posted
Okay, being a fan of just about ever incarnation of the legion (not so much on the 5yl) and longtime reader...I've come to realize something.
I favor skirts over the unitard look. Now, nothing wrong with the designs that Cockrum gave us for characters like Shrinking Violet, but I, being a crass, crude, and most importantly male guy, like legs. Legs are nice.
Gary Frank kid some nice art work in the Action stuff if I am remembering correctly.
I just like'em.
So, on the all important issue of skirts vs. unitards, where do you come down?
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
posted
I dunno, Cockrum's Violet look gave her legs all the way up to freakin' THERE, Rick.
What about the bathing-suit style as worn by Shady during Adventure and revamped by Cockrum, and like Jeckie during Adventure, and Nura in... everything...
posted
It's so interesting that you've started this topic rickshaw1, because I have begun a bizarre new series of sketches.
As a fan artist, I have often enjoyed depicting the characters in sexy ways, particularly the females. Recently, I began designing new characters and I found myself not wanting them to look like sex objects. I wanted to be able to show them to my wife and daughter. This made me notice more than ever how often the female characters in comics, including Legion comics, bare way more skin than the males do. Of course, this is not new to me, it's just that I'm paying more attention to it. This leads to the bizarre new sketches I've been doing.
I've been trying to figure out how to make many famous female characters look cool with most of their skin covered up. I'm finding Wonder Woman to be the most challenging. Zatanna is real easy - just slip on some black pants over the fishnets. The Legionnaires are fairly easy to cover up without making them look totally weird. My favorite, Dream Girl, has always basically been in a bathing suit with varying degrees of accessories. I simply give her a unitard with similar accessories. I'm sure I'll be posting these sketches sooner or later at Bits.
The point is, I'm personally currently interested in removing the sexuality from female comic book costuming. Yeah, it's weird and new to me.
Here's the thing - a woman wearing a unitard or fully dressed can be just as sexy as a scantily clad one. Maybe even sexier. Also, sexy clothing and swimwear and lingerie have their places, I'm just thinking maybe not so much as an action costume.
cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
The trouble with miniskirts is that you can see up them.
Frankly, I'm just bored and fed up with women always being the sex that's forever "on display." It has as much to do with how they're posed as how they're dressed. If you study the average superhero comic with a critical eye, it's pretty tough not to notice the lack of symmetry at work.
At least if a female's in a miniskirt, give her some damn tights, or something like the current Supergirl's "bike shorts" beneath. Bare legs just look goofy.
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From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
Dean, I fully agree that things can be sexed up too much.
But, when you think about it, the unitards are basically just the nude female form painted over in comcs.
Notice, I said skirts, not micro mini's that are pretty much embarrasing for everyone not going through the unhallowed halls of puberty. I think a skirt can be attractive, functional, and still sexy without being skanky.
-------------------- Damn you, you kids! Get off my lawn or I'm callin' tha cops!
cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
(snip)
quote:...But, when you think about it, the unitards are basically just the nude female form painted over in comics.
Then I move that we get twelve months' worth of Legion comics where the guys all get stuffed into cute little skirts with low-cut tops. I mean, if it's the same as a unitard and all. I'll be more than happy to call them "kilts" and "pec aerators... OF SPACE" so you all can save your dignity.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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cleome46
or you can do the confusion 'til your head falls off
posted
Oh, and Sketchy, if you've seen the episode of the JLA/JLU where "Justice Lord" Diana appeared, you've seen my favorite Wonder Woman costume.
-------------------- Hey, Kids! My "Cranky and Kitschy" collage art is now viewable on flickr. Drop by and tell me that I sent you.
From: Vanity, OR | Registered: Dec 2008
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posted
Cover the cooter. Those things can catch cold you know.
Superwomen boob shots are so inculcated, I can see why it would be difficult even for an artist that's trying, to come up with something new. I think that's one reason I like the Sensor Girl uniform. It's a very powerful look to me, a bit of Batman because of the mystery it carries. Same with The Question. Jenni's and Jesse Quick's outfits were also pretty good, IMO.
