New Beginning

So Intrepid Space Heroes is doing weird things. I decided that I didn't like the place where I had started the story in the one comic I actually posted last September. So since then I have nearly finished a new start page but halfway through coloring it I've changed my mind again.

Part of my problem is that I have a lot of characters with way a lot of backstory and I'm impatient to share it all. I had decided to pause the actual start and try and crank out a little self contained story about Terry on a dinosaur planet and I have spent the last couple months designing a queen of the Terror Birds.

Last week though I had a weird dream about being dropped in a giant marketplace/cityscape that was a man made island. All the floors where winding sloping grated pathways that spidered in and out of huge open domes. While dwelling on this dream at work it occurred to me that this would be the perfect setting for a bit of an origin story reminiscent of the opening scene in the first episode of Firefly. A little blurb from the department of backstory as it were.

If you want to do me a favor let me know what you'd rather see. Vote 1 for Terry and the Terror Birds, 2 for The As Yet Untitled Origin Story.

Proof that I think too much...

I did some Superman doodles with my awesome new cheapass ballpoint pen and my fantabulous markers.



So, somehow despite the fact that it should be utterly ridiculous, this is a snazzy outfit. I didn't have quite the right shade of yellow but it works OK. His waxy tan is courtesy of Crayola and their classic "peach" that's as close as most marker sets come to a Caucasian skin tone.

Anyway, I just wonder how the hell this thing works.

Is it a onesy?

He's gotta stretch the neck and step into the thing? And then it sort of snaps taut when it gets into place. That would explain why it's always one piece hanging in the closet. Or is it...

Separates?

Hey, the man wears tight boots in all kinds of weather. Arctic chill, deep space. He probably needs some warm socks. His mother probably knit those for him. So don't knock the socks. So maybe it's four pieces which seems less silly than the onesy. Obviously the belt is magic and keeps all the pieces stuck together in combat.



The image of the Man of Steel putting on stockings was too powerful to resist. I like to think that inside the red panties is a hidden garter system. I call that circus stool the Super Poof. I think it demonstrates clearly why the yellow needs to be downplayed in the outfit. I love the drape of the cape in this one and his pushed out ass.

And now that these drawings are done I can stop thinking about this.

ETA: There is something delightful about drawing Superman's toes.

Sensitivity

So, I've been reading Penny Arcade for a long time. Not since the very beginning, but I've been following it off and on for years.

And then there was this comic. Warning, if you click that link you will find a rape joke.

Frankly it's blue humor in the same vein as lots of stuff they've done before. I thought it was funny. I still do, though now I feel guilty about it. Apparently a lot of people found it really offensive and wrote in to complain. The PA guys were less than sympathetic because, as they pointed out in a blog post, this isn't new humor to their strip. Then they did a follow up strip here.

That second one did actually bother me. I didn't think it was funny. But even though it offended me, I didn't dwell on it particularly.

But then today I stumbled on this blog post, at a site called Shakesville that is pretty cool. The thing is, the author is correct about our culture, about the fact that this one rape joke does not exist in a vacuum, etc (just read her post, it's good and I'm not gonna rehash it here). Also thinking about it, how do justify defending yourself for making an offensive joke by mentioning that you've made lots of similar jokes?

I've never really subscribed to that weird theory that stuff like South Park is somehow not offensive because they strive to offend everyone equally. Less is more, but more is never less.

But here's my real dilemma. I consider myself to be conscientious about various civil and human rights issues. But I also like Penny Arcade, at least most of the time. And it's not just PA. I have watched and enjoyed Family Guy, South Park, Drawn Together and plenty of other really reprehensible and entirely offensive shows. Now there are some episodes of all of those that I won't watch because they are too gross, violent, or offensive (usually a combination of all three) but I still watch the new ones. Maybe it's because with their scattershot approach to humor and that striving to be as offensive as possible, the odds are about 50/50 that I'll agree with whatever tack they've taken today. Making fun of organized religion? It's pretty likely I'm gonna laugh at that shit. Non-stop diarrhea and vomit? Yeah, I'm probably gonna change the channel as soon as it becomes apparent that this is a running gag. So I keep watching.

But here's the thing, I watch these shows and I know that what I'm seeing, even as I'm laughing at it, is offensive. It's racist, it's homophobic, it's sexist, these are jokes that I would never ever make. But I have this little brother. He's a teenager. Actually he's almost not a teenager anymore. He's going off to college this fall. And he makes repeats the shit he hears on South Park. The last time we were in Vegas he had just seen the episode of South Park where Cartman gets HIV and whenever he's asked a question he answers along the lines of, "Am I sure? I'm HIV positive."

So we're in Las Vegas at...the Mirage, standing in line to see a drag show (because my family loves drag), and he keeps repeating this joke. I am hissing at him trying frantically to get him to shut the hell up. I said, "Look I don't have the time to fully explain to you why that joke is particularly inappropriate at this venue, you just need to take my word for it and stop." Didn't do much good.

He and his teenage friends are constantly making racist, sexist, and homophobic jokes all the time, and god forbid I should take offense. To be fair, they are teenagers. Teenagers are stupid. Also I'm the big sister, and he knows this shit bugs me, and it's in his genes to bug me as much as possible. But I worry that he really doesn't get it. Maybe he really doesn't understand how damaging this kind of humor is, and maybe it's my fault. I watch this stuff and laugh and he watches it with me. There's a caveat in my brain that says that outside the context of this show this stuff is wrong. If someone came up to me on the street and made a comment anything like the average gag line in an episode of South Park I would let them have it. But in the comfort of my own home I laugh.

Do I have a moral obligation to stop watching these shows, stop reading this comic, stop consuming stuff that is only funny because it is self-admittedly as offensive as possible? I've occasionally referred to these shows as a "guilty pleasure." But today it's too guilty.