This seems as good a place as any to mention this book - Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-Creator Joe Shuster. During the `50s, while trying to reclaim the copyright to Superman from D.C., Shuster did artwork for Nights of Horror which was…let’s just say it’s a bit more risque that what he did for D.C.
Sorry. I meant more along the lines of titillation being one of the the big purposes of the comics. No one would argue that Cherry was anything less than spank fodder, and while Omaha supposedly had big dramatic storylines, it was pretty sex-heavy. Whereas stuff like Heavy Metal or Crying Freeman, while definitely containing some naughtiness (I still remember watching Heavy Metal as a nine-year old and having it stir up some very new emotions), it wasn’t the main thrust (no pun intended) of the title.
Basically, the guy was arguing that while some erotic comics existed “back in the day,” it wasn’t until the advent of the innertubes that sex comics really hit their stride. And I was trying to come up with a list of titles that were inarguably spankware.
Don’t forget the “What the hell is wrong with you”-ness of Faust.
No, wait, forget Faust. Really. Especially the amazingly bad movie they made of it (from the guy who gave us Guyver: The Movie!).
The first parts of Lost Girls were published in 1991. Although that probably falls into erotic adult story as opposed to “spankware”, it seems like it should be sex charged enough to fit.
Ergo
25
Oh, Christ, I watched that. Two hours of my life that I’ll never have back…
Bondage Fairies is a perennial classic. I used to flick through it at one of the few comic book shops in Oslo when I was a kid. Includes an utterly magnificent sequence featuring a thirsty nightcrawler.
rei
28
all that stuff sold in heavy metal.
As good as the writing is, there’s graphic (and very, uh…varied) sex on almost every page. If it doesn’t count I don’t know what would.
Juste
30
He has also written the funniest book ever. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Illegal Aliens. Do yourself a favour and read this.
From Amazon:
Prof. Rajavur and his ‘First Contact Team’ had been patiently waiting years for aliens to land on Earth. Leader Idow and the crew of the starship, All That Glitters, were just looking for an unknown planet where they could land and have a little fun teasing the primitive natives. So it was pure bad luck that the first humans the alien tricksters encounter is a ruthless New York City street gang, the Bloody Deckers. With more starships landing and the world in chaos, Rajavur and his First Contact Team have to move fast in a desperate plan to rescue the innocent aliens from the evil street gang! Then again, maybe they should join forces with the street gang to protect the Earth from the furious aliens? Best-Selling author Nick Pollotta and Hugo award winning illustrator Phil Foglio have packed this one-of-a-kind science fiction comedy full of thrilling combat, nuclear agents, planetary blockades, Omega Gas, the galactic police, Russian-doll-style Dyson spheres, a giant flying refrigerator, big juju, a high-stakes game of poker, space battles, warobots, the trail of the millennium, bar fights, naughty lingerie, lost civilizations, the United Nations Space Marines, lost civilizations, group sex, and delicious fried chicken.
Illegal Aliens is all right, but not that great. I’d much rather read a new Buck Godot comic than another novel. Sadly I don’t much like Girl Genius.
If you replace “innertubes” with “cave painting”, the guy has a point. Drawing pictures of naked ladies on paper, park benches, tables, walls and wherever is what men have done since they could hold a rock to carve with. Otherwise, his theorem is complete and utter bullshit, and by limiting yourself to the past 20 years you’re giving him way too much advantage.
You could just start by stating that the Kama Sutra is an extremely popular nudie comic, and if he objects, let him explain how it isn’t extremely popular, or nudie, and why this book of pictures of naked ladies isn’t a comic. Point him to Rimbo’s comic thread if he dares to answer that “it isn’t funny”.
Yeah, it can be pretty vile (for a non-violent comic), but check out the inks!
Whoah… really? I’ve been a fan since the What’s New days, but I think that Girl Genius is by far his best work to date.
As Gaiman noted in his review of it though, it “isn’t a one-handed read” though. There’s so much subtext and character development going on, that just reading it to get off is missing most of the point of the piece, which seems to be the distinction we’re making. Lost Girls wasn’t written to arouse, really. It uses sex to expand on its other themes.
Compare that to Bondage Fairies or Cherry Poptart, its obviously trying to do something different.
Rimbo
36
Wait… are you actually trying to elevate my complete lack of taste and lousy sense of humor into a statement on the nature of art?
Rimbo
37
From what I remember from reading “Lost Girls” a while back, I don’t recall it being very good at that, or at illustrating particularly notable or interesting themes. And it wasn’t even drawn very well.
It’s drawn by Moore’s wife! HE WILL MURDER YOUR FACE OFF!
Yeah, I can’t really recall because it’s been a while since I read it, but I think there was definite authorial intent besides titillation. I’m not prepared to defend how well that intent manifested in the final work, but I’d say that this intent placed it away from masturbation material and into the realm of a story with erotic elements, thus not really being what the OP was looking for.
Also, wouldn’t bad artwork make it more likely that Moore was going for something besides titillation?
I need to stop posting in this thread. I’ve never typed “titillation” so many times in my life, its getting weird.
Heck, you could say that about Urotsukidoji. I mean, there’s all that story and action and plot and character and everything. And then there’s a hundred violent sex scenes that mostly end with someone’s body exploding.
I don’t think there is a strong line that divides entertainment meant to be titillating as a secondary draw from entertainment whose titillation is primary. And to some extent it’s in the eyes of the beholder. I daresay there were generations of kids who grimly slogged through bad translations of Rabelais looking for the racy bits, or who gained a profound education in French poetry while trying to figure out which parts of Fleurs du Mal were supposed to be obscene.
