Okay kids, here’s the thing. Drawing is hard, drawing under a deadline is hard, drawing under a deadline when the paycheck really isn’t that great is hard. Add “I’m sorry I disappointed anyone, I’ll try harder next time,” to that last sentence, and that’s the index card I’d give to every artist who’s dealing with criticism from drawing a crappy thing.
As Nathan pointed out earlier, when you hire an erotic comic book artist to draw a mainstream comic book cover, you might be asking a lot to get that guy to tone it down. Definitely some of the blame for the Spider-Woman #1 variant should go to Marvel.
So it’s great that in response to his cover artwork, Milo Manara says:
I don’t know what to say. I just try to do my best, since 40 years to date. Nobody is perfect, and I may be wrong; simply, I’m a professional, so I do my best.
What you should never do is apologize and then elaborate. Italian site Fumetto Logica decided to ask Milo Manara to talk about it further, and I don’t even think you’ll believe me if I quote from it. You may have to read it yourself. (The English translation is at the bottom of the page.) Some of the amazing parts:
It seems to me that both in the United States and around the world, there are things much more important and serious to worry about. What’s happened in Ferguson, or Ebola’s dramatic rise, for example.
“Racism and incurable deadly disease is way more important than one crappy art” is hard logic to argue with, I guess.
Unless the point is that, in these days, a sort of hypersensitivity to erotic images is spreading, maybe due to the ongoing discussions we are facing related to Islam.
He just… did he just? So if we find artwork distasteful, we’re all radical Islamists?
As for how the drawing is “anatomically incorrect”:
It’s not my fault if women are like that. I just draws them. It’s not me that I’ve done so: the author – let’s just say – is a much more “important” one, for those who have faith.
“A wizard did it.”
On the other hand, for evolutionists (including me), women’s bodies have taken this form over the millennia in order to avoid the extinction, in fact.
“Women did it. To themselves.”
But if one goes on the internet to see all the other images of the character, there are many far more erotic
“DeviantArt did it. A lot.”
If you go on a beach now, you will see girls who have skimpy swimwear, which allows you to fully ‘read’ the shapes of their bodies. Of course, for someone it can be a disturbing image, but not for me.
“Women aren’t ashamed of their bodies, and neither am I, because I love the ladies. *finger guns*”
I do not consider that as one of the most erotic covers I’ve ever done. I think I have chosen, out of all the poses imaginable … one of the less problematic shots or viewpoints.
I think The Mary Sue had the proper response to this in their initial criticism of the cover:
That’s the erotic art Milo Manara has already drawn in his erotic comic book Click. So he took what he considers his least pornographic artwork and copied it over to Spider-Woman. And now he’s upset that people are upset about that? Somewhere along the way he’s taken all this negative press and somehow internalized it as: “People hate pretty ladies. I love pretty ladies! People are awful.”
The point, for me, isn’t that this post is anatomically improbable, because I don’t think it necessarily is. It isn’t that it’s a stripper pose, however unintentional because she’s climbing a frickin’ building and that requires flexibility, to be sure. If this were a photo you took of “Spider-Woman In Action” to put on the cover of your magazine, Spider-Woman would probably slap you.
Because of all the possible moments you could’ve captured her at work, you took the most unflattering moment. That moment where we’re turned in a weird angle or we’re making a weird face is not the moment we want immortalized on a cover. I’m not saying she has to be “posed” like it’s Cosmo. I’m saying there are far better “action shots” than “booty up, face down.”
Anyway, I learned something when Manara was talking about how the cover isn’t published yet, so Marvel could decide to pull it:
Marvel decides not to publish it so then it’s “goodnight to the bucket” (Italian expression that means “and then we’re screwed”).
Via Bleeding Cool