Garth Ennis - The Boys

[ukdane]

Not to worry, here's what Garth had to say...

Link: http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/category/dc/" target="_blank">A New Home releasing 1-6 in trade, and starting wi

[ukdane]

Issue 7 will be released in a few months time, and DR's Exclusive deal at DC excludes his work on The Boy's.

The question is whether or not to pick it up.
I've had a problem ever since my 4 year old asked to see the comic with bottoms in it again.... (Issue 2 IIRC- he'd somehow gotten hold of it)

[TordelBack]

I have my own problems with Ennis' scat'n'guts approach to comics, but you have to hand it to him, he always comes across as a very gracious bloke.

[The Adventurer]

But in your book, rape's okay as long as it's not 'graphic', and we only talk about how ghastly it was as opposed to showing it? And preseumably as long as it only happens to women, and not men.

Rape is never "Okay". It's one of the most deplorable and evil acts that can be committed. But in fiction I see no problem in using it as a storytelling catalyst. As long as it is not condoned in any way.

Honestly, I though Identity Crisis was terrible. Ham fisted, ruined and killed perfectly good characters, and didn't use it's catalyst (the rape of Sue Dibney) to any good effect.

[Byron Virgo]

But that's the problem - it wasn't just the 'catalyst', it was its whole raison d'etre.

They came up with the rape first, and the story was retroactively fitted around it afterwards, because, y'know, that'd show all those readers how cool and baddass their books are. That's not storytelling, that's cynical marketing, pure and simple.

If rape, or indeed any other act or event - be it violent or non - appears in a story, it should be as a result of the narrative or the characters within it, not the creative impulse.

[The Adventurer]

Oh that's true.

If it was DC's intension that "Hey, lets put RAPE in our superhero comics. That'll show how cool and edgy we are." that's pretty stupid.

I'm not entirely convinced that was the thought process however.

[Art]

Hmm, according to the account of that ex-subeditor that was pretty much how it happened, wasn't it?

[TordelBack]

I had no idea who Sue (or indeed Ralph) Dibney was, prior to Identity Crisis, but I have never seen such a universal condemnation of a plot point as was evident from the DC fan blogs.  Sites like When Fangirls Attack were able to produce depressingly endless lists of the rape-and-murder of female characters that made it perfectly clear (to me) that this was a recurrent and unpleasant theme in comics - apparently it's not enough to kill a female character in the same manner as a male character, she has to be raped too. It's a cheap and nasty trick, and it speaks pretty poorly of the minds behind it.

[GermanAndy]

Frankly I was rather disappointed with the Boys. Not that I had high expectations, the time that I ordered Ennis unseen is long gone.

The art was fine, no doubt, but another 60 issues of "superheroes are dumb fucks"? No thanks. Not in the umpteenth incarnation. I cancelled this after 6.

Astonishing of course that neither the writers nor the publisher are capable of learning. DC/Wildstorm knew exactly what they got, I mean, someone must have read the scripts beforehand, or? And after half a year they - abruptly - decide that they are not comfortable with the book, which sold not too bad? Come on! What kind of marketing is that?

And with DCs long history of censoring things, Ennis can´t be too surprised that he was asked to change some things after the fact. If this is the case, as was reported. We will never know.

[James]

"I cancelled this after 6."

You ARE DC!

[GermanAndy]

Lol

Cheers!

[Quirkafleeg]

Does it have a pub scene?

[Art]

I could be wrong on this, but I don't think I've seen a single pint of Guinness in it

[Quirkafleeg]

>I could be wrong on this, but I don't think I've seen a single pint of Guinness in it

No wonder it was cancelled

[johnnystress]

It had blowjobs though