| Posted: 22 May 2012 at 8:01am | IP Logged | 3
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Sometimes the attitude toward sex that we find in modern comics reminds me of one of Shooter's more bizarre declarations. He did not like it when I would occasionally use the bottom panel border as the floor -- "objectifying the panel border" he called it -- and declared that "if you don't show the floor, readers won't know there's a floor there!"I, of course, argued that floors are something we can pretty much take for granted. I asked if he felt that from now on all scenes should take place in front of mirrors, since if readers cannot see the BACKS of the characters, they won't know they have backs! And, somewhat less sarcastically, I said if there WASN'T a floor, that was definitely something I would show. Shooter's Whim of Iron was in full vigor tho, so this became a RULE, and I started drawing a thick black edge across the bottom of panels whenever I wanted to do my border-as-floor shot. This also got some discussion going around the office, as to what ELSE we needed to show, lest readers not know it was there. Did we need to make sure the characters were shown eating, or readers would assume they were starving to death? And if they eat, did we need to show them using the bathroom? And how explicit did that need to be? Don't want the reader thinking it was a onezie when it was a twozie! Anyway. . . not, it seems, sex has entered this realm. Readers must be SHOWN that the characters have sex, or it will be assumed that none of them have, ever. (The stork brings babies in the DC and Marvel universes!) Speaking of babies -- another reason to be distressed about the Batman/Catwoman sex scene. Have you noticed how so many comicbook characters seem to know nothing at all about safe sex? If sex is so much as implied, pregnancy follows hard upon't.
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