It was with great unending horror that I read a preview copy of Moonstone's MILF Magnet. Full of naked people, sexual gadgetry, and outright bondage, I wept for the foundational creators of our great medium. Like Steve Ditko...
Jack Kirby...
and of course the forerunners of what would become DC Comics:
But more to the point, what has happened to Moonstone Books, who used to put out such wholesome entertainment as Johnny Dollar? Do they think that by publishing such an obviously ribald and offensive comic book, they will suddenly have all these people blogging about them and tons of publicity? Has that ever worked before?
However, the bulk of my sizable ire is reserved for Mr. Tony Lee, the writer of this monstrous stack of paper. Mr. Lee, this is the plot of your comic book: a superhero, Taser, finds himself irresistibly attractive to older women -- or MILFs, to use the common nomenclature. And so he finds himself having sex with one older woman after another. That is the plot of the book. No Cosmic Cube. No Anti-Life Equation. Just fucking.
As noted, there are many unclothed body parts in MILF Magnet. Plus: the word "masturbation." Do those elements have any place in our beloved superhero genre? Isn't this how civilizations fall? Comic-By-Comic?
Most disturbing was a scene where Taser is mostly naked and chained up while a sexy lady in a corset rubs her body next to his. This scene was so irrevocably wrong and immoral that I had to read it several times in order to fully give expression and understanding to the outrage I felt.
Is this the start of a trend at Moonstone? Isn't adapting public domain radio shows enough for you guys? Do you need to stick your collective toe into Howard Stern territory?
But again -- I feel the buck stops with Mr. Tony "Doctor Who?" Lee.
Mr. Lee, I am hereby "calling you out" -- give up your immoral scribing! Do not be a party to the downfall of the venerable Moonstone Books, a corrupting influence to the publisher who brought us the return of both Mr. Moto and Captain Action!
So I'm urging you all not to click on this link for MILF Magnet, and, if you must, to read the page quickly, skipping over all the unpleasantries.
As for me...I'm so disgusted right now I'm going to order a turkey burger -- hold the fries, extra ketchup -- and a stuffed baked potato with broccoli and cheese. And no, that's not a cleverly-hidden sexual reference. Not everybody has their mind in the gutter...like apparently Mr. Tony Lee!
I am so confused.
ReplyDeleteYou'll have my reply in next week's He's Only A Writer, D'Orazio. Your ire has irked me.
ReplyDeleteJesus, I give out the preview PDf to loads of people and it's always the CHICK that kicks off...
I do love that Johnny Dollar though. The writer really nailed him.
Yes. NAILED HIM. I used a sex response.
Boo hoo.
"Comic-by-Comic"? But I like that blog ...
ReplyDeleteI've never had a baked potato with broccoli -- in this context, though, it sounds really good.
ReplyDeleteI wish I was a MILF magnet. Then I'd have friends who could wear all that bondage gear I keep finding on my doorstep.
this can't be the first porno comic you've ever seen? These things seemed to be everywhere in the 90s. I save my outrage for the people who buy these things, not the people that create them. If there wasn't any demand for Captain MILF (btw, that's a way better name) it wouldn't exist.
ReplyDeleteOf course I'm a complete hypocrite when it comes to the subject of racy comics. I've taken a comission or two in the past that were.. lets say they were of questionable subject matter.
I don't want to know what you plan on doing with a picture of a topless wonder woman fighting a giant snake, just so long as the check clears.
I've seen a couple of minicomics with this same kind of idea but I never really saw them as disrepectful of the women. They were more along the lines of being a self-parody of the creator's own attractions and weaknesses. Simply put, the woman was obviously the empowered character. And, of course these were just toss off minicomics where the creator was not asking an audience or a publisher to invest much time energy or money.
ReplyDeleteI've honestly been expecting for someone to turn the MILF thing on it's head and embrace the thing kind of in the way Tori Amos does in her song Big Wheel. The term Super MILF comes to mind. Because, well, moms are awesome and do perform feats of wonder normal humans can't even begin to understand on a daily basis. Would something like that be out of line? Disrespectful? Sexist? If it were done by a man? If it were done by a woman? It's the "F" in the MILF sandwich that makes it hard to handle but it is also what makes it a catch phrase and what makes folks at a company like Moonstone think, "Oh yeah, sure 'MILF Magnet', that's a great idea. Yeah, we want to be the guys that do classic characters like The Phantom, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes and... MILF Magnet. Genius!".
Oh boy....
ReplyDeleteI don't normally get lost in sarcasm, but I am like, Colombus triumphantly arriving in India. Where, what? Who? WHAT?
ReplyDeleteC'mon, this is a goof. You're both working your respective audiences, right? Staged web feud for cheap & easy Friday entertainment?
ReplyDeleteThis made me chuckle...can't go to that link at work, though. :)
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I hear Claude Rains from CASABLANCA. "Shocked! SHOCKED!"
Eh, just a porn comic. They've been around for years. Mankind has found a way to put filth in/on every kind of entertainment and information tool ever created, and comics are no different. Just ignore them. I would have had no idea this comic existed until I saw this post.
ReplyDelete"C'mon, this is a goof. You're both working your respective audiences, right? Staged web feud for cheap & easy Friday entertainment?"
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, sir --
he called me *sweetcheeks*
That, to the usually gentle Italians of the Abruzzi region, is a call to war.
>This scene was so irrevocably wrong and immoral that I had to read it several times in order to fully give expression and understanding to the outrage I felt.
ReplyDeleteSeveral, huh? Hmm...I didn't say a thing, Val.
As someone who both reviews comics and sends out the comics I make for possible review, and having looked at Tony Lee's live journal, I have a couple of suggestions. 1) Don't send out a big random mass mailing (or emailing) of promos. Send the stuff to the sites that might be interested in or at least not infuriated by them. Do your homework on the reviewer before you waste each other's time. 2) There are good ways and bad ways to react to a negative review. Lee has chosen the bad way.
ReplyDelete"That, to the usually gentle Italians of the Abruzzi region, is a call to war."
ReplyDeleteUh-oh! Time to go to the mattresses!
Um, in a Godfather type way... not the sexual type way.
THIS is what Lee is so upset over?
ReplyDeleteThis is harmless.
That guy REALLY needs to get his head checked.
SWEET CHEEKS.
ReplyDeleteSWEET.
CHEEKS.
AS IN CHEEKS THAT ARE SWEET.
Bite me, D'Orazio.
"Full of naked people, sexual gadgetry, and outright bondage..."
ReplyDeleteI hope you're being sarcastic here. I mean, yes, the comic looks like sexploitation of women, but those particular things I quoted are not wrong. Maybe because the context they're used in--to titillate at the expense of objectifying women--they are to be criticized, but not on their own.
@ Val -
ReplyDelete"With all due respect, sir --
he called me *sweetcheeks*"
Well, you've got me there...
... oh dear. I mean really? is it that big a deal? sex happens get over it.... :D
ReplyDeleteholy smokes. I (so far) enjoy your blog but, take off the habit lady and get a life.
ReplyDeletethere is porn everywhere and people LIKE it. don't read it if you don't
simple.
MILF Magnet almost sounds like a Michael Kupperman character.
ReplyDeleteIt is shocking to me.
ReplyDeleteShocking.
That people don't get sarcasm.
That said, I am still so confused.
"MILF Magnet almost sounds like a Michael Kupperman character."
ReplyDeleteOr something of out Flaming Carrot.
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ReplyDelete