mcDuffies wrote:
I wanted to comment on this earlier, actually. I always felt that portray of sexual relationships in comics is unrealistic in that characters are always grown-up virgins to whom sexual relationship is the ultimate end of single life, like, find the true love of your life, and only then have sex. Specially female characters are too prude for a realistic portrait of average today's woman.
Yes. And I wouldn't narrow it to just comics.
My struggle with this sorta thing more involves my wanting to deprive my characters of happiness rather then to desexualize them. But I think I made a few wrong turns so a lot of my audience thinks this is about whether Charles and Mary get together when I'm not really interested in that. SEems about as likely as Charles and Jason'll hook up.
I thought that 8:1 was pretty much realistic in that matter. You never get to hear characters talking about how was their first time, because their first time was so long ago that it became irrelevant. I was touched by a lot of sexually-related issues in the comic because I knew people (good people) who had near-identical problems.
rkolter wrote:For as low as my purity score is, you would think that I'd be all over sex stuff in a comic, but I'm really not; I'm actually very prudish when it comes to writing and find it very difficult to write good sex. I'm pretty sure if I -could- draw sex, I probably would not feel comfortable doing so.
It's always those with lowest purity score that make the purest comic, just ask Net.
Robin and me concluded that problem of that test was it rated only what you got to do, not what's inside your head.
I'd shy away from sex... maybe.
And nudity? They're already naked.
Violence? No way! I want blood!
Drugs? Oh come on... who doesn't do drugs in their comic nowadays?
...please stop staring.
Anyway, on the serious note, if there was anything I'd really shy away from is maybe any serious racial comments (stereotypes are fine with me so long as they help build the characters) and maybe shock humor. I just don't go with being "shocked" and all. >.>
mcDuffies wrote:It's always those with lowest purity score that make the purest comic, just ask Net.
Robin and me concluded that problem of that test was it rated only what you got to do, not what's inside your head.
In webcomics? I tend to not want to draw sexual activity. There's enough of that out there, and I've never really had a drive to draw such a thing. Plus it limits the audience a little bit, and thats no fun.
Caught in the headlamp glare of your own blinding vanity/Mesmerised by the stare of your shallow personality
Gorging the junk food of flattery you drag your fat ego around/Everyone floored by the battering you give to whoever's around
Oh Narcissus you petulant child admiring yourself in the curve of my eyes/Oh Narcissus you angel beguiled unsated by self you do nothing but die
webkilla wrote:
hey - come on - keep an open mind... and in case of the fanart an open bucket, some towels, three donkeys and a well-lubed midget with a trumpet
I wanted to comment on this earlier, actually. I always felt that portray of sexual relationships in comics is unrealistic in that characters are always grown-up virgins to whom sexual relationship is the ultimate end of single life, like, find the true love of your life, and only then have sex. Specially female characters are too prude for a realistic portrait of average today's woman. I guess it's partly a plot device because authors want to have this long, lingering romantic story arc through the comic, but in part it must be that, in average, webcomic artists themselves have under average sexual experience (including me).
I've always tried to present sexual life as casual as it is around me. In "Kill'er now" I had the romantic story wrapped up near the beginning because I thought that would turn attention from the main story. That readers would be more interested in seeing if they're gonna boink each other in the end instead of what's important.
Well everything in most comics is exaggerated...people go on extensive ongoing adventures that would never happen to anyone in real life, solve mysteries more complex than anything in real life and engage in over the top action/fight scenes (in real life most fights are over in a few seconds and are basically decided by who punches first).
The same thing goes for relationships. There's nothing particularly dramatic about most real life relationships...they typically are either short and meaningless, or lengthy relationships that go through ups and downs over a periods of years or decades...not something that fits neatly into a comic-strip storyline. Chick Flicks and romantic movies don't really show relationships in a realistic light, but that's because in real life relationships are either far to long lasting and complex to be summed up in a 90 minute movie or are just kind of short and depressing. While you can strive to be a bit more realistic than the latest Jennifer Garner movie when writing relationship storylines, you still gotta fudge things a little in order to keep people interested and your characters sympathetic.
A zoo full of cute yet uproariously funny animals...how can you go wrong?
I wanted to comment on this earlier, actually. I always felt that portray of sexual relationships in comics is unrealistic in that characters are always grown-up virgins to whom sexual relationship is the ultimate end of single life, like, find the true love of your life, and only then have sex. Specially female characters are too prude for a realistic portrait of average today's woman. I guess it's partly a plot device because authors want to have this long, lingering romantic story arc through the comic, but in part it must be that, in average, webcomic artists themselves have under average sexual experience (including me).
