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Underground > Comic Books >

The Penis and comics

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14:49 / 19.11.02

Is it just me, or is the penis never shown in comics, even for mature readers? All you ever see are breasts or asses, but never cock. Why is this? Is it some kinda tabboo or something? Do the comic publishers worry it'll turn off the pimply-faced fan boys who drool over buxom scantily cladded amazonian heroines?

I mean, in the Filth #4 at the landfill station XXX all the open porno magazines just showed topless women. And even Tex Porneau's dick was masked. Are penises too transgressive for even GM to have in a comic?

15:01 / 19.11.02

Ah, they pop up moderately regularly – Watchmen part 4, Invisibles 3.1, and the like.

Guess the lack of erections is linked to fears of getting labelled as obscene a lot of the time, but the ‘gentleman at rest’ does feature. Not that I’m keeping a tally or anything.

DBC

15:13 / 19.11.02

There's a double standard for male and female full-frontal nudity. It happens in the film industry, too--penii very rarely appear in R-rated films, and even then only flaccid, never erect.

I was reading the script for Warren Ellis' STRANGE KISS, which was published by Avatar. It's filled with all kinds of nasty, "trangressive" imagery, but at one point he reminds the artist that there should be "no erect penis shots" in a scene of porno on a TV monitor.

This may have something to do with selling the books on the international market: laws on what's permissible and what isn't vary widely from country to country. Canada, in particular, has very strict obscenity laws--and since many comics, including almost all DC product, are actually printed in Canada, I wouldn't be surprised if the stiffcock ban is a reflection of the Canadian statutes.

In the case of THE FILTH, though, I got the impression that the pixellation of Tex Porneau's bits was part of the joke.

Carla Speed McNeil showed an erect penis in an early issue of FINDER, but that was to comic effect, in a scene that could by no stretch ofthe imagination be described as erotic, not even by the most unfriendly judge... but then, Carla prints in the US of A and, as a self-publisher, is answerable to no one but the law.

Matthew Fluxington

15:40 / 19.11.02

I don't think the double-standard about showing male genitalia in comics is any different from the same practice in the majority of films that are made. You don't see many shots of the vulva either, so that's even enough, I'd say. I firmly believe that you should only show what you absolutely must in art - unless you've got a damn good reason to have that kind of nudity in the picture, why bother?

Matthew Fluxington

15:43 / 19.11.02

By the way, anyone who has read the final issue of Invisibles series 3 would know that, yeah, there has been a drawing of a man's penis in a Grant Morrison comic.

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16:48 / 19.11.02

Unfortunetly, it was a fat Takashi's penis. Why not Lord Fanny (then again, he was looking pretty fat by the end of the series too).

17:41 / 19.11.02

Cocks in comics?

Chester Brown's classic Ed the Happy Clown cheerfully tramples through that particular taboo.

Flaccid cocks, erect cocks, ejaculating cocks, cocks with the head of a parallel-universe's Ronald Reagan attached...

And if you track down the Yummy Fur issues that have the extra material that didn't make it into the Ed collection, well, there's even more cock fun in them.

In Ed you also get:

A man who can't stop shitting. Who gets mistaken for a werewolf.

Pygmies living in the sewer system. A cannibal called Christian.

A parallel universe where everyone is homosexual.

ADVENTURES IN SCIENCE!!

...Basically, Ed the Happy Clown is wonderful, and -- I'm serious! -- has a very special place in my heart. It's also perfect bedtime reading while you're waiting for the next issue of The Filth to come out.

"Look, it's just common sense! If you don't stop, we're going to run out of room in here!"

18:16 / 19.11.02

The cock is omnipresent in comics - appearing as the bulge. Can we speculate on the necessity/meaning of the "bulge"?

I'm thinking of Ace and Gary's crotches in Robert Smigel's "Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoons. Ah yes, lovely, lovely crotches.

Matthew Fluxington

18:24 / 19.11.02

If you really want to see a comic with a lot of cocks in it, you should look for Phoebe Gloeckner's A Child's Life. But be prepared to be repulsed and sickened, because it's much more hellish and terrifying that it is erotic.

By the way, could we have a little less fatphobia, Sypha?

19:09 / 19.11.02

By the way, could we have a little less fatphobia, Sypha?

Preferring to see someone aside from Takashi's tadger doesn't necessarily mean Sypha is afraid of fat people...

19:15 / 19.11.02

Frank Miller purposfully violated that taboo in 300. Rows upon rows of Spartans, in all their naked glory. *swoon*

Then there's Alan Moore, who not two chapters into From Hell gets quite pornographic. So there are a few out there who use even erect and penetrating cocks well in their art, but damn few at that. Its still quite a taboo, though it is increasingly more relaxed.

19:26 / 19.11.02

But then, From Hell ran into serious problems in at least one country.

Murray Hamhandler

19:30 / 19.11.02

Right, yeah. I was going to say. Obviously, you're talking about mainstream comics. Cocks run rampant in the alternative stuff. Was reading the Victor Moscoso interview in the Comics Journal yesterday, and pretty much every page had a sample of Moscoso's art w/a penis predominantly displayed. Enjoy.

Murray Hamhandler

19:32 / 19.11.02

Oh, and yes. Fantagraphics includes a warning on their order forms basically saying that if you're ordering randy material from overseas, there's a good chance that you might not get your stuff. They're quite aware of that problem, it seems.

