Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose

[SmallBlueThing]

No one draws ANYTHING like Milo Manara. The man is as close to a deity as it's possible to get (if there is a god of drawing women that make you almost physically drop the comic in excitement). Perfect example: Butterscotch, and the whole "invisible man enters by the back door while girl is in a restaurant scene". I may need a little lie down now. He needs to draw for 2000ad sharpish- and infact is the only thing that would make me wet myself with excitement over a new series of the Space Girls or Valkyries.

But as for Tarot. Pah! Don't pick on Batson, I want it too!

Mind you, I'm still looking out for 'Timewankers', from years ago- if that's not the perfect pitch for the next Tom Cruise/ John Travolta/ Michael Mann blockbuster, I don't know what is.

Steev

[Jim_Campbell]

A SFW sample of Manara's will-it-ever-actually-appear X-Men book with Chris Claremont can be seen here.

Cheers!

Jim

[TordelBack]

Now that's good mutie-booty!  He really is the best at what he does.  And what he does is pretty.  Bub.

[Tweak72]

At this point I am going to ask some questions as I am interested in what the Boards/HiveMinds views are?

How many boarders buy or have bought comics that could only considered as part of the Erotic genre (For the purposes of this I am going to say Heavy Metal included)?

And if so what? And do the comics you read contain strong characters and story lines or are they just an excuse to see some thing sexy?

Do you feel that this kind of comic is a valid part of the medium or a negative part of comics?

Do you think that comics about sex, eroticism and titillation have any place in comics? Do you think they can have a positive or negative impact on peoples perceptions on opposite/same sex relationships and equal treatment?

Come on be honest and try to take your judgmental subroutines off line

[bluemeanie]

Hey, dont knock Tarot! You have to love anything  that can work in possibly the greatest line of dialogue ever seen in a comic book


Gotta admit to only ever reading one of these and while it was SO over the top as to work through offensive and come out the other side as funny, I couldnt see myself reading another one.
That said, back in the day when I bough anything Bat related I did have the whole run of Balents catwoman comics.
How she did acrobatics carting those huge things around I'll never know.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Hey, dont knock Tarot! You have to love anything  that can work in possibly the greatest line of dialogue ever seen in a comic book


Gotta admit to only ever reading one of these and while it was SO over the top as to work through offensive and come out the other side as funny, I couldnt see myself reading another one.
That said, back in the day when I bough anything Bat related I did have the whole run of Balents catwoman comics.
How she did acrobatics carting those huge things around I'll never know.

I'm not buying any, just curious!!

[Richmond Clements]

Buy curious eh..?

















What?
I regret nothing!

[TordelBack]

I regret that you got there before me!

[Proudhuff]

that art and those stories, except the mad haunted fanny, are the very things that make comics the derided thing it is...

[Tweak72]

Joking aside Batson I have found my self reading the odd issue. I can only say it is because it is actually a really funny read. I am never sure if it's meant to be serious or not but it seems to be very tongue in cheek. And I finally understood why people find the Benny Hill show funny.

For my own blood I also would like to get more Milo Manara stuff as the art is superb and the small amount of stories I have read art weird cool. I have book 6 of Omaha the Cat Dancer and I am intending to read more of them from the beginning. I also buy and read Empowered.

Omaha the Cat Dancer and Empowered seem to have very character driven stories with explicit sex in them. Empowered started off and a comedy with mild bondage but seems to be evolving in to an excellent twist on the super hero genre and has recently gone a bit dark. I originally got it because I dig Adam Warrens stuff and it made me laugh.

But I ask the above questions because I really do not know how the rest of 'fandom' views any kind of sexually explicit comics
so come on spill

[johnnystress]

i have in my hand "The Women of Manara" (don't ask whats in the other hand)



Have you see Serpieris stuff? Pure filth. As much as I like his arse and tit obsessed drawing I'd be embarrassed to have any of his books on my shelves.

Manara I can argue a case for, Serpierei, it's a bit harder ( whoop!)

Here's a nice safe pic though


aaaand after 5 minutes I cant find a worksafe pic

Google Serpieri or Druuna with safe search turned off

[Tweak72]

See that's interesting

Manara's stuff seems to vary from just a story to some weird wet dream sequence or adventure. though i say that with having read very little of his stuff (so the majority of his stuff might be just filth) and that art is always brilliant. the Serpieri just looks like an excuse to draw T & A possibly with water involved. Omaha the Cat Dancer is about a stripper and has a load of sex in it but from what i have read it has other strong plot lines involved.

and what do people consider art or filth? do people draw the line?

Omaha seems like a story about a woman making her way in the world possibly with a star crossed lovers team in there some where Empowered is some one fighting their insecuritys to be the best person they can be. so does that mean they are a positive representation of a woman becoming stronger or do they fail because ultimately there is sex involved and the main characters are in many ways sex objects. or do they remind us we are all sex objects? take The Amazing Maze Dumoir. many boarders consider this short series as a highlight of 2000ad a strong role reversal of a male characters being the clueless bimbo and the female being the strong resourceful driving character regularly rescuing the man. however was pretty much naked or mostly half dressed for most of the story so did that lessen the over all story?

[johnnystress]

It might all be down to personal taste but while I love stuff like Frazetta I cant stand the airbrushporntatsic Luis Royo

To most people they probably fall into the same fantasy art , swords and tits bracket but I think they're a world apart

Similarly I love 50s cheesecake pinup art but hate the hyper realistic stuff you see in heavy metal, er Saddam Husseins house etc

That Jim Balent doesn't appeal to me at all though

[Sefton Disney]

(With apologies in advance for any accidental double entendres - they're almost impossible to avoid!)

Regarding Tweak72's questions, I think sex is like any other subject - you either handle it well, or you don't. I certainly don't see any reason why comics shouldn't be sexually explicit. After quite a bit of thought and discussionan I've come to the conclusion that the line between "art", "erotica" and "porn" is largely subjective and artificial - a matter of personal taste and preference, basically.

Since comics are simply a matter of ink on paper, I think you could even argue that they bypass many of the issues of exploitation and objectification that apply to photography or film.

With regard to the effect of explicit images on an individual, I think that's the individual's own responsibility and that, even in the absence of explicitly sexual or violent material, the human mind is quite capable of creating violent sexual perversions, often of an extremely bizarre nature. Take, for example, Sylvestre Matuschka, who derailed trains for sexual satisfaction, or Jeffrey Dahmer whose favourite "pornographic" movie was the sequence in Return of the Jedi where the Emperor mind-controls Luke Skywalker.

As long as it's consenting adults and no coercion is involved, I really don't think it's any of my business how someone chooses to express and explore their sexuality.

Pretty much the standard Libertarian's attitude to these matters, really.

Changing tack, does anyone out there know the actual legal situation vis a vis sexually explicit comics? There are certainly one or two - like Birdland and Omaha the Cat Dancer - that I'd be interested in reading, but I'm not sure if they are actually legal in the UK. 

[Tweak72]

Well they sell Omaha the Cat Dancer in FP london so cant be that bad