I've always tried to present sexual life as casual as it is around me. In "Kill'er now" I had the romantic story wrapped up near the beginning because I thought that would turn attention from the main story. That readers would be more interested in seeing if they're gonna boink each other in the end instead of what's important.
Well everything in most comics is exaggerated...people go on extensive ongoing adventures that would never happen to anyone in real life, solve mysteries more complex than anything in real life and engage in over the top action/fight scenes (in real life most fights are over in a few seconds and are basically decided by who punches first).
The same thing goes for relationships. There's nothing particularly dramatic about most real life relationships...they typically are either short and meaningless, or lengthy relationships that go through ups and downs over a periods of years or decades...not something that fits neatly into a comic-strip storyline. Chick Flicks and romantic movies don't really show relationships in a realistic light, but that's because in real life relationships are either far to long lasting and complex to be summed up in a 90 minute movie or are just kind of short and depressing. While you can strive to be a bit more realistic than the latest Jennifer Garner movie when writing relationship storylines, you still gotta fudge things a little in order to keep people interested and your characters sympathetic.
You don't think real life relationships are dramatic? Well, then you have obviously not witnessed a couple in a fight. My roommate and her boyfriend are always at each others throats. They break up and make up one a weekly basis. And now that I'm thinking about it my roommate and her boyfriend remind me a lot of some of the stuff I've seen in Candi.
People who can't write a realistic couple and make it interesting are either not trying very hard, not focusing on the romance, or just not paying attention to how people behave.
mcDuffies wrote:I thought that 8:1 was pretty much realistic in that matter. You never get to hear characters talking about how was their first time, because their first time was so long ago that it became irrelevant. I was touched by a lot of sexually-related issues in the comic because I knew people (good people) who had near-identical problems.
That's good to hear. It seems the obsessive second-guessing is serving a purpose.
princess wrote:if you have nudity in your comic you can blame that for not being popular
if you don't have nudity in your comic you can blame that for not being popular
Quoted for truth.
mcDuffies wrote:
i mean, honestly, drawing eldrich tentacle god/prussian light cavalry sex scenes - too much of a bother!
Gonna keep bragging about how shocking your comic is for much longer?[/quote]
webkilla wrote:
i mean, honestly, drawing eldrich tentacle god/prussian light cavalry sex scenes - too much of a bother!
Gonna keep bragging about how shocking your comic is for much longer?
Heh heh.
I find it oddly amusing... plus I'm weird like that (also, my avg. readership for the whole of May has been half of what its been for the last three months - so some extra love from in here woudln't hurt)
Well everything in most comics is exaggerated...people go on extensive ongoing adventures that would never happen to anyone in real life, solve mysteries more complex than anything in real life and engage in over the top action/fight scenes (in real life most fights are over in a few seconds and are basically decided by who punches first).
There are realistic comics too, where all those things don't happen and people are supposed to deal with everyday problems, but such comics have the same problems.
Besides, I wouldn't fall to the line of thought "It can't be done" and "this way is the only that could be". I'm interested in seeing something like that because I can identify better with things that are closer to my life experiences (character-wise if not plot-wise). I don't think that the reason is that realistic relationships are uninteresting (hell they are), it's just that average webcartoonist doesn't exactly have a rich social life so he replaces it with (equally unrealistic) comic and film stereotypes.
I really wouldn't give a second thought to graphic vi0lence. Hey, in a lot of my upcoming projects, there's plenty of fighting written in, so it really is kind of necessary.
But I don't like to follow the "shocking, in your face" sort of mould. (see that bit in Pan's Labyrinth where that dude hits the onther one with the bottle? Yeah, not that). I think that, if done right, a certain level of vi0lence, when done with a bit of class, can really illustrate the intensity of the character's situation.
...Also, it can be really cool.
note: any l337 used in the previous post was used ony to avoid the poster's Cybersitter.
I basically don't shy away from anything as long as the story calls for it and it doesn't seem like it's there for no reason.
That said, there are alot of things that the story will never really call for. I mean, sure I could actually draw the sex scenes (if there are any) but that isn't what I want to focus on, and if I did that, there would be no way to not focus on it.
Cursing is all in my comic, but only certain characters curse alot because that is realistic, and I know plenty of people who curse like that. It's a personality thing. Everything has to be appropriate to the story and the characters, whether it's nudity, swearing, or something else.
I probably would never include alot of gore or violence because I have a humorous slice-of-life comic and that would really come out of left field. O,o
(also, my avg. readership for the whole of May has been half of what its been for the last three months - so some extra love from in here woudln't hurt)