However, don't mess with Powergirl. lol
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by rickshaw1: Notice, I said skirts, not micro mini's that are pretty much embarrasing for everyone not going through the unhallowed halls of puberty. I think a skirt can be attractive, functional, and still sexy without being skanky.
As I said in the WW topic in Gym'll's though, skirts are screwed either way - either they're so short they're cosmetic additions to a leotard, or they're long enough that the wearer would get tangled up in them if they tried to run!
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
posted
Capes can hinder functionality too. So, if a heroine has a cape and a skirt, she's got a lot to manage. Add long, flowing hair and she might as well just give up.
I agree with 'Incredibles' capes are generally a hinderance.
Shady is the only one, other then the Supers who wrap up people in them when they travel high or fast, whose cape is anything but cosmetic.
And I'm with cleome on skirts.
I prefer, on the non-physical combats like Mysa and Imra, the skirt WITH unitard.
And I want cloth, not paint. Crystal's current yellow look in the Inhumans is just lazy on the artists part and ugly.
I'd like all of the super females out of swim suites and into 'real' clothes, including Shady and Wonder Woman.
I'm excited to see Sketch's new work!
I'd love to get my computer fixed so I could sketch some things myself and show you but I'll have to see.
-------------------- 'In the twinkling of an eye' I'll be dancing in the sky!
Come, join me!
From: Salem, Oregon USA | Registered: Aug 2003
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Set
There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.
posted
Wonder Woman wore armor once. Terribly unrealistic form-fitting armor, but still, very cool-looking armor. I'd love to see a combination of character styles dressed up and dressed down. For Laurel Kent, she's invulnerable, she can wear darn near nothing and be fine, but Shadow Lass wears ridiculously little cloathing for an active melee combatant. It would be like Karate Kid running around in a bannana hammock and some fancy wristbands.
If the artists want to show off the Legionnaires bodies and provide a little fan-service, they could do what artists have done for decades, and show them out of uniform from time to time, such as Phantom Girl's 'lingerie shot' in the beginning of the Shooter run or the various times that Legionnaires have been shown with their shirts off, for various reasons.
Unitards, uniforms (Imra's costume has always looked like some sort of military dress uniform, and it would be neat to find out that it actually *is* a Titanian uniform), etc. are cool. Bikinis and skirts don't really make sense, although I'm sure Mr. Grell would disagree with me, given his fondness of having the Warlord of Skarteris running around in a loincloth made from a squirrel.
That being said, I do like skintight costumes on some characters. It's fine that Mon-El dresses in a loose-fitting shirt and Mysa's got her full dress / witches robe thing going on, but for every one of them, there's someone like Violet or Garth who wears Space-Spandex and looks good doing so.
Nura, IMO, was even sexier in the Threeboot, wearing pants, than she was in her classic silver space bikini. So, sometimes, less is more.
Registered: Aug 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Set: It would be like Karate Kid running around in a bannana hammock and some fancy wristbands.
I wouldn't mind seeing that.
-------------------- Five billion years from now the Sun will go nova and obliterate the Earth. Don't sweat the small stuff!
From: Boston | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
and put some cloths on Michelangelo's David, while we're at it.
The question of "paint" versus cloths does beg another answer, body forms can better show off the action, the stress of the fight. Tight fitting uniforms are more practical in battle and give the artist more lines to work with than a baggy uniform.
I'm all for covering up a bit but wouldn't want everyone wearing off-the-shelf from Value City.
From: East Toledo | Registered: Jul 2003
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posted
And I notice Mr Shaw, in claiming the female characters are at risk of unitard-style costumes ripping in inappropriate places and so they should wear skirts, isn't making the same point of the MALE characters...
-------------------- My views are my own and do not reflect those of everyone else... and I wouldn't have it any other way.
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