FRIDAY NEWPOST - "FanService" and Sexy Ladies in Comics

There's been a bit of a kerfuffle recently over an almost ridiculously sexy Spider-Woman cover drawn by Milo Manara. I was quite surprised by the uproar, actually - voluptuous ladies in skin-tight outfits is definitely not new to comics. For whatever reason, this particular drawing seems to have crossed a (seemingly arbitrary) line into unacceptable territory.

Personally, I was more intrigued by critiques of this cover that approached it from a this-is-bad-art perspective. This article shows how one person made a horrifying 3D rendered version of this Spider Woman. I also really liked this blog, where another artist picks apart the anatomical issues with the covers.

Generally I think that the comic book world - and the world of cheesy superhero comics in particular - is a place for fantasy so this isn't that big of a deal. That being said, on a personal level a cover like this one might turn me off of the comic unless I was already familiar with the content.

Does this sort of thing bother you? Do you think women in comics are generally 'over-sexualized'? Do comic artists have a responsibility to present their characters in a realistic way?

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