19:43 / 19.11.02

So yes, penises, erect and flaccidare as much of a staple in comics as any other commercial (and non-commercial) art forms. And ?

Murray Hamhandler

20:07 / 19.11.02

Come on, man. This is a huge problem. We need to stick more penises into mainstream books!

Matthew Fluxington

20:08 / 19.11.02

You know, as much as showing a penis in your comic might hurt your sales or get you in trouble, are you all so sure that the general lack of them in the overwhelming majority of comics has to do so much with the "taboo" or more to do with the lack of reasons for having the cocks appear in the first place? There's not all that many stories that really NEED to have graphic nudity in them, and just because you can show things doesn't mean that it will help your story if you threw them in for the hell of it.

20:19 / 19.11.02

I seem to remember some *really* phallic architecture in Sandman.

Murray Hamhandler

20:23 / 19.11.02

My personal problem (as it were) w/r/t a lack of genitalia in mainstream comics is the occasional full-frontal nude shot where the genitalia are somehow not there at all (for a wonderful example, look at the old Vertigo Prez special). If you're going to have nudity, have realistic, un-neutered nudity. Otherwise...just don't.

20:48 / 19.11.02

C'mon, let's talk about the bulge? Why's it there? Do some characters have bigger bulges than others? Do artists ever get dinged by continuity freaks for misdrawing the size of a character's bulge? Do bulges turn young comic readers into flaming homosexuals?

Comic art historians - where does the bulge make it's first appearance? Is the Golden Age bulge bigger than the Silver Age bulge? How 'bout Image Studio's bulges? How big were they?

Is the bulge borrowed from rock stars of the late 60s and 70s? Does being a mutant endow you with a really great unit as well as superpowers?

Artists - how does one learn to draw the bulge, it all its bulgetastic glory? How accurately does a superhero bulge reflect a real penis-in-spandex?

Was the prominance of the bulge part of the comics code? Did Wertham talk about the bulge in his book?

The bulge may be one of superhero comic's greatest and most influential gifts to popular culture. Obviously, the field of bulgology is in its infancy, but seems to me to be a rich treasure trove of sociological data.

22:26 / 19.11.02

Forgive the general ignorance of comic books, but do female genitals turn up that much by contrast to a penis? I mean, I'd guess (on the basis of flipping through the Frank Miller and Vertigo stuff I own) breasts are exposed pretty much all over, but how about vaginas?

Murray Hamhandler

23:17 / 19.11.02

Genitalia is a no-no in mainstream books of all stripes. Vertigo and the like are very big on the breasts, but organs of generation are off-limits in general.

23:34 / 19.11.02

The point about vaginas is quit true. It does seem that they are shown equal or less than that of the penis. One reason that makes sense for the lack of erect penii is that in film a flaccid one will get you an "R" rating while an erect one slaps you with an "X" or "NC-17" automatically. Therefore, I am guessing that there is a kind of non-spoken thing going on here, if not, it may just be a legal one.

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02:45 / 20.11.02

I'm going to have to look for some of these titles. Of course, being a horny gay virgin I usually have cock on my mind 90% of the day.

And I have no problem with fat people at all, I'm just saying that, of all the male characters in THE INVISIBLES that they could have shown a penis for, why Takashi for christ sake?

I'm all for gratitous nudity, especially if it has nothing to do with the story.

09:30 / 20.11.02

The Bulge ? Historically I doubt it’s been topped by the size on Howard Chaykin’s ‘American Flagg!’ (first series), where the main character looked like he’d have to walk bow-legged.

DBC

14:34 / 20.11.02

There was an early-mid 1990's 'Grendel' story by Matt Wagner that had a little blue grendel w/ an enormous blue penis. I think it was one of the 'Grendel Tales' books.

SecretlyClarkKent

17:08 / 20.11.02

The final issue of Wagner's Grendel: War Child was the first time I ever saw a penis in a comic book. I was relatively excited, being all of thirteen or fourteen years old at the time.

-Jared

17:17 / 20.11.02

I agree with Todd that cock is hidden all over comic books. All those heroes with cosmic rods and megarods and cosmic sceptres ejaculating energy all over the faces of their defeated foes.

17:41 / 21.11.02

I'd wager in most cases where a naked cock is used the author is trying to be artistic or make some sort of "statement". Porn aside, naturally. But I guess nothing says "I'm an artist" quite like a naked cock.

SecretlyClarkKent

00:18 / 22.11.02

I think, in the issue of Grendel: War Child that I mentioned, that Wagner literally just drew a naked guy. He's a guy. He was naked. He had a penis.

Sometimes a cock is just a cock.

12:03 / 26.11.02

Grendel has shown more cock in 'mainstream' North American comics in my mind. 2 more places I remember actually, The Robinson/Kristiansen "4 Devils 1 Hell[?]" and the beautiful "Devil's Choices" which featured a cock stroked by the villain's sword.

I can understand how genitalia in North American comics can seem subversive but having been raised on French graphic novels, I can testify that penises and vaginas are no strangers to full frontals. At some point, graphic novel porn was all the rage in European countries, but not, I suspect, the UK?

Oh, and how could you leave out Moore's/Gebbie's Lost Girls?