Insight into the Comic Book Industry 

supersachi:

eschergirls:

selkiesiun submitted:

This is not so much a critique post as it is a conformation of how absurd the standards of art in the comic book industry have become.

I traveled to San Diego Comic Con this year and participated in the portfolio reviews they where holding from Thursday to Sunday. Although I will admit I am not the best artist in the world, I really wanted to try and show them that comic book art could be done in a realistic manor while still keeping the superhuman aesthetics of the art form.

This Batwoman piece was the work that I gained the most flack for from all the companies because the anatomy was as they quoted ‘not industry standard.’ At one company (which I shall choose to not name) I was given a full critique on the anatomical incorrections as the following.

“Her breasts are much too small and do not have the lift that superhero women should have. Her jawline is fat and her neck much too long. The style of her hair is clunky and does not flow in a sense that a super human would. Her hips, waist and thighs are too big and she honestly looks fat. No one is going to want to read a comic with a fat female protagonist. I honestly recommend looking at issues of Sport’s Illustrated to get the right anatomy. Those women are the peak of human perfection, and that is what we want in this industry.”

Peak of human perfection? I don’t know about you, but I don’t see living on salad and dietary pills as perfection.

I would like to say this was just the opinion of one editor from one company, but I found similar opinions at almost every review I went to. By the end I was pretty upset, having been following this blog for very long and trying hard to make my anatomy believable and human. But this is not something the comic book industry seems to want, and it’s something that I thought everyone deserved to be informed on.

Again, this is not to bring attention to me and my own art, but rather inform the community of just what their artistic standards are, and why so many what we deem ‘bad artists’ are able to get full careers working for these companies.

Your Batwoman pic is awesome, and it’s not like you didn’t give her curves or anything and her breasts aren’t small.  What do they think swimsuit models look like in a costume anyway?  And honestly, your piece is a lot closer to that SI cover than a lot of the “industry standard” art, but it is interesting that they consider Sports Illustrated swimsuit models as what superheroines should look like (even though they don’t end up looking like SI swimsuit models either.)

It doesn’t surprise me though, but it’s sad that that is considered the “peak of human perfection”.  I think they’re confusing “what I find attractive in women” and “a woman at the peak of athletic perfection” much less “human perfection.”

(As a note, I don’t think we should assume that professional models necessarily exist on diet pills and salads, nor that thin people are necessarily unhealthily starving themselves.  Also, SI images probably are quite touched up too.)

this post was written about in a deviantart journal that made it to the footer, the section at the bottom of deviantart where all the top journals are. i clicked it, read it… and just had to comment!! my comment on it was:

oh my gosh, WOW!!! reading that critique they gave that illustration made me SO MAD, wtf. it’s nothing short of sickening. absolutely sickening, that they claim that the sports illustrated girls are “perfection.” as if there IS such a thing as human perfection. (well actually i guess if you consider that women on magazine covers are often photoshopped as heck, sure they look perfect.) just… wow. please let me kick that person in the head. XD

and for the record i think the illustration looks good, and the artist is talented!!

yep i was pretty angry. and guess what, i will enter that contest. i think it will be very interesting…

btw i am glad i discovered the escher girls blog. again, very interesting! and i quickly decided to follow.

both in the comic book industry and the rest of the entertainment industry in general, there’s too much sexualization of women. men are sexualized too but not as much as women are. of course, decades ago i’m sure it was worse than this, but still. it’s uneven, don’t you think? there is more pressure on women to not only be “beautiful” but “perfect.” that’s what really irritated me when i read that. you can see my comment above where i said that there is no such thing as human perfection. (well unless you photoshop and airbrush it.) i don’t care if women/girls want to look “beautiful,” that’s a normal, okay thing to feel. (as long as you don’t overdo it.) but the problem is that there is a concept of “perfection” when it comes to sexualization of women… and it leads women and girls in real life to feel too imperfect. well they will never be good enough if they try to conform to these people’s standards!!