had Modesty Blaise's "Nailer" move depicted in the Evening Standard. Go figure.

[Greg M.]

Did Rogue ever get a pair of nips though? Does he have them in, say, the Gordon Rennie era, long past the cruel nip-ban era? Or is it a GI design feature? I don't think he's got 'em in Cinnabar, which is otherwise a cesspool of glorious Smithian perversity.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Hmmm. Well, I've had a look and it seems that while he didn't have any in Cinnabar (Steve Dillon, after all, had been drawing Rogue since the days few men in comics had any), Staz Johnson gave him a pair in the later stuff by Gordon, as did Dylan Teague.

[Dash Decent]

I'm amazed everyone is still asking this question about Rogue and no one has turned it round to Venus Bluegenes.

[Greg M.]

Hmmm. Well, I've had a look and it seems that while he didn't have any in Cinnabar (Steve Dillon, after all, had been drawing Rogue since the days few men in comics had any), Staz Johnson gave him a pair in the later stuff by Gordon, as did Dylan Teague.

Well, there we are - cheers for your diligence. I did wonder if it might have been a weird GI thing. I mean, if you designed a perfect killing machine, would you bother giving him a pair?

I'm amazed everyone is still asking this question about Rogue and no one has turned it round to Venus Bluegenes.

Venus's designers were men. She's got.

[JayzusB.Christ]

I'm amazed everyone is still asking this question about Rogue and no one has turned it round to Venus Bluegenes.

I certainly had a good long think about it when she appeared in the second episode of Cinnabar.

(Also, one of her clone sisters has them out in that Alan Craddock-coloured special, if you count the Friday end of things.  I was a teenager. I remember.)

[Dash Decent]

I did wonder if it might have been a weird GI thing. I mean, if you designed a perfect killing machine, would you bother giving him a pair?

He's got to hang those two grenades on something.

Venus's designers were men. She's got.

Sounds believable. 

From memory one of the Rogue Trooper novels mentions that after the GIs are smoke, the dolls get assigned to, er, comfort duty for the top brass.

[JayzusB.Christ]

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=45928.msg1008997#msg1008997

Just been browsing Funt's excellent thread about 2000ad logos, and read the linked Aaln-2 article.  And fecking heck, if it isn't the first time I've realised that the classic 'fan' logo we have today was designed to look like Dredd's respirator.

The older I get, the more I realise I've always been a thicko.