Batman exposed!

[The Romulan Republic]

Yes, that's right: for the first time, the Caped Crusader's Little Batman appeared in print- until DC quickly pulled the issue, leaving it as a rare collector's item.

Stephen Colbert, naturally, was quick to weigh in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6Wc5bSMsxc

"Batman is the nudist Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now."

Normally I'd give DC a hard time over yet another juvenile attempt to appear mature and edgy. But I'll give them a pass this once, due to the comedy value. And hey, they sexually objectify female superheroes all the time (even if they don't generally do full-frontal nudity), so maybe this is progress, of sorts. Kind of cheap to pull the issue, though. DC, don't be a cock tease (sorry, I couldn't resist).

If anyone's interested in seeing the Bat Cock in action, here's a link to Vox's article, complete with censored and uncensored images (NSFW, I suppose, though even in the uncensored shot, you can't see all that much): https://www.vox.com/2018/9/20/17882502/ ... comic-book

[U.P. Cinnabar]

To my the Bat Pole, Boy Wonder!

[FaxModem1]

So, the question has finally been answered, Batman dresses to the right.

[SpottedKitty]

To my the Bat Pole, Boy Wonder!

<snrk>

Can anyone remember where to find a page I saw a link to, with a pile of old comic panels with... erm... easily misinterpreted dialogue?

One example I remember in particular was a panel of Robin thinking to himself that Batman's plan required him to stand on this rooftop and expose himself...

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Googling that has yielded all manner of interesting results.

It also put me in mind of the "research" that went into SOTI.

[Ralin]

Can anyone remember where to find a page I saw a link to, with a pile of old comic panels with... erm... easily misinterpreted dialogue?

Superdickery?

[SpottedKitty]

Can anyone remember where to find a page I saw a link to, with a pile of old comic panels with... erm... easily misinterpreted dialogue?

Superdickery?

<clicky-google-clicky-clicky>

<snrk> Can't (yet) find the exact page I remember, but that looks about right.

[Q99]

<clicky-google-clicky-clicky>

<snrk> Can't (yet) find the exact page I remember, but that looks about right.

The original format site went down, here's the current version (harder to navigate IMO, but here's the seduction of the innocent tag for the suggestive ones), and they have a tumblr.

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Werthram would have had a field day with those.

[Elheru Aran]

Werthram would have had a field day with those.

I think, to a certain degree, that's the entire point...

Personally, I've always liked the work-arounds the industry came up with. Warren Publishing's black-and-white "magazines" are a decent example-- Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella, and so forth. Gorgeous artwork. The plots were usually a bit lame and very cheesy by modern standards, and occasionally you run into photo-tracings that would make Greg Land blush, but for the most part they were good cheesy fun. A little bit of titillation never hurt, either-- none of them ever really crossed the line into actually drawing people unclothed... but it sure didn't take much imagination, and considering their heyday was the 70s, it probably was the best a lot of kids could do before the Internet!

[U.P. Cinnabar]

Marvels Epic line as well, though to a lesser extent. Grew up on Conan and Vamprella.

[Q99]

I think, to a certain degree, that's the entire point...

Personally, I've always liked the work-arounds the industry came up with. Warren Publishing's black-and-white "magazines" are a decent example-- Eerie, Creepy, Vampirella, and so forth. Gorgeous artwork. The plots were usually a bit lame and very cheesy by modern standards, and occasionally you run into photo-tracings that would make Greg Land blush, but for the most part they were good cheesy fun. A little bit of titillation never hurt, either-- none of them ever really crossed the line into actually drawing people unclothed... but it sure didn't take much imagination, and considering their heyday was the 70s, it probably was the best a lot of kids could do before the Internet!

While I don't think the comic's code was good, the workarounds we got were quite interesting, and restrictions breed creativity and all that.I like where we ended up, and Vampirella and the like is fun stuff.

[Elheru Aran]

There was a lot of interesting stuff out there. Unfortunately by the time we got into the 90s, the Comics Code was mostly a thing of the past, Vertigo Comics had taken over a lot of the mature-content niche, and once the comics bubble burst in the mid-90s the surviving indie publishers were free to give the Code the finger. The remaining 'magazines' were mostly derivative crap trying to capitalize on names like Frazetta and more famous artists like Richard Corben or Moebius. Heavy Metal is about the only proper comic-magazine remaining, outside of some European publications.

There was some fascinating stuff coming out back in the day, like Italian fumetti-- taking photo stills and adding balloons and captions. Looks silly to us, but it was a way to merchandize films which would otherwise have been obscure or unknown in the US (once they were translated, anyway). And half the fun is looking at the kitschy stuff they marketed in those magazines, like life-size posters of Vampirella, model kits of Uncle Creepy, Genuine Real Life Rubber Masks of the Universal Monsters, the ever-popular X-ray glasses and so forth... it really was a different world.

[SpottedKitty]

The original format site went down, here's the current version (harder to navigate IMO, but here's the seduction of the innocent tag for the suggestive ones), and they have a tumblr.

And I finally found the panel I mentioned upthread — at the bottom of page 11 of the "Robin" tag.

While I was getting there, though, I found... hooboy...

[Q99]

There was a lot of interesting stuff out there. Unfortunately by the time we got into the 90s, the Comics Code was mostly a thing of the past, Vertigo Comics had taken over a lot of the mature-content niche, and once the comics bubble burst in the mid-90s the surviving indie publishers were free to give the Code the finger. The remaining 'magazines' were mostly derivative crap trying to capitalize on names like Frazetta and more famous artists like Richard Corben or Moebius. Heavy Metal is about the only proper comic-magazine remaining, outside of some European publications.

There was some fascinating stuff coming out back in the day, like Italian fumetti-- taking photo stills and adding balloons and captions. Looks silly to us, but it was a way to merchandize films which would otherwise have been obscure or unknown in the US (once they were translated, anyway). And half the fun is looking at the kitschy stuff they marketed in those magazines, like life-size posters of Vampirella, model kits of Uncle Creepy, Genuine Real Life Rubber Masks of the Universal Monsters, the ever-popular X-ray glasses and so forth... it really was a different world.

The loss of the magazines is kinda sad, but overall I think we're better off. And a lot of Euro stuff is still more similar to the older stuff.